Some of it is that, but there’s also a bunch of larger, meta issues at work here, including:
The militarization of police. When cops get this military gear they start to see themselves as an army vs. an enemy.
Focus on de-escalation. A lot of these incidents seem to center on the officer escalating things rather than finding a way to de-escalate. This isn’t just a one-off problem.
The safety of the cop is the most important thing. We’re letting cops kill innocent civilians because they feel scared. This should not be the case. Being a police officer is dangerous, and just feeling threatened should not be an acceptable excuse for firing a weapon.
Us vs. the animals - this is somewhat related to my first point, but not totally. It was talked about in a thread about community policing, about how some cops get this mentality that it’s them vs. the animals all around them. Obviously this is not a healthy attitude, and it’s not just one “bad apple” who says it. It’s whole departments.
So yeah, there are definitely bad apples out there, but let’s not overlook the larger issues at play as well.
A guy on my team at work used to be a Sherrif’s deputy. He often describes the shift in attitudes he’s seen amongst his friends in the area PDs as being a change from being Peace Officers to Law Enforcement Officers. That’s very like what you’re observing.
Yes, I’ve written about the militarization issue for years. It’s a serious problem that police forces across the country were not prepared to see or counter.
The “bad apples” post was about why each statistically small crooked cop incident has such importance today.
I don’t think you would, because you could discover what the movement’s purpose and foundation is with ten minutes of internet research. You’re already at the computer. Type the phrase into Google, then tap the first result.
What you’re actually saying is, “I think this movement is bullshit.”
Black victims are always demonized. “They were no saint,” is literally a meme among people who track police violence because it happens every single time. Meanwhile the story about the white kid who shot up his school is all about how he went to Church and helped old ladies across the street.
Clearly, my statement was that it’s bad to mischaracterize facts in an effort to humanize victims, not that humanizing victims is bad. In the Michael Brown case, media outlets that played up photographs of his high school graduation, while minimizing footage of him committing violent assault and robbery on the day of his death, would be guilty of mischaracterization. I was wondering if anyone here saw that as a problem – since it can mislead people and rile them up to develop unfair prejudices – and no one has said so. The only people at fault, it seems, are the police, who are ironically being dehumanized throughout this thread (I really think only a robot could tell a Glock w/ extended clip from a Tec-9 at a distance while running).
Edit: Oh, I forgot. Fox News is the problem, too. The only people who mischaracterize in this worldview is the “other side.”
You are complaining that it’s not fair to show flattering pictures of victims of police shooting? That they aren’t being presented as… What? Big scary monsters?
I mean, let’s be clear, when Michael Brown got shot, everyone here saw the footage from the store he robbed. We were aware of it. And honestly, in that case, if I recall, the cop wasn’t at fault.
But that’s the thing, dude. It’s bigger than Michael Brown. It’s about a widespread, institutional problem.
One of the big reasons everyone even learned about how bad things were in Ferguson was due to the Michael Brown shooting. So yeah, you can keep pointing to that shooting as an instance of people wrongly jumping to conclusions on an officer shooting, or you can acknowledge that the reason people went nuts about it was because it was the capper to years of systemic abuses in that community.
My 8 year old niece and 7 year old nephew regularly set up a lemonade stand on their street corner and have yet to have the cops called on them. Maybe it’s because they’re half white.
Well she brought home a black boyfriend. Some people equate that as one of the worst things in the world but… don’t call them racist. They really hate that because it’s different… somehow.
I worked with someone a long time ago, who was white and referred to black people as “his people”. I asked him once what he would do if his sister ever dated a black guy. “I’d kill her.” He wasn’t joking when he said it.
I’ve heard that too, and if you ask that person, I bet they would swear, swear they’re not racist. Some racist people cannot see why what they say and what they believe is actually racism, and they’re not willing to listen either. They just get mad when you say, that’s racist, and after awhile, they reveal enough for you to know, they’re just racist.
