纽约时报 警察工会 改革路上的巨型拦路虎(3)

Steve Loomis, the Cleveland police union president at the time of the consent decree,

同意法令被颁布时正担任克利夫兰警察工会主席的史蒂夫·卢米斯称，

said he and his colleagues saw some of the mandated¹ rules as counterproductive.

他和他的同事认为，某些强制规定其实是适得其反的。

"Every time a kid points a gun, he has to do a use-of-force investigation," Mr. Loomis said of his younger colleagues.

“那些小孩儿每次掏枪原本都要做动武调查，”卢米斯谈及工会里比较年轻的同事时说道。

"Now guys aren't pointing their guns when they should be pointing their guns."

“现在，该掏枪的时候他们也不掏枪了。”

Robert Bruno, a professor of labor² relations at the University of Illinois,

伊利诺伊大学劳资关系教授罗伯特·布鲁诺认为，

posited³ that many police officers see themselves as authority figures who equate⁴ compromise with weakness.

许多警察都觉得自己是权威人士，觉得妥协就等于软弱。

Other experts said it was rational for police unions,

其他专家则表示，警察工会本就自视甚高，

which are often regarded with suspicion by others in the labor movement and see themselves as distinct from it,

还经常被劳工群体中的其他人猜疑，

to protect their members so relentlessly⁵.

他们如此拼命地保护工会的成员也是情理之中的事。

"A major role for police unions is basically as an insurance policy," said Dale Belman,

“警察工会的主要作用本就是充当警察的一重保险，”

a labor relations professor at Michigan State University who has consulted for police unions.

密歇根州立大学劳资关系教授，曾为警察工会提供咨询的戴尔·贝尔曼评论道。

"The feeling of a lot of officers is that it's very easy to sacrifice them.

“许多警官都觉得，自己很容易被工会牺牲。

Something goes wrong and boom."

一出问题，他们就，‘砰’。”

This has only become more true in an era of ubiquitous cellphone cameras and social media.

在如今这个手机摄像头和社交媒体无所不在的时代，上述问题就变得更加突出了。

And the feeling of being under siege has only strengthened demands from union members that they be protected.

这种被围困的感觉只会进一步强化工会成员要求被保护的诉求。

In Baltimore, where the city and the Justice Department reached a consent decree in 2017 to overhaul⁶ police conduct,

巴尔的摩市政厅和司法部就曾在2017年达成一项同意法令，同意全面改革警察的作风，

the union has described a police department in chaos⁷, with severe staff shortages and low morale⁸.

当地警察工会却表示，改革之后，当地警察部门一团乱象，人手严重短缺，部门的士气也变得十分低落。

Those who remain said they feel unsupported by their commanders.

那些留下来的警官表示，他们感觉自己已经没有了指挥官的支持。

"They're ready to throw police officers under the bus to appease⁹ the media and don't support us even when our actions are appropriate,"

一名警官称，“为了安抚媒体，他们随时都能将我们推下去，就算我们的行动是正当的，他们也已经不支持我们了，”

said one officer surveyed in a report released last year by a group helping¹⁰ the department implement¹¹ reforms.

帮助当地警察部门落实全面改革政策的某团体去年发布的一份报告对该部门的警官做了一项调查，此人就是被调查的警官之一。

It remains¹² to be seen how the unions will respond to reform initiatives by cities and states since Mr. Floyd's death,

弗洛伊德事件后，仍面对各城市、各州的改革倡议，包括明尼阿波利斯刚颁布的禁止锁喉的新禁令，

including a new ban on chokeholds in Minneapolis.

各大工会将会如何应对？目前仍不得而知。

But in recent days, unions have continued to show solidarity¹³ with officers accused of abusive behavior.

不过，就最近几天的情形来看，工会还是选择了站在被控虐待行为的官员身后。

The president of a police union in Buffalo¹⁴ said the union

布法罗某警察工会的主席就表示，

stood "100 percent" behind two officers who were suspended on Thursday

他的工会“百分百”支持因疑似曾推倒一名老人，致其摔倒并头部受伤

after appearing to push an older man who fell and suffered head injuries.

已于周四被停止的两名警官。

1 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 posited   

v.假定，设想，假设( posit的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Several writers have posited the idea of a universal consciousness. 有几个作者都假设存在普遍意识。 来自辞典例句
• All cash receipts should be recorded and de-posited daily. 所有的现金收据应该被每日记录和存放。 来自互联网

4 equate   

v.同等看待，使相等

参考例句：

• You can't equate passing examination and being intelligent.你不能把考试及格看成是聪明。
• You cannot equate his poems with his plays.你不可以把他的诗歌和他的剧本相提并论。

5 relentlessly   

adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断

参考例句：

• The African sun beat relentlessly down on his aching head. 非洲的太阳无情地照射在他那发痛的头上。
• He pursued her relentlessly, refusing to take 'no' for an answer. 他锲而不舍地追求她，拒不接受“不”的回答。

6 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

7 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

8 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

9 appease   

v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足

参考例句：

• He tried to appease the crying child by giving him candy.他试图给那个啼哭的孩子糖果使他不哭。
• The government tried to appease discontented workers.政府试图安抚不满的工人们。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

13 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

14 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。