- Moderator
- #21
]In 96 I got stopped by police and found out my license was suspended. The officer took me to the station and I spent a few hours in a holding cell. While I was there to cops brought in two black men one of them worked where I did at the time. Both of them were cursing the officers out, calling them every file name you can think of. White MF's, etc. The cops just ignored them.
The majority of these police interactions start with a black person not complying or resisting and they end up getting killed. The police are wrong for using excessive force, but the person was also wrong for not doing what they were told also. Everyone is only looking at what the police do rightfully so, but no one is telling black people to comply and be respectful to cops. Is the problem really fixed by only addressing one side of it?
My opinion is no. I think you will get more black people thinking they don't have to respect any police officer like what I witnessed "inside" a police station in 96. You will also get people not wanting to be police officers anymore and the result to that would be more crime.
You can't only hold one side accountable.
So...you are telling black people, a community with a long well recorded history of abuse by police to...comply and hope they'll get through it in one piece?
I'm not saying that all police abuse all black people or that they shouldn't be respectful to police but there are certainly plenty of instances where doing so has gotten them killed for example in higher numbers than whites...and plenty of incidents in the past but still within living memory of racially based police brutality.
Philandro Castille did what he was told. He got shot.
Terrance Crutcher did what he was told and had his hands in the air. He got shot.
How do you re-establish trust in order to fix the problem?
I suggest always having a professional appearance is key. Don't fit the profile of a gang member or rapper. Along with complying u will still have some instances of police being rude, but the more we comply police brutality will stop. Police will see there not going to get any action out of stopping black people.
Ok...so....do you tell that to women who get raped? I say that because of the old accusations that she shouldn't have dressed that way.
Philandro wasn't dressed like a "gang member" and he complied. Neither was Terrance Crutcher.
I don't think people, specifically minority people since they seem to get singled out for this should have to modify how they dress in order to not killed by a police officer (though I can't guarantee we won't laugh at the boys with trousers halfway down their butts).
And if they did - would it matter? Do they have to dress "white" to be safe? This college professor was wearing well tailored, expensive clothes along with items he personally cherished - he still got racially profiled.
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