Another day, another police beating in America

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Yeah but

1: If Hitler ran something like this then it wouldn't be ironic.

2: An organization could be called anything and he could be "against it," especially if it's signaturely against him specifically.

[GreyICE]

Interesting article from a (verified) former police officer, making the rounds on social media: https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759

It's worth reading all the way through.

And consider this: my job as a police officer required me to be a marriage counselor, a mental health crisis professional, a conflict negotiator, a social worker, a child advocate, a traffic safety expert, a sexual assault specialist, and, every once in awhile, a public safety officer authorized to use force, all after only a 1000 hours of training at a police academy. Does the person we send to catch a robber also need to be the person we send to interview a rape victim or document a fender bender? Should one profession be expected to do all that important community care (with very little training) all at the same time?

To put this another way: I made double the salary most social workers made to do a fraction of what they could do to mitigate the causes of crimes and desperation. I can count very few times my monopoly on state violence actually made our citizens safer, and even then, it’s hard to say better-funded social safety nets and dozens of other community care specialists wouldn’t have prevented a problem before it started.

And here's a good video from John Oliver. I'd watch to the end on this one.


youtu.be/Wf4cea5oObY

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

That was cool he dedicated a whole episode to it.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Yeah but

1: If Hitler ran something like this then it wouldn't be ironic.

2: An organization could be called anything and he could be "against it," especially if it's signaturely against him specifically.

Anti-fascist isn't an organization, it's a movement. The closest thing there is to a uniform is a black covering so your face can't be identified. There is no anti-fascist membership card, no central headquarters, no office memos. It's literally just a bunch of people who show up when Nazis wave tiki torches and chant "Jews will not replace us". That's why it's so ridiculous when conservative conspiracy theorists (and presidents, and news anchors, and senators...you get the picture) talk about "antifa operatives" and "antifa networks" and the supposed secret goals of antifa.

I'm antifa, and so can you!

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Yeah but

1: If Hitler ran something like this then it wouldn't be ironic.

2: An organization could be called anything and he could be "against it," especially if it's signaturely against him specifically.

Anti-fascist isn't an organization, it's a movement. The closest thing there is to a uniform is a black covering so your face can't be identified. There is no anti-fascist membership card, no central headquarters, no office memos. It's literally just a bunch of people who show up when Nazis wave tiki torches and chant "Jews will not replace us".

Yes it's a legitimate movement. But still we all know that he's obtuse to that fact. He's propagandizing specifically about the people that put on black covering and commit acts of incivility.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Ah, right. I was just focused on how people mischaracterize it as an organization rather than a movement.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Cops are spineless cowards. They can't take what they dish out.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

[Antiboyscout]

Cops are spineless cowards. They can't take what they dish out.

Yeah, police respond one level up from what you're doing.

Do you expect the cops to use a billy club to fight someone with a knife in honorable one-on-one combat? Fight mace with mace? Wrastle the unarmed?

[GreyICE]

Yeah, police respond one level up from what you're doing.

Do you expect the cops to use a billy club to fight someone with a knife in honorable one-on-one combat? Fight mace with mace? Wrastle the unarmed?

What you described are "escalation tactics". These are exactly what needs to be abolished. The police should not be the initiators of violence. In the example of a knife wielder, the police definitely shouldn't challenge him to any sort of combat. That escalates the situation.

It's funny to discuss it because here in Seattle, the thing that triggered the FBI investigation was exactly that. A man wielding a knife. Of course he was a Native American wood carver, who was also deaf. The cop immediately pulled a gun, and shouted orders at him. He didn't respond, because he was deaf. So the cop shot him. This is exactly the result of escalation tactics. The officer went from screaming orders to shooting bullets. He escalated the level of violence and the danger of the situation.

Had the cop used de-escalation tactics, this would never have occurred. Politely and nicely addressing the man would have revealed that he didn't appear to hear the officer. Carefully circling and visually alerting him could have indicated the officer's presence, and then they could have communicated. It would have been trivial to see that he was a wood carver, and that the knife was not meant for attacking people, but for making art.

The immediate escalation of force from what the officer perceives to be the level of threat, and the drive for immediate action is what is creating many of these dangerous situations. De-escalation emphases taking time, effective and polite communication, active listening, avoiding rushing people or putting them on the defensive, and much more. There's many good articles on it, and it's a very effective method of conflict resolution.

In the case of a person holding the knife, the officer should realize the knife wielder is not a threat at the moment - a knife is a close weapon, and they are far away. The officer should maintain their distance, and politely address the person, to try and determine why the person has a knife and what is occurring. That way we don't shoot any more woodworkers, yes? Had the cop taken a few minutes to assess the situation, no one would have been hurt that day.