Want to Fix Police Brutality? Then Let's Address it as a WHOLE.

originally posted by: Wookiep
Military grade equipment given to police departments from our government to "protect" cities and even small towns is total BS. There are no reasons to militarize the police, none.

How do you know? Have you experienced what the city cops experience when going up against organized crime and heavily armed gangs? Did you know that gangs in the USA send their members into the US military to learn urban warfare so that they can teach other gang members this strategy? Did you know that gangs in the USA use military grade weapons? Gangs Get Military Training. They are violent and there are a lot of them around.

... and you want the cops to go into these situations with what? A 45 and a flak jacket? Sure. That'll work. /sarcasm

a reply to: TDawgRex

I agree that there's a need for some element of military gear. SWAT needs to have access to a higher level of gear than your regular patrol officer. To include armored vehicles, purely because the majority of their work is high risk. That being said, I think some departments have lost sight of what SWAT's mission is supposed to be. Those guys shouldn't be used as a warrant service team, unless it's a legitimate high risk warrant. I also don't disagree with at least some patrol officers being issued rifles. I know if I answer an active shooter call in a mall, I don't want to have to get any closer to the shooter than I absolutely have to before I can engage him. I'll take 75 yards over 25 yards any day of the week. What I don't see is any reason for a PD in Podunk Iowa to have 6 MRAP trucks. LA or NYC, sure. They have a different population and face different threats.

Doubling penalties for anybody in the justice system is in itself probably not entirely constitutional. While penalties can be made harsher if certain mitigating factors are met, I don't know that it's entirely okay to just say "well you're a cop, you automatically get double." Then again I'm not a constitutional scholar nor a judge.

As far as enacting what amounts to "term limits" I think that would be better served at higher levels. I think it's good to have an officer who's been in the community for 20 years. He knows the community. He knows people. People know him. I don't, however, think having a DA in the same location for 20 years is necessarily a good thing.

The system is broken. "Fixing" the street cops doesn't change the system and would have very little effect on the overall problem. It's refreshing to see a thread that addresses the system as a whole being a problem instead of just another "cops suck, die pigs" thread.

a reply to: Wookiep

The police are the largest gang in the country. There is no fixing it and any attempt to will result in more violence. They will not go peacefully, they will not step down. They have declared war on the people they swore to protect.

originally posted by: th3dudeabides
a reply to: Wookiep

The police are the largest gang in the country. There is no fixing it and any attempt to will result in more violence. They will not go peacefully, they will not step down. They have declared war on the people they swore to protect.

Well screw it, why bother then right?

a reply to: Shamrock6

Just give it time, the thread is young, the blanket hate will pour in.

Some changes I would like to see in no particular order.

1. The elimination of 99% of no knock warrants.

2. Extremely limited use of SWAT teams. I agree that the teams are being used too much and many have strayed from the scope of what they were originally designed for.

3. Some kind of trial run that ends the drug war. This one I am still on the fence about. I don't care so much about pot, but I have seen the horrors that hard drugs do to communities.

4. Oversight by committees that consist of both the police and citizens.

5. Body cameras.

6. More citizens to want to go through a citizens academy. More citizens that want to do ride alongs to get to know us and see how and why we do what we do. I truly feel a lot of incidents that the public calls foul on is due to a lack of understanding of tactics and procedures. There needs to be more education.

7. The public to understand that not all cops are bad or cover for other cops. Blanket hate and accusations cause division. A positive relationship between the police and the public is a two way street. BOTH are responsible for maintaining it.

8. Better pay for officers. This will help to attract a higher quality of candidate. Please realize that the salaries of officers in California and New York are the exception and not the norm. Most officers start out at less than $35k a year. There are many that start under $30k a year. After a decade I only make $40k. I am not saying it is not a liveable wage because it obviously is, I just feel that a little higher pay can attract better candidates and help to limit burnout in veteran officers.

9. A better mental health system. Ours utterly sucks and the police are tasked with the burden of being the front line help in dealing with mentally ill people. That shouldn't be our job.

10. To seriously decrease the amount of civil situations we respond to. I know this varies from department to department. At my agency we will litterally respond to any call. This is unecessary and creates many hostile situations.

There are some more things that I would like to see they just seem to be slipping my mind right now.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

I get it, this is just a cop bashing thread. I will step back and watch with popcorn, enjoy your stars.

Where do you get that from? So wanting to stop police from using excessive force and not allowing judges to be bias in their decisions make it a "cop bashing" thread? To deny these things are happening is just pure ignorance, but to each their own, enjoy the popcorn.

a reply to: TorqueyThePig

Thanks for your input and perspective. Great suggestions I can definitely agree with. Would like to hear any others that slip back to mind.

originally posted by: Wookiep
Now we have yet again, a new found hatred toward whites, even whites hating whites, the "white guilt" is at an all time high. Why? No guilt here, anyone trying to force me to be guilty for something I played no part in can kiss my ass. There's no way this stance will change, and I personally know MANY people who feel the same way. Keep fueling the race fires if you want (white guilt white Liberals mostly) but you're just not going to change many minds here, that mission is futile.

One group wants to make everything racial while the entire country is being ass-raped by a completely screwed system. Everyone needs to get smarter and stop trying to isolate this HUGE problem to one specific group and allow the public to address this issue as a WHOLE. If we can't do that? Then divided we fall, and we WILL do it to ourselves. Thanks for reading.

The only "white guilt" that exists should be the "white 1% guilt." That's the problem with the racial system. I don't blame black people for being mad at "whites" because their view is that the country is owned and operated by whites. IT IS!

However, many (not all) black people don't realize that the white 1% doesn't care about the rest of the white people in America either. This is one of the main causes the racial divide. It's perpetuated by the MSM and beat like a dead horse.

The groups that make these matters "racial" is just as much some of the black community as it is the Corporatocracy of America that wants the average citizens fighting among themselves rather than looking at the white 1% lining their pockets with our blood and dollars.

And I 100% agree with you that we must unite. But seeing some of the protests around the country gives me hope - I see multi-racial protests. Just like in the 1960s when many whites eventually joined with the civil rights marches and protests. I find that younger generations are more racially tolerant and that's good.

But we have a lot of points of division to get over for us to unite:
1. race
2. religion
3. political affiliation
4. soci-economic status

And the points of division are exacerbated by the governmental mouthpiece - the MSM. It doesn't help that Americans are nothing more than the damned Sneeches of the world.