Oh Baloney.
I was in the Army when Clinton was elected. I was there when Don’t Ask Don’t Tell became policy. A majority of troops didn’t give a shit. A few outspoken fellows did, but they were the minority. Most just didn’t give a shit.
But let’s talk about the enemies of Police and whatever else.
For nearly two decades I’ve been arguing that Police Reform was coming. And you can find probably way too many examples on here. People who saw it my way were few and far between at first. The Cato Institute had a brief and very popular web series about police accountability and reform. The Libertarian Right agreed with the reform left.
So what radical ideals were the left pushing at that time? Accountability. And in my case real investigations on use of force.
I usually refer to aircraft accident investigations. Where the investigators milk every piece of data possible from the incident. Mistakes that were made, even if they had nothing to do with the accident are noted. Because we want to learn all we can from them, to help prevent the next one.
We wanted accountability. Let’s take an easy one. The trial of Chauvin. If the Police had acted the way they pretend to when Chauvin got his first complaints, he had over 18 complaints, a majority sustained, then Floyd might have lived, or might have died from an overdose. But Chauvin wouldn’t have been the poster child for brutal police.
I’ve said many times. Chauvin was sacrificed, but not to ANTIFA or BLM. He wasn’t sacrificed to the Left. He was sacrificed to middle class suburbia.
The cops can’t allow the image of Chauvin to be the one that middle class America believes is accurate. So the cops did what they always do. The Chiefs rush out to the cameras and announce they are shocked and horrified that any officer would do this. It doesn’t reflect the values or work of the rest of the fine officers in the department. We have seen it so many times you and I could write the statement for the next incident now. It is that predictable. It is that routine.
The cops do just enough to maintain the illusion of accountability. But back to the total investigation.
Now from the time the suspect pulled the gun, I have absolutely no issue with the shooting. As far as I am concerned it was a good shooting. Regrettable. But in his shoes I would have done the same thing.
Here is where my issue begins. The cops knew they were arresting the guy when they approached him in the well lit and contained bathroom. Take him then. Put the cuffs on and search him. If they had the shooting would never have happened.
If that had been a real gun then one or both of the cops might have died. Dead because they didn’t search the guy in a well lit and contained environment. When they had all the advantages on their side.
Reform advocates like myself believe that they can do better. And the first step to doing it better, and that means safer for everyone, is learning all we can from every incident. Not just deciding if it was a crime or not.
How to adjust the training to reflect the new lessons learned. Giving the cops every possible advantage to avoid the use of force, and the risk of injury or death that accompanies each event.
I’ll warn you up front that this is probably one of those stories where some people on the rig
hotair.com
As an example of the value of the new changes, they highlight a female officer negotiating with the suspect for twenty minutes. Getting him to surrender. No injuries.
Now every situation is not the same. But giving more information, more time for the cop to think, and learn, before the incident is always a good idea. The truism is that the mind is the greatest weapon, and the more knowledge a mind has the more effective it is as a weapon.
That is what a vast majority of police reform advocates want. Accountability and honesty.
As for the military. It is funny how people who never served seem to know what is best. And what they want is Hollywood bullshit. Take the training scenes from Full Metal Jacket. The Marines didn’t do that in 1967 which is when the movie supposedly takes place.
The goal of Military Training is to get a bunch of civilians to move as one, act as one, and obey orders. Just enough for them to get to their units and begin the process of learning how to think and act like a soldier. I know. I did it.
So the closest thing to actual training is We We’re Soldiers. When the Colonel is running everyone ragged in training. But not belittling or abusing them. Pushing them to become better. The Sergeant Major is pretty close the the best one I ever served under. A man who has decades of experience and takes no shit from anyone. But demands absolute loyalty and obedience of the troops.
Post basic training most soldiers have managed to learn how to stand in formation, march, and not shoot themselves with their weapons. It takes a solid two years to make that youngster a good soldier. Someone who has enough experience to know how to think like a soldier. To think when it matters. To come up with solutions. It can’t be rushed. Well it can, but the process is brutal. You can throw that kid into combat and if he survives five minutes he will know everything about being a combat soldier. Most don’t survive.
That is why the US Army trained like mad leading up to D-Day. Every day of training made it more likely that another soldier would survive the battle.