Standard procedure, especially if its not feasible/convenient to actually charge someone.

I've been wondering what cops are using these days since phonebooks aren't a thing any more.

Guess a lot of people are 'falling down stairs' instead (outside SF).

Very few rich cities, formally speaking. I know Singapore uses formal physical punishment. In worldwide practice, however, police will often be a bit rougher than they perhaps have to (or have the right to) be when arresting if they feel someone deserves it. Many judges also silently tolerate this.

> Very few rich cities, formally speaking. I know Singapore uses formal physical punishment.

For extremely serious crimes, not his list of public indecency. For instance:

* Under the Environmental Public Health Act, it is an offence to urinate or defecate "in or upon any street, arcade, vacant land, river, canal, ditch, drain or watercourse or in any place to which the public has access except in any sanitary convenience provided for such purpose." The penalty is a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offence, and up to $2,000 and $5,000 for the second and third offence respectively. [1] [2]

[1] https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/totally-unacceptable-man-p...

[2] https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/nea-issues-warning-wom...

What is the penalty for not being able to pay any of those fines?

We know that the rich are allowed to do what they want. I’m more interested in the people likely to actually do it.

Same as most countries, you get thrown in prison. You still won't get caned though.

It's not a formal punishment, it's an informal punishment from police.

No, caning is something you can be sentenced to.

I'm very well aware.

The GP was talking about an informal punishment though, not canning.

In NYC we call that a "tune up".

Elsewhere that is called 'police brutality' and should result in the sacking of the associated officers.

Ideally it should result in the prosecution of the perpetrating officers, the same as for anyone else who beats someone up.

Agreed. But once convicted they should never be allowed back on the force. That kind of stupidity is one of the driving forces behind the whole defund the police movement and one of the side effects of that is that you end up with less police rather than with more disciplined police which would have been a far better solution.

Without a police force dense societies usually can not function.

I swear the same pattern happens to every political movement. As soon as they get the limelight, the stupidest ideas take over. It's probably related to the bikeshed phenomenon.

Defund the police does have a certain legitimate point in the US, where police are basically the catch all for dealing with any kind of social problem. (In fact I think if it were phrased differently, most cops would rather there be another type of department that responded to sticky social situations).

But yes, the overall issue is really a lack of law and order in the law enforcement ranks, which decreases the public trust and increases adversarialism. The average person seeing a cop and reflexively thinking how to avoid getting their attention and avoid getting hassled for some bullshit is an indicator of a deep set problem. The cancer was fueled by drug criminalization and other crushing nanny statism (eg the draconian way traffic laws are enforced), but it would take a lot more than simply rolling those back to regain the public trust.

Quite. It's really a pity because as things are they will have to get much worse before they can get better again. And the ones who stand the most to lose are the ones that are the least likely to have any appreciation for the complexity of this all. Simplistic solutions only get you worse problems.

Munich. Police will teach you to keep your trashy behaviour to your home. There's barely any homeless here, they get cleaned up at night.

There is a presence of street beggars that doesn't exist back in Australia / New Zealand that are quite noticable here (although less than in other european cities). Knowing how die Bayerische Polizei operate I am surprised they aren't surpressed as well. I just wonder why that is?

You’re right. The peaceful homeless camp at the Kolumbusplaz vanished from one day to the next but the accordion beggar near the Viktualienmarkt remains. No clue.

This person is promoting police brutality as a social good.

PBaaS

I'm imagining that if a tech startup ran a protection racket, this is how they would brand it.

I mean, they aren’t wrong, per se. I think if that’s the price we pay to not have people doing the things GP described then it seems like an acceptable price.

I would prefer that criminals were not beaten and that we find a better solution. I don’t think we have to choose between police brutality and crime.

People are at the end of their wits with organized gangs and homeless. What do you expect?

A good beating, with a set probability to kill, will also probably clean up the streets, eventually.

I'd consider the usual process for a street arrest to be a beating by itself. That's not even to say it isn't "reasonable force" to protect the officers, just that it often looks like it must hurt like hell.