Again and again this morning I have heard one black journalist or other pundit after another say things which can be summed up as “this stuff doesn’t happen to white people”. While I sympathize with their pain, I also think they’re wrong. This stuff doesn’t happen to people who don’t have encounters with the police. If I were to resist the police or argue with them or run away, I would be slammed to the ground just as fast as anybody else. It’s not because they’re not white. It’s because they’re not blue.
As I think I’ve mentioned before one of my college roommates became a police officer and over the years I’ve had the opportunity of social interactions with police officers pretty frequently. IMO a “laager mentality” or siege mentality is pretty common among police officers. Their self-image is basically Fort Apache. They’re the cavalry and everybody else are the hostiles—you, me, everybody who isn’t a police officer.
Here in Chicago there are three paths to becoming a police officer: you can have a four year college degree, you can have an associates degree and a couple of years of military service, or you can have a high school diploma and more years of military service. We need to end military service as a qualification for becoming a police officer, especially under the present circumstances. Men and women can go straight from being MP in Afghanistan to the police academy. We should hardly be surprised if they see everyone as hostiles because that’s what they’ve been living with.
White people injured or killed by police are of no interest to the press. If one were to study stats, without bias, it would clearly show more whites were shot by police than blacks. Furthermore, black on black deaths are far more prominent than those caused by the police. But, realty doesn’t serve the promotion of social justice narratives, so such facts are either dismissed or ignored.
I also disagree with Dave about military service. I think such service offers some real life preparation for dealing with criminal behavior found on the streets. Not everyone has the fortitude to engage with the bad, sad, reckless scenarios police can be confronted with, on a daily basis. It’s similar to the medical profession, where there are many people who pale at the sight of blood, vomit, or other bodily discharges, making military medics prime applicants for medical jobs.
PTSD is not a good preparation for dealing with civilians in an American city. And certainly not, as in Chicago, as a substitute for education. There is plenty of scholarship showing that people with education beyond the high school level have a broader repertory of skills for dealing with situations.
I also think that removing the height restrictions to increase the number of blacks, Hispanics, and women who could be admitted to police forces was a mistake. Mere physical size can defuse a difficult situation—it’s actually a deterrent to violence.
Not everyone in the military gets PTSD. And many if not most of those that do get it don’t let it run their lives. Think of all of our fathers and and uncles who fought in Europe and the Pacific and Korea and didn’t remain or turn into Rambos when they came back.
Besides, someone with a four-year degree in Social Justice Warriorhood isn’t the sort of police officer I’d want to have on the streets protecting me and my loved ones. They’d be too apt to take the side of the criminals, as we have seen a few times.
‘I also think that removing the height restrictions to increase the number of blacks, Hispanics, and women who could be admitted to police forces was a mistake. Mere physical size can defuse a difficult situation—it’s actually a deterrent to violence.’
Dave, are you saying that having more shorter and slighter officers will deter violence? I would think it would be the other way around, it would encourage perps to literally throw their weight around. And might even lead to more gunshots fired as the small weak officer utilizes their holstered violence equalizer.
The VA estimates that 20% of those who were deployed to Iraq and 10% of those deployed to Afghanistan do. I suspect the actual figures are higher.
No. The opposite. I think that removing the height restrictions was a mistake. It used to be that you had to be 6′ tall or more to be a Chicago police officer. That severely limited the number of Hispanics and women in particular who could serve.
I can’t find the link right now, but back during Ferguson there were a lot of experienced combat vets who noted the Ferguson PD was doing things they never would have done patrolling in Iraq, and that the police tactics were usually the opposite of military forces did overseas.
So I’m not sure it’s necessarily a problem that military personnel are joining police forces, it’s probably the wrong kind of military personnel.
But without a doubt the militarization of police forces is a huge issue and their tactics and policies ensure these events will continue to happen.
Frankly, I’m skeptical. That’s certainly not true in Chicago. YTD three individuals have been shot and killed by Chicago police. All were black.
Honestly, I wouldn’t even expect it to be true and I don’t even think it’s attributable to racism in any straightforward way. I would think that discharge of firearms by the police would be more likely to be proportional to encounters than to racial prevalence in the population. Probably correlated with the incarceration statistics which favor blacks. If that’s the right word for it.
Surprisingly, at least to me, the FBI national survey of police use of force has yet to publish any findings. It’s in its infancy, spurred, no doubt by the Ferguson incident. That means that you’d need to research it jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
All you have to do is switch on one of those TV cops shows and you know plenty of whites get treated roughly as well. Black victimhood has just become the politically correct stance to take. No doubt there are bad actors in the police force. I’ll bet its 5% or less. There are bad actors everywhere.
The common denominator isn’t skin color, or even commission or suspicion of a crime. Except for the bad guys (remember the black guy gunned down by a Chicago cop a few years ago?) its resisting arrest or questioning. Fleeing, screaming at, wrestling with or striking, or insulting policemen may be things that police should handle better than ordinary citizens, but I can guarantee you things will inevitably go bad from there. And its easily avoidable. Don’t do it. The notion of personal responsibility has all but been lost in our victimhood society.
In any event, the solution to the Floyd situation is to prosecute the cop(s). I’ve heard third degree murder suggested. But its not to opportunistically loot and burn entire swaths of cities. Excusing that to rage is total nonsense.
Who’s up for overwhelming and deadly force if this continues? How about when they are at your doorstep, when the brandy and cigars must be put down and you have to defend your life?
I hear they are almost down to Blue Island in Chicagoland.
I dont think the problem is so much hiring ex-military, but hiring the wrong kind of people and then never getting rid of them when they have problems. The militarization, adopting military tools , amplifies this mistake. As Andy noted, they arent really adopting successful military tactics used with citizens, they are adopting tactics you would use against known enemies. So they are treating our citizens, the people who pay them, like enemies.
The stats I have seen say that the police do shoot more white people, but we only have videos of police shooting unarmed black people in situations that are questionable. We dont have reports like we did in Cleveland where they pulled up and shot a kid with a toy gun. The black man shot carrying a toy gun, in a toy store. Piling on top of they selling cigarettes in NYC who couldn’t breathe, then repeating it in MPLS. What about the shooting in Chicago thatchy lied about until the video came out. So where are the videos of the same with white people? Do white people not knowhow to use their smartphones?
Resisting arrest? You arent seriously suggesting white people dont resist arrest are you? White people take meth, do crack and get drunk too. We dont end up with videos of them getting killed slowly over 9 minutes in front of witnesses. But you do realize what a crappy defense that is I hope. Just more evidence that police tactics and/or the people they employ need to change.
Steve
Police forces have to operate publicly in full view of cameras and an adoring public. If we are going to “burn it all down’ every time something like this happens, we’d be better off sub-contracting a lot of the more dangerous and incendiary work so that it gets done quickly and with less visibility.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/07/06/inside-the-deadly-world-of-private-prisoner-transport
That’s what’s going to happen. If the police are unable to restore order, citizens’ vigilance committees will.
“If we are going to “burn it all down’ every time something like this happens”
Wouldnt it be better if stuff like this didnt happen? Teach the police to not slowly and publicly kill someone over 9 minutes. Maybe even not kill unarmed people who pose no risk? The latter seems to be achievable in much of the rest of the world. Even if they cant learn that, at least do it where no one can see and with no witnesses so they can convincingly lie about it. (Cynicism alert.)
Steve
Presumably, by “the rest of the world” you mean comparatively small, homogeneous countries with high social cohesion. We have a lower rate of police homicide than most of the rest of the Western Hemisphere other than Canada. Lower than Brazil or Mexico, countries we are increasingly coming to resemble.
I think I said earlier, if here not elsewhere, that this was compared with the rest of the first world. Forgot to make sure I add that in every time. Not sure there is much point in comparing ourselves with 2nd and 3rd world countries. OTOH, I do agree with you that we are heading towards becoming Brazil, sort of. Probably at least partially the other way around, at least at the leadership level. (On the plus side I am think I am doing pretty well at always saying that I think the violence and looting is wrong. If you dont say that every time you will be accused of actively supporting the violence.)
Steve
Sure there is. 20% or more of our population is from 2nd or 3rd world countries. European countries aren’t European countries any more, either. In Germany the crime rate including the homicide rate has risen right along with the percentage of immigrant population. Even at that the country we should be comparing the U. S. with is Brazil not one of the ethnic states of Europe.
CuriousOnlooker has mentioned Ontario, Canada. Add the black and Hispanic population of Ontario together and it adds up to about 5%. About 70% of the population of Ontario is European or descended from Europeans. About 20% South Asians or East Asians. Culture makes a difference.
Tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. Even high officials have chimed in to pronounce guilt.
What if further video is brought forward and these officers are exonerated? Hang them anyway?
They didn’t even wait for the autopsy so much did they fear the mob.