I seriously just give up, we are so fucked as a nation now and you can thank the über opinionated media outlets that we get our "news" from.
Cops aren't racists but a lot of them are under qualified to do the work (you can thank the cities for hiring these people) . It's simple as that.
Well said, but I want to add to this, if I may.
First, real quick: I was an Explorer Scout with the VPD from 1997-2004. Also did 10 years of Private Security work, both Armed and Unarmed, in both Washington and Oregon. I'm NOT saying this in any form of bragging (after all: being a Security Officer is hardly anything to brag about). But rather, just a statement of perspective: I understand, probably better than anyone else here, the mindset of most police officers. Never been one, but I understand.
That being said, I think that the claim of them being under-qualified is not entirely correct. Oh sure, I am quite certain that there are departments out there who's training could be better. But for the most part, I believe the problem is this: that the media and Hollywood has portrayed Cops to the average citizens of them being these magical superheros, who can read minds, see who's lying and who's not, see if Jamal just murdered 3 people or if he just dropped his grandmother off at the nursing home, or be able to shoot a person in the leg or shoot the gun out of a person's hand.
That is FANTASY. And utter bullshit. They are NOT the superheros that they have been portrayed as all these years. There is NO "shoot the suspect in the leg", or "shoot the gun out of the person's hand." It simply doesn't exist. And I'm telling you strait up: whoever believes, seriously, that such procedures should be in place needs to get their fucking heads examined, because it is completely and utterly unrealistic.
Take, for example, this "boy" in Cleveland (who, by the way, nobody could tell he was a boy and not a full-grown adult), who was waving a gun around and pointing it at people. Now, whether or not the gun was "fake" (which it wasn't), is irrelevant. It was a GUN. It was capable of firing a projectile. What the fuck does it matter if it fires a .45 ACP or a BB-pellet? You wanna be shot by either one? You wanna wait around and find out? Or how about you ask him: "hey, is that a .45, or is that a BB gun?"
And what if he's lying? What if he's trying to be a smart ass (what 12 year old wasn't?) and bluff the "Pigs" whom he thinks are bothering him? What if it's a perfectly harmless plastic toy that he painted black to make it look real, but he's going to try and scare the police into believing that it's real. You think it doesn't/won't happen? How much stupid shit did you do when you were 12?
What if they get to talking to him, and go to place cuffs on his to secure him for his safety and the officer's safety until the incident is either dismissed or he is transferred to JV, and he suddenly panics and makes a run for it. In the process, he reaches for the gun to either dump it, secure it in his waistband so it doesn't fall out. Do you think, to a normal Cop, that this doesn't look like he's going for a gun? How are they suppose to know whether or not he's going to shoot at them with a gun (pellet or otherwise), or whether or not he's just being stupid/scared?
And all of this is just a FRACTION of what goes through a Cop's mind when such a situation occurs.
And how about this: if they have to draw and fire, is there any bystanders behind the suspect who are potentially in the line of fire? "oops, the bullets are flying from Joe Criminal's gun; guess I better wait for those bystanders to move....." Bullshit; they're not going to wait. They're going to fire back. And that's merely ONE scenario of thousands that an officer faces every day.
Jesus, talk about stressful!
These policies and procedures are in place for a reason! The training that police go through is there for a reason.
I've studied firearms and ammunition, as well as Use of Force/Use of Force Continuum issues for years. I've read dozens of books on the topic, hundreds of magazine articles, hundreds of pages of training manuals, countless hours in training classes, countless books on guns, dozens of books by experts such as Massad Ayoob (look him up), and I've been to countless gun shows and handled hundreds of firearms in my life. I carry daily in the State of Washington.
I'm telling you, right now, if someone whom I'm suspicious of points a gun at me, the last thing on my mind is whether or not that gun is fake. Even further from my mind is what color they are. There is a THREAT to my safety, and the Law Enforcement community knows this as well, and they've trained and molded their training and procedures over the years accordingly. This is the result. They are NOT gun experts. I probably know more about guns than the average police officer, and I'm a civilian. I don't give a shit if it's a bb-gun or a 9mm....it's a GUN.
So how are we, as a society, suppose to tell them "hey, sorry you guys have these procedures and training in place to have to react like this. The world's not so fucked up after all; why don't you guys tone it down a bit?"
Wanna know what happens if we tell them to relax? Look at the two dead cops in New York, who DID NOT have situational awareness of what was going on around them; who got LAX in their training.
Society is getting WORSE. The police are going to continue to modify their procedures and actions to accommodate these dangerous times. The #1 rule of working the street as a Cop: "YOUR (the cop's) safety comes FIRST." Period. Fuck, that's WHY they wear a GUN on their belts! They don't put it on
hoping to shoot people, and you are FUCKED UP if you honestly believe that.
So all of this "I hate pigs" bullshit is just that: frustration and bullshit; ranting about shit you know NOTHING about. And knowing your Brother's ex girlfriend's nephew who's a cop 600 miles away in a county with 2 people in it doesn't make you an expert. Nor is visiting the police station on a field trip when you were in the 4th grade; that doesn't count either.
If you think you can do a better job, then go through a year's worth of training (academy and FTO supervision), put on the uniform, put on the duty belt, put on the badge, and go out there and prove it. Otherwise, you're just a bitch keyboard warrior full of hot air.
Ultimately, I see I'm the minority here when it comes to defending the police, so I'm not expecting many favorable or reasonable responses. But I hope that gives you guys some perspective; if even just a glimpse.
