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My views on policing were influenced by my experience dating cops in Vegas in my 20's. My friend worked at the LVMPD and I met one of them at the bar where they hung out. Another happened to move in next door to me. I met the third met through work. Three in total.
1/10
1/10
Each of them talked about the violence of the Las Vegas police department.
The worst, a street cop who was forced out of the LVMPD several years later, told me that he liked being a cop because he got to beat up people and he got paid for it.
2/10
The worst, a street cop who was forced out of the LVMPD several years later, told me that he liked being a cop because he got to beat up people and he got paid for it.
2/10
Another, a detective at the time, told me that he liked the fact that when he was having a bad day or just was in a bad mood, he could go take his frustrations out on people on the street.
3/10
3/10
The third told me that if he was out and somebody gave him a hard time, he'd call in to the station and a couple of officers would come to rough up whoever had the attitude.
4/10
4/10
Those lessons have stuck with me. I view the police brutality that we see all too often in America's streets -- and in people's homes -- with the understanding that cops are people. There are good cops and bad cops.
5/10
5/10
There are racist cops and cops who just want power. And like everyone else in the world,most cops respond to the culture of their workplace. If the workplace is broken-if the police department has a culture of corruption or violence-all too often the cops will be broken too.
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6/10
We decide who will lead our police department. It's up to us to speak out when our police department is broken and to show up when it's time to vote them out of office.
7/10
7/10
Those of us with privilege -- whose skin color has protected us from the kind of prosecution and suspicion that people of color experience on a daily basis -- helped to build a system that is, at its core, unequal and unfair.
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8/10
We helped to build a system that treats people differently based on the color of their skin.
People of color have been fighting for their lives for too long. It's our turn to stand with our Black and Brown brothers and sisters and
9/10
People of color have been fighting for their lives for too long. It's our turn to stand with our Black and Brown brothers and sisters and
9/10
demand that our police departments treat them with the humanity that they deserve. And if the police department won't fix itself,we owe it to our neighbors and friends and colleagues who suffer under that system to fight to change it.
10/10
10/10
