Reply to Video shows moments before North Miami Police shot unarmed man

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a teacher too. It doesn't give me some  high ground on how to discuss. I understand and applaud your outrage over each incident. No police abuse is acceptable. However, i think that the nonstop posting of police violations has made the rate seem far more than it actually is. It is not bad to occasionally put these incidents in perspective as they relate to non incidents in a country as vast as ours. There are bad apple surgeons, bad apple judges, ba apple politicians, bad apple soldiers, and yes bad apple teachers. But working with teachers - you would be indignant if all teachers were painted with the brush of the few awful ones, and i think in this past year our society has come close to accepting treating police as a whole as an abusive class. Which is not supported by the fact of all the good policing that happens every day. When you talk about institutional problems I am listening to your ideas for solutions. Some of your proposals sound like they will help law enforcement be better at reaching its goal -to protect us and civil society.[/quote]

[b]We are not treating the police as a whole as an abusive class. [/b] If you would apply your same logic you would realize that there are only a few bad apples doing that as well.  But in your double standard, the public servants who carry guns and have a duty to protect the public receive more deference than an internet poster exercising their first amendment rights.

The fact is that last year 38 unarmed black people were shot and killed by police.  That's a lot, certainly enough to describe as a big problem.   If you feel that the problem has been overemphasized, maybe it's because you don't think something should be done to prevent this.  Maybe you think you have to break a few eggs and in this case the number is 38.

But to me the level of attention should be whatever is necessary until the police demonstrate substantial effort to fix the problem.  [/quote]

+1.  OP here weighing in.  I don't think the strategy of trying to out-root so-called "bad cops" will work, since they the officers implicated may not be all bad cops.  The notion of good cops and bad cops is overly simplistic, IMO, and makes the problem sound more black-or-white than it really is.  Also, this call for firing "racist cops" puts many on the defensive who see this as a witch hunt.

Sure, there are a few outright bigots within the ranks, who should be out-rooted.  However, I think this is a bigger problem of people acting on their implicit biases when dealing with AAs, particularly low-SES black men.  And I'm not just talking about the shootings that have been in the news recently--I'm talking about the more common, harder to measure, everyday indignities that AAs deal with--being more likely to get pulled over, more likely to be treated suspiciously, roughly, or aggressively during stops, etc.

The phrase "we're all a little bit racist," while tongue in cheek, has some truth.  Anyone remember the social science research presented during Brown vs. Board that showed that young black children had a preference for white dolls over black dolls?  [u]Race-based stereotyping, biases, etc. are something *none* of us--black, white or other--are immune to.[/u]  Now, when some of us actually have guns, it seems reasonable to think that acting on these implicit biases could lead to unfair--or even lethal--treatment.

It sounds like in this case, if the behavior therapist's account is accurate, the officer knew he made a mistake, as he responded "I don't know" when asked why he shot this guy.  I'm not a legal expert, but I don't think this officer should necessarily be fired, if an investigation reveals that he is otherwise a good cop who perhaps made a mistake in the moment in this case.

[b]My wish list for LEOs: 
-better pay and higher standards[/b] (to encourage a higher yield of solid, high-quality LEO applicants), 
[b]-better access to quality, evidence-based mental health care for officers. 
-better training on awareness & management of implicit biases 
-more funding for and emphasis on community policing[/b]
[/quote]
Everything you said + THAT COP SHOULD BE FIRED...[/quote]

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