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Comment by outside1234 | Hacker News Reader

I hope this police officer has lost his job.

He has clearly lost sight of who he works for.

Oh, and what a surprise, all of the people he is threatening are people of color.

I have a problem with the law enforcement hammer being used for anything regardless of it resembles a nail, but the problem with this situation is not policing/enforcement, it is the fact that this was allowed to get to this point. This officer and the security guards were given orders as per their job to remove people for trespassing. If the officer simply asks them to leave, 99.999% of the time this encounter will not lead to an arrest.

Trespassing laws are used to keep privately owned space free if people who interfere with conducting business operations. People mindlessly crowding the gate without a ticket, expecting some magic plane to show up and take them to their destination, are doing just that.

There are desks inside the secure area to rebook or find flights, and something tells me if these passengers simply queued up there to figure out next steps, the airline would not have called security/law enforcement. There is the argument that people won’t interfere with business operations if you didn’t cancel their flights, too. This whole situation was totally avoidable but I think we’re getting in to Captain Hindsight territory here.

you seem to be the one suffering a delusion about who the police work for. this is a clear example, they work for the property owners. in this case the airport.

At the same time.. The core mission of the police in the USA is to protect and serve the general public. This is the oath they take in the process of being sworn in as a public servant.

Not to serve the whims of Southwest Airlines. Things often play out more like this, though, where they serve whatever entity appears to be the most powerful.

>The core mission of the police is to protect and serve the general public. Not to serve the whims of Southwest Airlines.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of American/capitalist society and of history. The police exist explicitly to protect businesses and have no obligation to the public. They were founded explicitly to protect businesses and the wealthy.

https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2021/12/08/the-history-of-...

https://mises.org/power-market/police-have-no-duty-protect-y...

Not sure where you're getting this from. Police have no duty to protect or serve, this was just a slogan on squad cars in some departments and became a TV trope. If they take some sort of oath, it's not really legally binding.

See: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-po...

https://archive.ph/cdDf2

You are right, what a bummer. I appreciate the correction, though.

Justice, liberty, and freedom for all.. also just a toothless slogan?

"with liberty and justice for all" was written by a socialist minister in a youth magazine as part of a campaign to get columbus day recognized as a holiday in the 1890s. It was meant to be a universal pledge for anyone in any country, not specific to the US. It is not part of any jurisprudence or caselaw. So yes, technically its a toothless slogan.

I have a feeling you do not live in the U.S.

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