The police are militarized state violence. They enforce the will of the state through the use of violence. That's not something that can be reformed because it's inherent to policing. Any effective reform would lead to police not being police.
tacticalsugar
I completely believe all of that, and I'm sorry she's had to deal with so much crap. Lately a lot of employers seem to be showing their asses by being overtly racist, ableist, and transphobic. Everyone I know who isn't a white straight cis man has had employment troubles in the last six months.
I hope this is just a strange interaction with one HR person and you have a better time with everyone else!
Exactly what I was referencing! I've known a few people who were recently fired from remote jobs under very strange circumstances. I can't prove anything of course, but I distinctly got the feeling that they were fired because the intersection of their marginalizations made them look like "evil North Korean spies" to management.
Definitely! However if your first experience with HR is being discriminated against, raising concerns about discrimination can be dangerous. Who do you go to when HR is causing the issues? HR is there to protect the company, not you. If the easiest way to protect the company is to fire someone, HR will probably do that.
I'm not trying to talk OP or anyone else out of going to HR, they aren't always sharks waiting to fire someone. It's just good to be careful here and OP and their wife should be aware of the risks before taking any action. Definitely document this incident. If this becomes a repeat issue, documentation can be the difference between getting fired and winning a wrongful termination lawsuit.
It sure sounds like racism and poorphobia to me. HR trying to make sure her surroundings don't look like what a "typical poor person" would have (clutter, children, signs of disability, "drugs", etc.) It's not super common, but it's common enough that I hear about it every so often.
I can't offer any kind of legal advice, but it sounds like this job will be potentially problematic and HR will definitely be one to watch out for.
ETA: There's a lot of paranoia in the US right now about "laptop farms". Remote jobs are paranoid about people getting remote work to send money back to North Korea. It's completely ridiculous, and it's causing issues for a lot of people, mostly marginalized people. I think it's useful context to know why this kind of thing is happening more lately.
So the thing about qualified immunity is that unless there's existing precedent that a cop can't do this, then cops have immunity. Which is a cool catch 22 because you can't have existing precedent if every cop who's ever faced charges/lawsuits for a particular thing has gotten off because there wasn't already a precedent. It's an Ouroboros of letting cops do whatever they want.
This is beginning to change in some places, where police chiefs or their higher-ups want nothing to do with overtly shitty cops, but considering these cops have already finished their paid ~~vacation~~ suspension, I don't think they'll face any serious charges.
Remember kids, climate change is your fault specifically, and only you can make things better by making your own life harder!