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[–]magnora7 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Police violence in the US is out of control. It's always painted as a racial issue too, but 50% of people killed by police are white, so it really affects everyone. We have around 1100 people killed by police a year, a number that has slowly been dropping in the last few years thankfully, but it still looks ridiculous compared to the UK and France and Germany and Switzerland combined, which see police kill around 6 people a year in a combined total. Our 1100 a year is more akin to Brazil's 6000 a year than it is to most of the developed world.

Our police training is bad, and too short. They're trained to minimize liability (dead people don't testify) rather than to de-escalate situations. They have max IQ caps and the supreme court ruled that as legal. They hire from the army, creating confusion between military behavior and police behavior. They're equipped with free military equipment, with the stipulation they must use it within 6 months or return it. So they find reasons to use it. This is also how the military-industrial complex maintains high sales during the rare non-war years.

The whole thing is a mess. And most people don't even see it or understand it at all. I've been talking about this stuff years before BLM was even a thing. It needs to change. But people need to want it to change, and I don't know why I care about this stuff so much and so few others seem to care much beyond surface details.

Thanks for posting this. Shining a light on injustice is one way to generate pressure to change it.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

People on the left really do believe that white people are not damaged by the police at all. And way too many people on the right don't see the police as a problem at all, even though they surely would if that corrupted power turned on them (which it has, many times). I see this as a big problem too. If we deal with natural disasters, food shortages, and so on.... well, the police are going to become more and more active, and it won't be pretty.

What will happen when vaccines are required for more than a dozen services which are themselves required for common daily life in America? People are going to go under, or they are going to fall in line. The others who don't are going to find themselves in an increasingly difficult situation, where their neighbors might turn on them, where manufactured distractions could literally spell political roundups occurring during manufactured riots.

I see this as the slippery slope in terms of how Americans are messing up right now. Our police are supposed to arrest criminals, but there are so many criminals in office that it isn't even funny (ironically, everyone agrees on this, we just all seem to disagree on who the criminals actually are). They have such low standards, yet their organization is a pillar of this society. A major component, even. Our judicial system has been turned against us, and this is damning.

It should be putting the question of "Are these governments legitimate?" onto center stage. It should make people stand together, regardless of race, and oppose the wickedness that has gripped our nations. America isn't the only place with fucked up police. I don't just want them to de-escalate to get a peaceful arrest.

I want them to stop arresting innocent people and actually go after the cretins who are fucking over the entire planet. If every police officer in every nation would just be honorable and upright, then we'd have this whole situation dealt with in time. Unfortunately, most of them have such low IQ's that they are simply incapable of it. I hope those officers who stand for justice survive the coming days as victors, rather than winding up suicided.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Our police training is bad, and too short

The job attracts power hungry bullies, no amount of training will correct their base nature.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

To some degree. But other counties seem to have done better. And it makes no sense it takes 6 years to become a lawyer, but then only 6 months to enforce the law as a police officer. They're basically guessing at what they think the law is.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Other countries' police officers don't have the power they do in the States.

And it makes no sense it takes 6 years to become a lawyer, but then only 6 months to enforce the law as a police officer

I once applied to work in the county jail's pharmacy and they sent me back an offer to be a cop instead.