some would argue let's vote our way towards the answer & insist on using the Judicial system.
Good ideas, for sure. And they've been tried over and over again in this country, to little effect. Mostly, I think, because it's a minority who are affected. Most of the events in this category are small and happen on a daily basis. They don't leave someone dead on the ground, but they come from the same refusal to recognize someone has equal value, regardless of their identity. It doesn't just effect black people either and I hope, at some point, the national conversation gets expanded to get equal respect for indigenous people, gender non-conforming people, homeless people, and anyone else it might be tempting to think of as "less than" because of what group they might be identified with. The news moves on, other things grab the attention of the majority. Personally, I think the "bullying is ok" mentality is a serious enough problem that it's worth seizing the moment, in spite of the pandemic. (And, I intended that to be an understatement.)
Cops using an armoured military vehicle to approach a house they need to get into encourages restraint, not aggression. The faster they can get in, the less time the people inside have to grab weapons and the more likely they will bring the suspects out in cuffs, instead of body bags.
All of what you say is true. But, it's important to remember that SOMETIMES, they break down the door of the wrong house. In my neighborhood, a lot of people are going to react to someone crashing in their door, unannounced, by shooting first and asking questions later. And, of course, so are the police. Hard situation and serious problem. I don't have the answer. Personally, I've wondered how I'd react to someone crashing into my house in the middle of the night. I honestly would like to think I'd fight back, but then I'd most likely end up dead before we all ever figured out what was going on, huh?
One of the things that seems to get lost in places like Minneapolis is the fact that MOST of the people the police interact with are just "people". They are citizens. They are actually who the PD works for. I know that an officer has to be aware that any situation can go sideways. I also know that your attitude can have a huge effect on whether or not a situation DOES go sideways. One of my questions about the George Floyd situation is how does "maybe passing a counterfeit $20 bill" get you on the ground in cuffs in the first place? (And I have no idea how this particular situation went, at this point. Maybe the arrest was justified, but I've got to wonder.) I keep thinking about paying cash at the gas station and having the clerk check the bill with that pen deal they use. So what WOULD happen if it was fake? If it's fake, I didn't know it, someone gave it to me to pay for getting their horse's hooves trimmed and chances are they didn't know it either. So, do they call the police? Do I go to jail? I've never considered that that might happen. I SURE never thought I'd be likely to get killed over it. And I probably wouldn't, because I'm white and female. My most likely way to get killed by the police would be for someone to call for a welfare check. Those lead to killings with disturbing frequency around here. Why? IDK, maybe because the people responding to the call go into an already fraught situation with an adversarial attitude?
The area where I see a need for "demilitarization" is more an attitude. Policing is not actually a war. It's more complicated than that. The street isn't full of bad guys/the other side. There are bad people there, for sure, but MOST people, regardless of race or anything else, are just your neighbors. There's a big difference between pulling a guy over for a broken tail light and raiding a crack house. Yes, the driver might be a threat, absolutely. On the other hand, treating a person like a threat can escalate things into a dangerous situation all by itself.
Just speaking for myself, I'M apprehensive when I have to deal with a police officer. Got stopped for a tail light being out a couple years ago. As I watched the officer walk up to my car, I was thinking about what my options were for keeping the encounter calm and for de-escalating it if he had an attitude. It went ok. We chatted for a bit and the tension evaporated and I promised to get the light fixed, end of story. But I had a state trooper in Oklahoma pull me over, while I was pulling a horse trailer, and scream at me because he thought I was too long and too slow (the speed limit) in the left lane. I had a left hand exit coming up, there was a lot of traffic, and I tend not to drive at excessive speed with a trailer, just because everyone else seems to be speeding. But, he SCREAMED at me. Wondered what was wrong with me. I was too stunned to respond in kind, but what would have happened if I'd been in a different frame of mind that day?
I get that it's a tough job, really I do. And I get that that trooper might have been having a bad day and I was just the unlucky next person he encountered. I have days when I have a bad attitude at work too and I usually pay for it by having things go less well than they might have. This is something I totally relate to. Part of what makes it a tough job is that, done well, it's a balancing act. You have to be aware that you can get hurt. You have to be equally aware that, since you probably don't actually know who you're dealing with, they might actually be innocent. Your behavior has the ability to make things go either better or worse.
