this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
186 points (93.5% liked)

News

22855 readers
4703 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Archive link

A California police department wants to be the first agency to have a law enforcement-branded Cybertruck, according to an internal email obtained by 404 Media.

The email Sergeant Jacob Gallacher, of the Anaheim Police Department, sent in early February read “P.S. I spoke with the Chief yesterday and we still want to be the first police agency to have a Cybertruck. If anyone can make that happen, I know it is you!” Gallacher sent the email to James Hedland from UP.FIT, a company that sells modified Teslas for use by law enforcement. The email was part of a conversation about the department’s use of Teslas.

Gallacher later told 404 Media that the email was something of “a joke,” but reaffirmed the agency’s wish to obtain a Cybertruck before other agencies, even if more for “community engagement” than using it as a patrol vehicle.

“We would, but it’s not necessarily from a patrol perspective,” Gallacher said. 404 Media obtained the email through a public records request.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] shalafi 24 points 2 months ago (4 children)

community engagement

OK, I'll argue for the cops on this one. Just this once!

Community engagement is a real thing, gets people talking to cops who otherwise wouldn't. And that can be a positive experience all around.

For example; The Tulsa cops had a bitchin' (my 80s coming out) Corvette Stingray they showed off at the fair and every other chance they had. They had quite an audience gathered around, talking about the car at first and then asking questions about LE.

Idea being, it's not supposed to be a regular cruiser.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

At least Stingrays look good, I don't think anyone's gonna be crowding around a cybertruck asking about it's specs

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The YouTube channel Throttle House did a road trip with the cybertruck and they found that a lot of people actually were curious about it.

https://youtu.be/xNE-NyaYBcg?si=1CS2DxHsocEYc0b- (around 24:15)

For all it's flaws, you can't deny it looks different from all the other cars around, and most people aren't online enough to have an opinion about Musk and his bullshit, so to them it's just an interesting looking car.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

a lot of people actually were curious about it.

I mean, sure, if a Cybertruck parked next to me somewhere, I'd probably take a close look and talk to the owner if they were around. I'm curious as much as anyone.

I don't have high expectations, and I'm not interested in owning one, but I'd still check it out.

But that's just because these cars are rare and novel. If anything, the questions I'd ask would be tilted towards figuring out just how shitty a car it is.

If the police are roaming around in them, they become less novel, and generally speaking people aren't usually interested in approaching random cops for conversations. People who socialize around cars usually aren't a big fan of the cops.

most people aren't online enough to have an opinion about Musk and his bullshit

I don't understand this point. Not only does Elon Musk's bullshit appear regularly on boomer tv stations, but you don't have to be very online to get exhausted with Musk content. It's not exactly niche content, he owns Twitter and is constantly attracting media attention with dumb stunts. You have to go out of your way to avoid hearing about him.

to them it's just an interesting looking car.

Anyone interested enough in cars to be influenced by what kind of car the cops drive, is someone likely informed enough to know that the Cybertruck is a misengineered lemon of a car.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

To car people. To other people it can be a "generic fancy car", while the Cybertruck can be something unusual that no other car looks alike. Can't get everyone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Buddy, every police department with a flashy sports car has the same story.

Let me know how many facts I get right about it:

  1. You learned about it as a teenager because the police came to your school to show it off.
  2. You lived in a mostly white suburban town.
  3. The car had anti-drug messages on it.
  4. The car was confiscated from a drug dealer, and transferred to the police department through civil asset forfeiture.
  5. The "drug dealer" was a Black man who was caught with some arbitrary amount of weed that forces baseless "intent to distribute" charges.
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Your logic is sound

[–] Wrench 1 points 1 month ago

Ok. They could put police lights on a weiner mobile too. That would get a ton of community engagement. But for some reason I can't put my finger on, they have chosen a very expensive tiny dick toy instead.