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I have some experience with the police force and I think the problem may run deeper and be a bit less dramatic, and I think this might be true nationwide. The

I have some experience with the police force and I think the problem may run deeper and be a bit less dramatic, and I think this might be true nationwide. The gist is that benefits and compensation for police officers have been going down in recent years. Lower pay, worse insurance, no retirement; all of these things lead to less, and less qualified, applicants. This drives down the employment requirements and removes the older, more level-headed officers. In the past they required a college degree; now it's just a high school diploma or GED. In the past they provided plenty of training (ie. time on the range; de-escalation procedures, etc.); now you get 12 bullets twice a year for certification. In the past you received a good pension and great insurance; now if you die on the job your family gets nothing. Who in the world would WANT to be a police officer in this situation!? You get little pay, little respect, and you have to run into the problem while everyone else runs away. This is in no way an excuse for what happened in my town (Louisville, KY) but I thought it might shed some light as to why it happened. I don't think cops are bad people and it only takes a few to really drag them all down. They are generally just people trying to go to work and make a living. The vast, vast majority of police officers don't wake up wanting to end someone's life. They just want to make their town a bit safer and stay alive to spend time with their families.

alexashka 6y ago
Sounds just like the school teachers. Bunch of knuckleheads teaching our children and protecting us from criminals, oh and there is no universal health care either. What a great country, this USA.
- BLKNSLVR 6y ago
  With all the lockdown / home-schooling, my (probably misplaced) hope would be that teaching, as a career, is given more respect and the earning capacity that goes with the recognition of how important teaching is to the general functioning of society. Teachers raise our kids for fucks sake. Knuckleheads, and there are plenty, will bring them down, and that affects the whole of society for a long time. Attracting better quality teachers raises all boats. But then Nursing, that also needs more respect for the shit, often literally, they face day in day out. Police, fuck, if you can't trust them to do the right thing, then what's the fucking point in the first place?. Get the right people, and the people right. Paying peanuts gets monkeys, and monkeys throw shit everywhere. I'm overpaid for what I do and it's effect on society. I'm hoping that the pandemic will cause at least somewhat of an adjustment, but my world-wise cynicism leans towards further adjustment in the wrong direction.
kmonsen 6y ago
I almost agree that most cops are potentially not bad cops, except that most of them participate in the blue wall of silence and covers for the bad cops. That makes all of them complicit and the whole system corrupt.
kelnos 6y ago
It's funny; while reading the first part of what you wrote, I came to a completely different conclusion than you. Given that pay, benefits, and training are so bad, my feeling is that you get fewer good people who want a good job, and more people who want to be able to legally wave a gun around and exercise power over others, with little accountability.
dependenttypes 6y ago
> Who in the world would WANT to be a police officer in this situation!? People with some sort of authority fetish, who want to abuse their power over others. > You get little pay, little respect And quite a bit of authority. It is very similar to teachers really.
- Corrado 6y ago
  You are correct. Several members of my family are teachers and they too get little respect, low pay, and some authority.
dariusj18 6y ago
It's a viscous cycle, more bad police equals more criminal behavior leads to desire to hire more police. It can be difficult to decide between quality vs quantity. Put a bunch of people walking the streets in blue, make people feel safer; those people then create situations and exacerbate tensions in communities because they are under-trained or untrainable, makes people people avoid interactions with police, creating a power vacuum more readily filled by gangs.

alexashka 6y ago

Sounds just like the school teachers. Bunch of knuckleheads teaching our children and protecting us from criminals, oh and there is no universal health care either. What a great country, this USA.

BLKNSLVR 6y ago
With all the lockdown / home-schooling, my (probably misplaced) hope would be that teaching, as a career, is given more respect and the earning capacity that goes with the recognition of how important teaching is to the general functioning of society. Teachers raise our kids for fucks sake. Knuckleheads, and there are plenty, will bring them down, and that affects the whole of society for a long time. Attracting better quality teachers raises all boats. But then Nursing, that also needs more respect for the shit, often literally, they face day in day out. Police, fuck, if you can't trust them to do the right thing, then what's the fucking point in the first place?. Get the right people, and the people right. Paying peanuts gets monkeys, and monkeys throw shit everywhere. I'm overpaid for what I do and it's effect on society. I'm hoping that the pandemic will cause at least somewhat of an adjustment, but my world-wise cynicism leans towards further adjustment in the wrong direction.

kmonsen 6y ago

I almost agree that most cops are potentially not bad cops, except that most of them participate in the blue wall of silence and covers for the bad cops. That makes all of them complicit and the whole system corrupt.

kelnos 6y ago

It's funny; while reading the first part of what you wrote, I came to a completely different conclusion than you. Given that pay, benefits, and training are so bad, my feeling is that you get fewer good people who want a good job, and more people who want to be able to legally wave a gun around and exercise power over others, with little accountability.

dependenttypes 6y ago

> Who in the world would WANT to be a police officer in this situation!? People with some sort of authority fetish, who want to abuse their power over others. > You get little pay, little respect And quite a bit of authority. It is very similar to teachers really.

Corrado 6y ago
You are correct. Several members of my family are teachers and they too get little respect, low pay, and some authority.

dariusj18 6y ago

It's a viscous cycle, more bad police equals more criminal behavior leads to desire to hire more police. It can be difficult to decide between quality vs quantity. Put a bunch of people walking the streets in blue, make people feel safer; those people then create situations and exacerbate tensions in communities because they are under-trained or untrainable, makes people people avoid interactions with police, creating a power vacuum more readily filled by gangs.