Here’s why “not all cops” is not an acceptable response, a thread

For one, on the surface, the simplest point, is that people are dying by cop exponentially more than any other developed Western country. That’s clearly indicative of a problem. And indisputably, if you’re one of the “good” ones, this should be unacceptable to you, too.

Some people snap back with “well this is all due to them doing their jobs. If people wouldn’t fight back or act aggressive, they wouldn’t have to shoot.”

To that I say 1. An officer’s job is de-escalation of aggression, not to worsen it or end it with a bullet,

And 2. Philando Castile. Breonna Taylor. Those are simply recent ones who were killed and not injured. They were victims of jumpy cops. Which brings me to my next item:

ALL cops may not be the issue, but our system clearly is. We value a lot of the wrong things in our officers, often looking for signs of aggression or a lack of squeamishness or the value of brotherhood (read: a refusal to tell on fellow cops) rather than value for human life.

We also tend to hire ex military, who are often spit out by a system who’s done them dirty by bestowing them with PTSD and anxiety disorders, amongst other things, and doing a shit job at offering them quality recovery. But that’s a whole other thread.

So we’re hiring people who’re on edge, who’re taught to respond to tense moments with violence, and we encourage a “thin blue line” attitude to the point where “good” cops are often ostracized or retaliated against for speaking out.

And then there’s us. We’re expected to be the ones who remain calm when guns are pointed at us, even though we aren’t the professionals. If one of us is killed for not complying, we question one another instead of the person whose job it was to NOT freak out and shoot immediately

The cops are known for the guns they carry. We EXPECT them to kill if a person “gets out of hand.” It’s unspoken that you call them when you want to threaten Black bodies. And “not all cops” doesn’t apply because 99.9% of have stood by and allowed it to be this way for decades.

This isn’t about all cops being killers; it’s about them being a part of a system that’s broken, that’s more about control than it is protection, and it’s about the fact that many are protecting that system instead of rallying for change.

I don’t hate police officers, but I think their role is stretched thin, and I think that we’re not training or selecting properly. And until this is fixed, “not all cops” won’t stand because I don’t want to have to figure out which I’m dealing with the next time I’m pulled over.