- Joined
- Apr 22, 2019
- Messages
- 47,100
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- 22,928
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- Political Leaning
- Progressive
My first reaction to the topic is, 'Police have a very hard job. They need our support. There will be some bad shootings, and we need to look at how to reduce those, and sometimes even prosecute officers who do wrong.'
Each incident is case by case. I expect the large majority to be 'justified'. I do think we should do more to find ways to resolve situations non-violently. I think we can and it's important.
Then, I see this statistic, and it's a hell of a reminder of just how important this is. The US and UK aren't that different.
Last year, in the US, police killed over 11,000 people. Over the last ten years in the UK, police killed a total of 22 people.
We could have arguments all day why the US should do better, with people on both sides arguing, but that statistic shows how wrong that debate is, with anyone arguing against reform having no leg to stand on.
There is a lazy attitude people can have - who cares about 11,000 people out of 300,000,000? Don't worry about it. Many do have that position, though they don't realize it. They rationalize it by ignoring the issue and saying things like 'the police are good people, I don't think there's an issue'.
What justifies that level of killing?
I do understand this is not in a vacuum. We can't simply get the UK's level of shootings in a country that is so much higher armed, where police are in so much more danger. But we can improve both, police shootings and how dangerous a country we are. Or we can say, we don't care not only about the 11,000 lives that could be saved in police shootings, but many others as well - as well as many police who are killed.
Each incident is case by case. I expect the large majority to be 'justified'. I do think we should do more to find ways to resolve situations non-violently. I think we can and it's important.
Then, I see this statistic, and it's a hell of a reminder of just how important this is. The US and UK aren't that different.
Last year, in the US, police killed over 11,000 people. Over the last ten years in the UK, police killed a total of 22 people.
We could have arguments all day why the US should do better, with people on both sides arguing, but that statistic shows how wrong that debate is, with anyone arguing against reform having no leg to stand on.
There is a lazy attitude people can have - who cares about 11,000 people out of 300,000,000? Don't worry about it. Many do have that position, though they don't realize it. They rationalize it by ignoring the issue and saying things like 'the police are good people, I don't think there's an issue'.
What justifies that level of killing?
I do understand this is not in a vacuum. We can't simply get the UK's level of shootings in a country that is so much higher armed, where police are in so much more danger. But we can improve both, police shootings and how dangerous a country we are. Or we can say, we don't care not only about the 11,000 lives that could be saved in police shootings, but many others as well - as well as many police who are killed.