I know a lot of cops all around the country and none of them have ever had any sort of arrest quota or ticket quota.
That being said, there are bad cops on every department. There are racist cops, sexist cops, violent cops, corrupt cops, etc.. Being a police officer doesn't automatically mean you're a good guy, but there are far more good cops than bad cops. People don't want to hear about the good cops, the guys who buy food and shoes and school supplies for poor children in their community, the ones who really care and really want to make things better, it's not sexy news. That has made it seem like there is a huge divide, and it makes policing more difficult.
That being said, there is also a divide, you would have to be blind not to see it. Sorry, but it's just the truth. The problem is that there were times where someone was killed when they shouldn't have been, and now anytime someone is killed people are upset about it, even if it was justified.
That doesn't mean there isn't an issue with training though... As a military guy I hate to say it, but the problem is largely due to veterans joining departments. They take the same military mindset that got them through war... It's us vs them, I'm going home to my family no matter what, it's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.. That is how you want to think when you're in war, but not when you're supposed to be protecting people. These guys are quick to shoot, even if they shouldn't, because that's what you do in combat. That's not how you should act as a cop though.
It doesn't help that the police departments are adopting military gear and tactics. Which is fine for big cities such as LA, NY, Boston, Dallas... They have different challenges... Then you have smaller cities in the middle of Kansas who buy armored cars just because they want to be like the big cities. That's just stupid.
There needs to be a clear divide between police and military. Our military is there to stack bodies and win wars. Our police are supposed to protect us, keep us from harm. We have military acting like cops overseas and cops acting like infantrymen back home. That added to rhetoric of groups of people being the enemy, is it any wonder why there's an uproar?
Training needs to be fixed, the veterans who join need to have the right mindset. Elite military units boot out people all the time for having the wrong mindset, yet nobody else can do it else they seem unpatriotic.
The failure comes from the departments and local governments who want to blow their budget on high end military gear, and armored vehicles instead of better training.
It's not the fault of the officer, it's a failure of department leadership. Failure to identify and remove shitty officers, failure to train them as good as they can, failure to change the mindset from war to protection.
And that's all I'm going to say.
49ers still suck and the Muppet is a shitty QB. I guess he should be used to sitting down, it's where he'll spend most of the season.
