Wht hurts me on all levels -
1. My dad was a cop and I know how much ‘bad’ cops made his job more difficult.
2. My mother was a teacher for the disabled and I worked as a therapist in a group home. Some of the behavior is bizarre and society must figure out a way to deal with it.
3. My son was a T1 Diabetic and, when he went low, he went insane. Our local PD knew him and were so loving and good to him. They managed his crashes and saved his life. That’s what I’ve come to expect from great cops.
I really do get that cops are called to cope with so much more than the average person. But, once it’s explained, the cops need to use judgement. Shooting is the *last* resort.
In the end, the public needs to trust their police force. It’s vital. They need to know that our cops are wise and restrained. They need to trust the police.
We can’t have that if an informed officer still shoots.
My dad never fired his weapon on duty. Not once. It was an odd situation when it did happen.
Now cops shoot dogs and people every day. In the 70’s, the cops were trained to deal with dogs and trained to deal with the disabled. Cops hesitated.
So much of this depends on where the cop is operating. Our small town is pretty tame. Chicago is a war zone. So we can’t judge all cops by each incident.
But we’ve got to admit when it’s a shoot that reflects on every other officer in the nation. This shoot was NOT good, by any measure.
Yes. We’ve got to wait for the facts to come in, but if there’s any stink on this investigation, it only empowers the left. That is bad for all officers.
1. My dad was a cop and I know how much ‘bad’ cops made his job more difficult.
I understand that. But keep in mind something where things stand today. People are coming out and having to say that we need cops. Donald Trump said it, that without them we no longer have civilization. And apparently under pressure, some Democrats, including the President, have now started to say the same thing. This is all because the left has been demonizing ALL police.
I have tried to discuss many things and situation with people on the left over the years, particular online (I was actually a Democrat until I got into my 30's). After years of talking to them, now, I've reached the conclusion that they aren't interested in truth or honest debate. While we talk about whether or not a police officer is guilty, or if the officer's actions were justified, and want to look at the evidence, they are twisting the evidence to suit their narrative in order to gain power.
Believe me when I say this, I did not arrive at that conclusion lightly. I've literally spend years discussing things with liberals, putting in so much effort to carefully lay out arguments for them, and providing links to sources for what I have to say, and it all matters not. I almost never, ever find a liberal online who will discuss things honestly, and concede even the single smallest point, on anything. And my carefully written opinions, laying out facts, have almost always been met by liberals with ridicule, personal attacks on me, refusing to see or admit the point I'm making, as if they somehow don't understand it. The left, atheists, have no hope but this world, and they need to be on top of this world, then, controlling it. Political power is their hope. And nothing can stand in their way.
I have seen this dynamic, too, in every high-profile case involving police. The facts don't matter. The police are demonized and assumed guilty.
So, what I'm saying is to keep in mind that all these controversies aren't happening in the America of years ago, where most people would actually care about fairly looking at what has happened. The left is heavily invested in demonizing police (probably as a way to regain a tight hold on African-Americans for this and future elections).
3. My son was a T1 Diabetic and, when he went low, he went insane. Our local PD knew him and were so loving and good to him. They managed his crashes and saved his life. That’s what I’ve come to expect from great cops.
I'm glad the police in your area were there for your son.
I really do get that cops are called to cope with so much more than the average person. But, once it’s explained, the cops need to use judgement. Shooting is the *last* resort.
In the end, the public needs to trust their police force. It’s vital. They need to know that our cops are wise and restrained. They need to trust the police.
I agree, but again, think of the climate that I mentioned above. The left isn't willing to admit anything, and when we admit what we should, they only want to capitalize on it. I'm not saying we shouldn't admit things, but realize we can't do so in the same way, assuming the good will of the other side, as we more often could in the past. The left want to simplistically say cops=evil.
While I agree the public needs to trust the police, we also have to remember that the police force is made up of human beings, and neither they or the system are perfect, and that will cause real harm to people, just like the imperfections anywhere in the rest of our world will. We need government, but will never get corruption out of it. We need money, but it will always cause cheating and corruption, too. So, we can't allow the idea to take root that the police force or police officers are perfectable.
This is not to say that every reasonable attempt to root out corruption shouldn't be taken, just like in every other area of life, but the expectation of perfection shouldn't be there. Instead, we have to do more to, as the reverend who spoke tonight at the convention said, provide more opportunity so that black people aren't inordinately left in poverty, which causes them ultimately to have more conflict with police.
Yet, as we know, there is talk about even more jobs being lost by our country, and people possibly being given a universal "basic income" from the government because many more people will be unemployed. It is hard to believe, however, that even higher unemployment, even if people are compensated for not working, could be good for our country.
So what I'm saying is that, in any case, we need for the public to trust police, even when there are questionable actions and sometimes even criminal ones on the behalf of a few police.