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Let me start of by saying I’m not an Expert, and i might hurt your feelings here, oh well. It’s not about your feelings anymore. If the following statement offends you: Then you are part of the problem. Black Lives Matter. They do. Its as simple as that. No argument. 100 percent.
I’m a straight, white male in the US Army. Im an Infantrymen. Im not the smartest guy alive, anybody can tell you that. I grew up pretty sheltered. I was and am privileged. I know that. But i also know that i can make a difference.
Ive seen alot of people say that white people should not be overtaking the BLM movement. Those people are absolutely right. We should be working with them. But as long as I’ve looked on here. I’ve only seen the same thing. We all know the problem. We fully admit it.
We all know police brutality and racism is a problem. Acknowledging it isnt the problem. Finding meaningful, reasonable and impact solutions is. Those solutions have to be demanded. Not by just guys like me, who a regular chance encounter with a law enforcement officer-
Probably wont result in anything more than a warning or a ticket. But by everyone. You, me, your brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and friends, everyone you care about. They Deserve better. So Demand better America! Protest for that.
Demand a high standard. What does that mean? In the Army it means going beyond the bare minimum. Ask yourself, how many PDs do you see actively engaging in their community’s in ways that support and encourage positive community relations. Ive seen very few. But those few who do
are the examples we need. Those departments know how to listen, they know their community. They trust the people they are supposed to protect. They value their lives. These large scale police departments that are continually making the same mistake over and over. They need to ask
What are we doing wrong? What do we need to change and adapt to fit our environment. How can we do better. That starts with accountability- lets talk about that for a second. Police departments have their own internal affairs that handles investigations into their own misconduct
I ask why? How can you trust someone to scrutinize themselves without bias, without prejudice and without trying to look out for themselves and put a spin on things. The exact thing that has happened in nearly every incident in the last ten years! You can’t! Not reasonably.
So is that a part of the solution? Does our country need a national organization or agency, funded by the American people that is responsible for independent, non-judicial and judicial oversight of police misconduct and abuse. I’d say yes.
But at the same time we owe it ourselves to demand that our police are the most professional, well trained and best led force that we can have. Despite what you may personally belive, not all cops are bad. Some of them have hearts of gold. You don’t have to look hard to find them
The same way you don’t have to look hard to see the bad ones and all the people who never should have been cops in the first place. So let’s discuss another angle of accountability- who we let become cops. Look at the entry requirements to become a police officer
All over the country they are pretty similar. Very basic, not at all hard. If we expect to have a police force where the murder of George Floyd wont happen again. We need to demand excellence. Ask yourself who you want to be in charge of protecting you.
The same way the US government doesnt let just anybody enter the CIA. We need to apply that same strict regiment to our nations police force. Background checks shouldn’t just look for criminal records, bad credit or how many traffic tickets they had. They should look at alot more
They should look at an applicants social media history. Their relationship histories(screen for domestic violence) Interviews with family and friends to discuss their personality. (Screen for narcissism, violent tendencies, arrogance and racism) and thats just to start with.
The American people deserve and should rightfully demand that their police force be the very best that it can be. Right now it isnt. That’s simply a fact. The argument that these incidents are the results of bad apples is a moot and irrelevant argument. It doesn’t matter.
The most common thing that i have noticed in almost every incident over the last five years, and ive watched the body cams, the cell phone and store recording is that these officers approach a vast majority of these situations and they very quicky lose their discipline
They forget their training, they let their fear and their personal feelings get in the way of them doing their jobs. Almost all of these situations didn’t need to result in the loss of a life. Officers need better training, demand that!
Our officers desever better for what we ask of them. And you may not agree but it is a lot. Its a hard job for anyone to do. Its unforgiving and we often dont see when police do get it right. But we as the American people owe it ourselves
And we owe it to the people we ask to protect and serve us, for the very best. So does our country need a national police standard that every officer must go through. Where every American knows what and how their police are trained? Do organizations like BLM deserve a seat
At that table to discuss what those rules and standards should be. I would say yes for the community policing aspect of that discussion. But lets be real here, there is not a one fits all solution for this problem. Acknowledge the fact that our Police force has messed up.
Even if you argue that the individuals responsible were isolated incidents of officers doing the wrong thing. The overall pattern overshadows that. You can not deny that the exact same overall incident keeps happening. Sure a few things may change. But the pattern is still there
It takes me back to the training and accountability points. We need more of both. We have the power to make these things happen. Stop the looting, stop the violence and start the discussions, start the planning, lets start working on the solutions. You deserve better. We all do.
We need more accountability, from the bottom all the way to the very top. That is a simple and undeniable fact that no one can deny. As citizens we expect excellence from those we entrust to protect us. So lets do that. Let’s make change. But do it the right way. No violence.
Our police deperatments have a huge and almsot unscalable public reputation. An image perpetually made worse by a multitude of factors. Some of which we can control, others we can’t. But we owe it ourselves and our fellow Americans to do better. Especially our People of Color.
