Quote:
Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce
I think if everyone (of any race) complied with police demands to stand down fewer people would be shot/killed.
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I think it is most likely a vicious cycle, though. The more I read about the Jason Blake tragedy, the more I tend to think that he is now permanently injured because the respoding officers deemed him to be an immanent, mortal threat. Where does that anxiety come from in the first place? I suspect it is borne out of long-standing stereotypes in the USA that have developed over generations about black people, but then also coupled with decades of prejudice that are closely intertwined with the history of policing in the US.
I get the sense that a high number of black people are already terrified of the police. That their own anxiety has also developed and become deeply engrained through generations of oppression by police departments, and stereotypes about who the police are and what they do.
So then, here we are in an age where that anxiety has reached a boiling point: police are terrified of black people, who are as equally or moreso terrified of the police. The first instinct for many irrationally terrified black people is to run from the cops, and the counter reaction of irrationally terrified officers is to eliminate the perceived threat. The results of this is horrible, senseless violence, and a chain-reaction of terror increased on both sides.
As an outsider looking in, a major part of the "Degund the Police" movement stems from this problem. As a means to break the cycle, deconstruct departments where the effects of generations of racism have continued to fester. Then, rebuild them in an effort to forge a new culture of cooperation with affected communities, and without the mutual anxiety.
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