Neverending **** the Police thread.
- Thread starter cajunrevenge
- Start date
striker42
Well-known member
The problem here is the idea that there has to be one action that fixes everything. Protests don't cause immediate change? Toss it out and try looting!
The truth is that police brutality targeting minorities is a tiny, tiny part of a much, much larger issue. A complex, multifaceted issue that will take generations to resolve.
I'll take a little dive into just the superficial aspects of what we're dealing with.
1. Militarization of police- Police are being outfitted and trained to wage a war on crime. The problem is police are not soldiers on a battlefield. They're public servants tasked with keeping the peace, not breaking it. When police take on the role of soldiers, suspects become the enemy and a soldier's job is to destroy the enemy. This leads to a tendency to cheapen life.
2. Socioeconomic Issues- The stats tell us black men are more likely to commit crimes. Why is that? Propensity for crime isn't a racial characteristic. The real truth is that those in poverty are more likely to commit crime and poverty is much more rampant in the black community. So when confronted with more black perpetrators, it's very difficult for police to not let stereotypes form and profiling to begin. Breaking the cycles of poverty that afflict black communities would reduce the crime rates in those communities which will help erode the stereotypes police hold.
3. Education- The education system in urban areas is frequently broken. This is a very, very difficult problem to solve as simply throwing money at the problem doesn't seem to work. But without improved education in these largely minority school districts, you can't hope to break the cycles of poverty afflicting urban black communities.
4. Police Self-selection- You also have to look at the kind of people who choose to be police. Some are people who really want to help people but many others are those that get off on power. Being a cop gives you power over others and when you're someone who enjoys abusing power, you're a prime candidate to cross the line into brutality.
I could go on and list a dozen different factors at play here. The fact is that no single approach is going to fix this problem. So don't toss out protests just because they're not going to fix the issue. Peaceful protests have proven to be a vital part of the process and help open opportunities to engage leadership to find ways to work towards actual solutions.
This is something that will take organization, dedication, and lots of hard work to fix. Rioting and looting do little to help any of these underlying issues.
Forget any additional gun legislation. Ghe past few days proved that citizens need to protect themselves.
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
it is an interesting stat
but what does that have to do with George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery
I don't think either falls into the case of arrest for violent crime. And I kinda doubt that either would be dead if they were white.
I got into a rather heated argument with a cop about a year ago. I don't think I would have tried that if I was African American.
msstate7
Well-known member
I'd like to see the stats using all crimes.
That information is later in the thread which shows more whites as a percentage are killrd for non violent offenders.
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
what was Ahmaud Arbery's crime...or Botham Jean's....or Christian Cooper's for that matter
weso1
<B>Clique Leader</B>
The video of that 18 wheeler driving into the protest was one of the oddest videos I've seen. First, it was impressive how fast the protesters got out of the way. Second, why did the truck stop right as he was about to run over someone? I don't really know what happened there. And I found it pretty ironic that the protesters did the same thing they are protesting against... excessive force.
The point remains though. A pervasive issue would be apparent in the stats.
You either believe in data or not.
sturg33
I
By now we know the party of science does not.
Everything is economics which is why the economy was so great the past three years. Non supervisory workers saw the largest gains in decades.
But we have to stop this!
acesfull86
Well-known member
I take his point, but whether the violence is caused by systemic racial bias or not, seems to me like we all win if we improve the situation. Striker posted a bunch of contributing factors a few posts back, sturg rightly brought up the union issue...there are enough things here to chip away at that would benefit just about everyone