Report: Three Baton Rouge police officers shot near BRPD HQ

[David Horn]

(07-18-2016, 09:40 AM)Skabungus Wrote: Am I the only one that is totally unsurprised about the state of relations between blacks and the police (state)?  Police brutality, disregard for constitutional rights, etc. have been standard fare since 1865.  Further, if you are a Latino, you experience the same crap, you just don't make the news.  

We live in a police state.  It has worsened since 9-11 but it wasn't much better before.  

Law and order campaign platforms supported by a white majority have consistently made it possible.

Conservative efforts to "privatize" the entire criminal justice system from traffic fines, to policing and security, to jails and prisons further remove justice from the justice system, sticking it behind contractor rights to privacy.

At the heart of it all, no single individual has more influence over whether or not a citizen will enter the criminal justice system than the municipal police officer.  He is the gateway.

Our police agencies (by popular demand) select for a personality type that follows orders without question, views issues in black and white, and sees escalating force as the primary tool for achieving compliance with the law.  We have built the monster that is modern policing with our hue and cry and vote.

Job candidates that can see both sides of the story, choose mediating and negotiating over escalation, are at a significant disadvantage in the police job interview scenarios and thus are rarely hired.  Instead, they often receive kind letters referring them to other allied agencies like DHS, CPS, etc. where negotiating skills and the ability to see gray (as opposed to black/white, right/wrong) are valued.

We have built this system with our fear, and a blind eye to the causes of crime.  Those chickens are gliding on home, as they should be expected to do.

Now we get to wait.  Wait for the white separatists and Bundy-lovers to discover now is the time to take up the banner and strike.

There's a lot of truth here.  I worked in a field that involved a lot of interaction with law enforcement, and many of these observations hit a little too close to home.  Actually, the less dogmatic but civic minded become fire fighters or EMTs, so the sorting begins early.  The police who tend to be less focused on "enforcement" go for detective work or, occasionally, some sort of liaison work with the private sector or the local politicos. 

That last group tends to rise in the ranks, so leadership is often of much better temperament than the rank-and-file officers they lead.