airmangataosenai
Member
Right off the bat since I know what people will instantly assume, so please read the whole thing.
I am aware of the abuses of police in the US and the way in which police can and do profile black people in out country. I make no excuses for it and recognize fully the need for reform which will properly train and weed out said behavior. Police are held to a high standard, as they should be. The death of Eric Garner was horrible and it ending with no consequences for his killer was eye-opening to me as to how uneven the application of justice could be in our country. One unarmed death is one too many and it would be a huge failure on our country to turn a blind eye.
With that said, this forum has become gross over the past few months. It's as if people don't recognize the need for the police, as if a sizable portion of this forum legitimately believe that if the police were just removed from the picture, places like Baltimore would be better off. I feel like legitimate anger has morphed into something else and people have lost sight of how the work police do is both dangerous and necessary. I honestly don't think I could do a job that stressful, and I doubt that many of you could either.
In that thread about the armored humvees earlier, posters were acting like it was an illegitimate purchase to make and putting it in the same category as purchasing high-powered weaponry. People are conflating offensive and defensive equipment simply because they are both military surplus. Do you oppose them using body armor? I'd certainly hope not.
Another category of this I've seen elsewhere but not here has been discrimination against black police officers. I follow the Facebook page "I Love Being Black", they generally post positive portrayals of African Americans and native Africans, but recently in a post about the first African American female police chief, things went a bit differently. The initial post wasn't overtly confrontational but the comments were loaded with calls of her being a traitor, including by the admin for the page. I've seen this before, but rarely as starkly as this. This seems hugely counterproductive to me as it discourages black people from pursuing jobs in law enforcement, which is probably the only real way to bring about long-term change in the worst offending departments.
These are just a few poorly constructed thoughts that have been jumping around in my head today. I think about stuff to post from time to time but rarely make threads. I went back and forth on posting this because I worry about people thinking I am diminishing the grievances of the black community, but it isn't my intent. This is not a thread dismissing "A Few Bad Apples", but yes I do feel that the majority of people who become police are doing it for the right reasons.
I am aware of the abuses of police in the US and the way in which police can and do profile black people in out country. I make no excuses for it and recognize fully the need for reform which will properly train and weed out said behavior. Police are held to a high standard, as they should be. The death of Eric Garner was horrible and it ending with no consequences for his killer was eye-opening to me as to how uneven the application of justice could be in our country. One unarmed death is one too many and it would be a huge failure on our country to turn a blind eye.
With that said, this forum has become gross over the past few months. It's as if people don't recognize the need for the police, as if a sizable portion of this forum legitimately believe that if the police were just removed from the picture, places like Baltimore would be better off. I feel like legitimate anger has morphed into something else and people have lost sight of how the work police do is both dangerous and necessary. I honestly don't think I could do a job that stressful, and I doubt that many of you could either.
In that thread about the armored humvees earlier, posters were acting like it was an illegitimate purchase to make and putting it in the same category as purchasing high-powered weaponry. People are conflating offensive and defensive equipment simply because they are both military surplus. Do you oppose them using body armor? I'd certainly hope not.
Another category of this I've seen elsewhere but not here has been discrimination against black police officers. I follow the Facebook page "I Love Being Black", they generally post positive portrayals of African Americans and native Africans, but recently in a post about the first African American female police chief, things went a bit differently. The initial post wasn't overtly confrontational but the comments were loaded with calls of her being a traitor, including by the admin for the page. I've seen this before, but rarely as starkly as this. This seems hugely counterproductive to me as it discourages black people from pursuing jobs in law enforcement, which is probably the only real way to bring about long-term change in the worst offending departments.
These are just a few poorly constructed thoughts that have been jumping around in my head today. I think about stuff to post from time to time but rarely make threads. I went back and forth on posting this because I worry about people thinking I am diminishing the grievances of the black community, but it isn't my intent. This is not a thread dismissing "A Few Bad Apples", but yes I do feel that the majority of people who become police are doing it for the right reasons.
