Philosophy Club Meeting
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Meeting Password: Alive CwqT3MBG33 Toll-free call-in number: 1-877-668-4493
Meeting Number (in case calling in): 171 628 0135
This week, Kevin Skelly will present on the question: Are Police Unions Really Unions?
The question has been raised, and recently to a fervent pitch, as to what is happening in police unions. The actions of police, and importantly, police unions and police union representatives through public statements, have increasingly been called into question, especially with respect to the use of state violence, upon whom it is used, and the accountability and consequences, or lack thereof, ensuing from those violent actions and statements supporting them.
A smattering of recent headlines points to trouble: “What’s Wrong with Police Unions?”; “Police Unions Called Too Powerful”; “The Authoritarian Instincts of Police Unions”; “Police Unions Sustain Police Violence Epidemic”. Connections are being drawn between police unions and violence, corruption, and unchecked police power. Some in the labor movement are now calling for police unions to be separated from the rest of the labor movement. From many quarters now, such calls are emerging, and the alarm is being raised about the effects of police unions on police department behavior and policy, local governments, and society at large. The protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd are said to have been the largest in the nation’s history, and the mourning didn’t stop at our national borders. That particular event turned out to have been a seminal moment of awareness of police violence and injustice worldwide. Commentaries in the press appear to have spiked in the wake of the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and again after George Floyd’s murder. The awareness seems to be spreading that police unions are a problem that must be addressed to move toward a less violent society.
(See attached for full document.)
Kevin is the brother of University of Hartford Philosophy professor Brian Skelly.He recently retired as an Information Technology Specialist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is currently enrolled in a graduate program of studies there in Labor Studies under Cedric de Leon.
An ongoing weekly tradition at the University since 2001, the University of Hartford Philosophy Club is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.
Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.
Please be a part of us as we continue this great tradition live and online.
Brian D. Skelly, Philosophy
413-273-2273