4 ms·
I'm going to pretext this with saying I can't like or dislike the US policing system, because it doesn't affect me directly. I can only comment on what I've bee
by scohesc 6y ago
I'm going to pretext this with saying I can't like or dislike the US policing system, because it doesn't affect me directly. I can only comment on what I've been seeing through media/social media/etc.
It's tough. People are emotional. People are going to make mistakes. Sometimes mistakes are more likely to present themselves when faced with certain situations.
Just like people aren't perfect, police aren't perfect. Whether it's truly the belief of hundreds of thousands on the left, or if it's just the usual social media amplification of minority opinions - the general rhetoric of the rioters (separate from protestors) is "all cops are bad", "defund the police", "cops are pigs", "kill all cops" etc.
When you're the very people that are tasked with "maintaining the peace" and there's thousands of people rioting (leading to in one case that I know of, the abandonment and eventual burning down of a major precinct), of course there's going to be situations where police make mistakes or act with their emotions - especially when their superiors (chiefs, government officials, etc) are condoning and debatably encouraging the protests/riots with their statements/rhetoric.
Likewise with the other side, there are several videos that were circulating online of hundreds/thousands of people rioting in city centers and you have the select few "ruining" it by lighting things on fire, throwing improvised bombs/fireworks at officers, shooting and killing officers in broad daylight while they're sitting in their cars on break.
Of course officers tasked with riot control are going to be a bit more heavy-handed in how they react. Likewise - of course rioters are going to "take it to the next level" - it's an arms race that nobody can win.
It's frustrating to go and look at it from both sides and how pig-headed (ha) both of them are. There's absolutely ZERO compromise on either side - and I have no concrete idea/theory what has happened in modern society to promote this division and one-sidedness.
- awillen 6y agoYou're incorrect that you can't like or dislike the US policing system and that it doesn't affect you. If you're in the US, it affects you, because it affects society as a whole. Even if you're not in the US, the actions of the US police are worldwide news that affect everyone (see the anti-police brutality protests worldwide). If you can walk down the street and not get stopped because you're not white, the system is affecting you, just positively. As for "people are going to make mistakes" let me just remind you that police broke into Breanna Taylor's apartment late and night without announcing themselves and without their body cams turned on. That led to her death. First of all, that's not a mistake, that's an idiotic plan. Second of all, when people make mistakes that lead them to shoot innocent people to death, you don't get to shrug and say "people make mistakes." If you're walking around with a gun and a badge and the ability to take away people's freedoms then no, you don't get to make mistakes. You have to be held to a very, very high standard to have those abilities. And when you make a mistake like kneeling on someone's neck for six minutes until he dies while he tells you he can't breathe, that's not a mistake. That's a murder. You acting like people coming into the streets and saying all cops are bad AFTER cops have murdered dozens of black people is ridiculous. You sound very much like Trump saying there were good people on both sides at Charlottesville. It's similar to compare BLM protests to the attack on the Capitol. One of them was a response to people being murdered, and the other was a planned protest that was an attempt to invalidate a lawful election. I honestly think people like you are some of the worst out there - intelligent enough to understand what's happening and yet without the moral sense to understand the difference.