A lot of people are saying a lot of things about police and violence. These things need to be said. But the ratio of heat (emotion) to light (understanding) is very low, even among those who are very bright, thoughtful and knowledgeable. I want to knock out ten myths. Im _not_ going to especially defend any of them, mostly because of the research time it takes to knock out citations, also because it would make this post too long to quickly read, but here we go: 1) The police seek to harm [discriminate against, arrest, use force against, illegally attack, murder] people of [X] racial group. With isolated exceptions, police officers want to a) go home at end of shift, b) keep their jobs and c) take a swipe at actually doing their job, their way (which may not be their sergeants way or their departments way, but usually is.) No one goes through the four to six months of the police academy and the six months to one year of FTO; tolerate shift work and co-workers and bad food and unpleasant people and working conditions; the toll the job takes on ones personal life and sanity; merely to beat up on people they dont like. Cops start their career generally honest. 2) Its not OK to shoot an unarmed man. Or, Its OK to shoot an armed man. The short, short answer is that to use deadly force, the officer has to have a reasonable belief, supported by facts, that they are saving a life by doing so. So a guy with a pellet gun _still in its packaging, in a retail store_ is a deadly threat to nobody. A big strong guy who is beating the snot out of you after trying to take your gun, is absolutely a deadly threat to _you_. The mere presence of a gun does not justify a shooting; the absence of a gun does not criminalize it. 3) The public is too hard on law enforcement. The police are that portion of the public whom we empower to routinely use force in our name and on our behalf. If we dont control the _police_, we got _nothing_. Turn the heat up. Officer Friendly can take it. If he cant, perhaps he should try retail. 4) Policing is a dangerous profession. Policing is not in the top ten of most dangerous jobs in America. About half of the police killed each year in America are killed in automobile accidents. Too much is made of the risks of the policing job. Taxicab drivers, convenience store clerks and security guards spill more blood than cops do. 5) The criminal justice system is color blind. The effects of the criminal justice system are anything but. A credible argument can be made that the Jim Crow system lives on in our criminalization of young black men. Considerable and outrageous racial disparities in arrest, prosecution and sentencing are well documented. 6) [X[ racial group commits more crimes than [Y] racial group. Both FBI statistics and the National Crime Victimization Survey are conclusive - controlling for poverty, every racial group commits crimes at about the same intensity. If anything whites are slightly _more_ likely to commit drug crimes than blacks, but a lot less likely to get caught at it. 7) Street protests make a difference. For every person with raised awareness, there are two or three who react negatively. Media coverage tends to focus on the minority of violent criminals who hijack protests rather than the peaceful, law abiding majority. 8) Crime is at an all time high. Crime is at an all time low and has been falling for _thirty years_. Artificially inflated hype from the media about crime may be at an all time high, but that is a different statement. 9) A grand jury did not indict, so the officer is blameless. It is axiomatic that a skilled prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. In both grand jury presentments and criminal prosecutions, generations of prosecutors have deliberately bunted or made a weak case in the hopes of not getting a result they really dont want. 10) Simple solutions will work. Body cameras: aim the lens, flick the switch, pop the battery. More training: costs money and can be ignored. Disarm police: just wait to see how much violence we get _then_. You can kill with a forearm and a pair of handcuffs. More police of [X] group? Use your imagination, I cant spoon feed all the answers. Less police? More force to make arrests. More police? More ability to use force. National police? Isolated from and immune to local community concerns, insensitive to local cultures and conditions. Local police? More likely to be corrupted, more likely to buy into local stereotypes and prejudices.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 10:21:13 +0000
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