I think the root causes (for this stuff) is the screening for the police departments.
When you are a policeman you are going to face a lot of bad people on the worst day of their lives. They will run from you, fight you, lie to you, and try to do anything to get away. (Yes, they might even try to kill you.)
The majority of these people are going to be minorities. That is not racist; it does reflect the reality.
The key is to screen your people so that they do not carry their distrust of a black or hispanic person from one event to the next. It doesn’t mean give up situational awareness. It does mean that you need to treat EVERY interaction on its own base. THAT is a difficult thing to do.
When complaints are made about cops the need to be reviewed seriously. Yes, there are a ton of complaints that are not valid. They need to be addressed and published.
When there ARE serious complaints and the LEO is found to be acting outside their training, they need to be addressed.
The fact that the guys in Minn. had so many complaints did not shock me, it was the content of the complaints. Cops being involved in multiple shootings and live threatening events is rare—even in a big urban setting.
This particular problem lies with the municipalities and police unions. There ARE cities where they work together to get rid of the bad guys.
Finally, cops need to know when to turn off the “cop” attitude. I know of Emergency Room MDs who have been stopped, detained, and put up against the wall because they were driving in a white neighborhood at night. That shit has got to stop.
Again, this is a training issue.
I know I am not racist. I don’t think I know anyone who is. I know that in my career (not in law enforcement) where I my actions could have been interpreted as racist. When they were pointed out, I did not have a clue—and took steps to change the behavior. I was honestly surprised.
But the people accusing me of it thought it was a conscious act.
Changing perceptions on either side is difficult.
Those are the areas where we could start right away. We could then move into the equal justice part of the equation—dealing with prosecutions, bail, and other “process” issues. And not to make things “easier” on criminals—but to treat white criminals the exact same as the black ones. Because in the processing, arraignment, and trial portion of the judicial system there are some scary issues that have more to do with the lawyers and judges than it does the criminals.
The underlying problem is that people aren't being taught right from wrong. Too many grow up in fatherless households, or in households with worthless fathers whom themselves were not taught properly as children.
And the government has exacerbated the problem by funding all these dysfunctional households which continue to produce dysfunctional offspring.
I don't think police training is the primary problem. I think too many criminals is the problem.
Also I think the lopsided representation of blacks in crime, especially young black males, is a great portion of why the police tend to focus on them.