General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I fully understand that this post is likely to draw very intense personal criticism but, at my age, [View all]dawg day
(7,947 posts)"possibly to prop up the silly agenda which says "All cops are bad and are always wrong."--"
... isn't supportive of your purpose. Who are these people around here who say that?
I for example think many police officers are decent people who have a dedication to helping the community.
But they're not shooting kids with their hands up.
There are definitely some bad cops who should not have a gun and a badge== they are angry, confrontational, defensive, and too quick to resort to violence.
There are also departments and police unions which protect the bad cops from discipline (consider the several departments that protected the killer of Tamir Rice, not to mention the justice system which didn't hold him responsible at any point), thereby discouraging the many good officers who do not want to resort to shooting citizens and antagonizing the community and causing distrust.
There are also training programs which appeal to the worst "fight" instincts of some officers, training them to regard each situation with the community as a threat, and training them to demand utter obedience to their shouted commands.
We can do better. We don't have to demonize all police (and I certainly don't) to criticize a system that routinely protects the worst cops.
I'm not saying this is unique to policing. Medical societies often protect their worst doctors. "Responsible gun owners" often protect the "2nd amendment rights" of abusers and nascent mass murderers.
It's pretty natural to do that, meaning the rest of the community has to insist on more control over the systems so they don't become rogue operations that encourage the rogues.