i get all the points you make and there’s a lot of nuance to this discussion but it could also come down to the fact that cops paid to put up with arseholes. They are paid for their conflict resolution skills. It’s a 100% fact that they have a hard, almost impossible job, but 100% of recruits go into the process knowing this and preparing for it.
are they paid well enough probably not. Would they do with an overhaul and retraining to better equip them for issues in today’s society, most likely.
this year has been rough and people keep whinging about it sure, but imagine how the last 200 years has been for people of different colours. So tough to comprehend.
vast topic worthy of a lot of discussion and action.
Agree with your points and that the discussion is way to deep and complex to do justice to here.
With regard to police, certainly they know they are having to deal with scum and resolve conflict. However, there are a couple of points we take for granted with them that I do not think is (or at least should be) part of their job.
1) They should not be expected to die for their job. They are not the army. To me you sign up for the military willingly knowing you are sent in to situations where your life could be sacrificed. I do not think it should be the expectation for a beat cop or traffic cop. Also, why is there the expectation someone has to be literally trying to kill them before they are able to defend in kind? We saw what happens here in NZ if a police officer waits that long - they end up dead. Is that really our preferred outcome?
2) I think as a society we have become so apologetic, so accepting that people who routinely can not live within society’s rules need to be helped and rehabilitated and treated with kid gloves that police get frustrated. As was mentioned earlier, they know they are going in to situations with people who have long histories of criminal behaviour and violence toward other civilians and the police yet they are still roaming free. Why should they be expected to risk their life for this person who has routinely shown they are an extremely dangerous human being?
I think LeBron made an interesting comment when he said (to paraphrase) “why could three cops not have physically restrained (Blake) without using their guns?”.
To me the more appropriate question is “Why should they have to?”. If three police officers are all very specifically asking you to do something and ask many times, why are you ignoring them? What good can come from that course of action?
Also, bear in mind if they go in hard early and take someone down the get accused of brutality and over reacting. If all three going in at once there were dozens of other agitated people around an “only” three cops. Pretty sure all three ending up on the ground with one person is not the ideal scenario for them.
And to make this clear: this has nothing to do with race. Scum is scum. I hold exactly the same view whoever the asshole is.