White Lives Didnt Matter until Black people started proclaiming Black Lives Matter.
You are right the cops that shoot when they shouldn't are scared.
Norm Stamper was chief of the Seattle Police Department for six years. He put out a book called "To Protect And Serve: How To Fix America's Police."
It seems to me that one possible silver lining to the horrific week that we've had is that police officers will come to appreciate what families have lost at the hands of bad police. Policing is broke. It has evolved as a paramilitary, bureaucratic, organizational arrangement that distances police officers from the communities they've been sworn to protect and serve. It starts from the very basic premise that the police in America belong to the people, not the other way around. And if we're ever to achieve that kind of partnership, we've got to find a way to build trust. That means we need to adopt true community policing. The systems problem is that police officers believe they must maintain control from beginning to end of every single contact they make. They're taught that by their culture and in the police academy. When you create this one-up, one-down situation in which the police officer says, I'm the cop, you’re not…That kind of control leads to an abuse of power. We've also militarized American law enforcement beyond all measure. So we've taught our cops that they're on the front lines of an occupational force and their job is to maintain control of every situation. And I would argue that they lose control when they embrace that attitude and take it into every contact. Look, there are dangerous situations in police work, and police officers need to be ready to use force. The law entitles them to use only that amount of force necessary to overcome whatever resistance they're facing. Most people get that. It's when you get into these discretionary marginal contacts that we find police officers abusing their power. And it is true that if one officer out of the million police officers shoot somebody without authorization then we can say that's the exception. But when we have shooting after shooting that most people would define as questionable, it's time to look, not just at a few bad apples, but the barrel. And I'm convinced that it is the barrel that is rotted.
A scared cop is an impulsive cop that doesn’t see straight. Perception is affected by fear. Every officer who's been involved in a shooting will tell you that tunnel vision is real. Everything else disappears from view and so it's vital that we understand that when a police officer is frightened, is inclined toward impulsive behavior or rash behavior. How do we train them, educate them such that they know what their bodies are going to do? So that they have an understanding of elevated blood pressure, of rapid heart rate. They know what their bodies are telling them, namely I'm afraid. And then they have a way not to override it, but to channel it. And the cops I hear screaming at people, pulling their guns, firing those lethal weapons are out of control, and that comes from fear.
Former Police Chief Has A Plan For 'How To Fix America's Police'
