Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But nobody is forcing you to be a police officer. And it's not like you don't get paid for it. You chose that line of work. If you don't want to put your life on the line, you should've done something else. Therefore I don't think it's an excuse to say you shoot first because you are afraid that whoever you are shooting might have a gun or be violent, because you want to go home to your family. It's not like you are a civilian who got attacked.
Your job is to keep the streets safe for everyone, even people with mental illnesses or teenagers acting tough in front of their buddies. You need a very cool head to do that and many officers probably aren't fit to serve. I guess paying the police more but have a tougher selection process would solve a lot of problems.
No one is forcing anyone to be a police officer. But people sure do appreciate them being there when they're in a life or death situation. This comment doesn't hold water. Again as I said earlier, we rarely know exactly what the situation is that caused the reaction unless we would have been standing there. It's much different when you are watching an event replay than living in that moment.
Cops are not psychologists. Neither are most of us. Their job is not to try to figure out what is going on in someone's head. Their job is also not to figure out if a person has a mental illness. If it is obvious that's one thing. If they are raging on like a lunatic they aren't going to have a Dr. Phil session to figure out why. Their jobs are to stop a potentially dangerous situation and to keep it from causing harm to others.
Money is not going to solve the issue. I've seen many cops who have kept a cool head in difficult situations. That is not always possible. Again, armchair quarterbacking is really easy. Doing the job is not.
Think on this. Cops respond to a call based on a phone call made to 911. If they get bad information that said someone has a gun they prepare to for the scenario that could escalate very quickly. They have to rely on the information provided by other citizens to prepare. If they get there they are already on high alert and most times will already have weapons drawn because they don't know what the person is going to do. If the person reacts violently or makes any movements that are threatening, chances are they will get shot.
No one is forcing anyone to be a police officer. But people sure do appreciate them being there when they're in a life or death situation. This comment doesn't hold water. Again as I said earlier, we rarely know exactly what the situation is that caused the reaction unless we would have been standing there. It's much different when you are watching an event replay than living in that moment.
Think on this. Cops respond to a call based on a phone call made to 911. If they get bad information that said someone has a gun they prepare to for the scenario that could escalate very quickly. They have to rely on the information provided by other citizens to prepare. If they get there they are already on high alert and most times will already have weapons drawn because they don't know what the person is going to do. If the person reacts violently or makes any movements that are threatening, chances are they will get shot.
Sure, except the people who called the police for a minor thing only to have a nervous lone officer come and shoot their dog or their son who has a schizophrenic fit.
My point was that if the police came in a larger force of say 6 officers when responding to possibly dangerous 911 calls, then a lot of these situations could be dealt with without lethal force. Even a knife wielding maniac should not have to be shot dead if he is surrounded and tazed.
If they can do it everywhere else in the world, why not in America?
What people fail to realize is that police rarely get to deal with polite and nice law abiding citizens. I've said this a thousand times, but a police force is reactive. They get called out to deal with the problems that normal people in society don't want to deal with.
When you get that meth head selling drugs to school kids, they have to deal with him.
When someone gets robbed, they have to deal with the thief and with the citizen berating them for not finding the thief fast enough.
When there is a domestic dispute/fight, they have to go out and play mediator.
When there is a shooting, they have to find the shooter.
Day in and out these people have to get up in the morning and kiss their families goodbye knowing that it could very well be the last time. Really think on this before responding. How would anyone who is adamant that cops are bad in general fair if you had to do the same thing? How would you hold up replaying the scenes of a murder, or wresting someone down who is going for your gun, or replaying the daily scenes of violence and anger through your head?
Police see almost nothing but the negative sides of society and have to deal with it. It is very easy for an armchair quarterback to tell them what they are doing wrong but not many will get up and do anything about it. If you want to change something, join the police academy and see it for yourselves.
My stepfather was shot in the head in the parking lot of Bruno's in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in the early 90's for responding to a robbery call. He and his partner got out as the guy was running from the store. The guy shot my stepdad's partner, took his gun, and shot my stepdad in the head over $30 worth of food that he stole. He lived through it, but had to take an early retirement from PTSD over the incident.
Doing that sort of job hardens people. If it didn't they couldn't continue to do it. Yet people complain without knowing why a cop is making the call that they're making. We rarely know all of the circumstances of an event. Then when we find them out people still try to say that there were other options. The only option when you're faced with an aggressor is not to die. The rest fades into the background to be criticized and picked apart by the same armchair quarterbacks later on.
If a cop is routinely called out to a certain area to deal with the same individuals, and knows that more times than not the calls end in a physical confrontation do you not think they will begin to treat every call as if it were dangerous? As a child, most of us learned that when you touch a hot stove it burns you. So you learn very quickly how to react to a stove and check it before you touch it. You're ready to draw your hand back quickly in the event that it is hot. The same applies to a cop. It's human nature to become very cautious and ready to react to a situation that historically has been troublesome. Don't forget that cops are humans just like the rest of us... except if they get their reactions wrong it could be their last.
Sadly, a belligerent sense of 'entitlement' of many far outweighs their respect for authority and society in general. The police are constantly placed in confrontational situations where they must make instant, life and death decisions. The statistics absolutely do NOT affirm the constant rhetoric of BLM and others that blacks or disproportionately targeted by police or others. (See #56 above)
Several centuries too late for "talk". A slapped face never forgets and blacks have been slapped since the first slave was brought to this continent.
Unfortunately, all white people are painted with the same brush of racism just as blacks are painted with that brush. Where is there room for "talk"?
White people died by the hundreds of thousands to end slavery. White people were instrumental in the founding of the NAACP. White people also rode on the "freedom" buses into the south where some died for it. Yet all that counts for nothing in the big picture.
Far too late for talking. More likely to intensify.
You've made a very good point here, which I don't think I've seen come up in other similar threads (which probably actually belongs in politics and other controversies sub-forum).
We have Whites here who always like to parade out the same old faithfuls...particularly about Black on Black crime rates, etc. Data is data. The problem with always trotting out those old reliable stats is that it does -- as you put it -- "paint the same brush" on all Blacks. And they know that when they constantly repeat the negatives over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. If they spent half as much time actually trying to solve some issues as they do trotting out that same old crapola, things would be better.
And then, because of them repeatedly bringing up the same old s---, Blacks hearing it paint them and all Whites with that same broad brush as being racist to some degree or another. When I was a kid we had a saying for that: "Turnabout is fair play".
I just know this beyond statistics. I lived and worked most of my adult life in the burbs of Washington, D.C. One school in which I taught was majority Black, another was about 35% Black. Never had any more trouble with Black kids and families than I did with White kids and families. I was down in D.C. for recreation OFTEN. I got robbed 3 times...by White men.
And why is it that so many White Republicans (and I used to be a Republican) are so obsessed with crimes by Blacks, but seem so unconcerned with mass murders (such as Las Vegas), which almost always turn out to be by Whites? And before you say that you are just as concerned, take a year's worth of posts about Black crime versus a year's posts about White crime, and it doesn't even come close. Nor do they seek actual strategies to change things in that regard.
Sadly, a belligerent sense of 'entitlement' of many far outweighs their respect for authority and society in general. The police are constantly placed in confrontational situations where they must make instant, life and death decisions. The statistics absolutely do NOT affirm the constant rhetoric of BLM and others that blacks or disproportionately targeted by police or others. (See #56 above)
So we're all targets. Thanks for clearing that up.
So we're all targets. Thanks for clearing that up.
Yes, indeed we ALL are ... when it comes to gang violence and criminals! That's why we have police.
I never remotely suggested the police 'target' anyone -- and the statistics and facts bear that out (#58). Further, I do not subscribe to the notion that human police 'never' act improperly or respond emotionally. Like many, however, I am bone-weary of violent protests, looting and burning and claims of "racial discrimination" to justify anything and everything. If the spineless politicians and media minions weren't so shallow, the facts would be much more evenly reported.
Yes, indeed we ALL are ... when it comes to gang violence and criminals! That's why we have police.
I never remotely suggested the police 'target' anyone -- and the statistics and facts bear that out (#58). Further, I do not subscribe to the notion that human police 'never' act improperly or respond emotionally. Like many, however, I am bone-weary of violent protests, looting and burning and claims of "racial discrimination" to justify anything and everything. If the spineless politicians and media minions weren't so shallow, the facts would be much more evenly reported.
Sure, except the people who called the police for a minor thing only to have a nervous lone officer come and shoot their dog or their son who has a schizophrenic fit.
My point was that if the police came in a larger force of say 6 officers when responding to possibly dangerous 911 calls, then a lot of these situations could be dealt with without lethal force. Even a knife wielding maniac should not have to be shot dead if he is surrounded and tazed.
If they can do it everywhere else in the world, why not in America?
Here's a scenario.
A call comes into 911 where an erratic person claims someone is trying to break into their house. Dispatch sends out a call and there is only one officer available that can get there quickly. The next closest officers are tied up in traffic stops or some other event. The next closest available officer is 10 minutes away but is on his way.
Should the responding officer wait until the second officer arrives before getting out of his car? If it were a true robbery the person inside could be dead within 3 minutes, or the person attempting could be dead within 3 minutes if the homeowner decides to shoot first.
The answer is no. The officer is going to try to stop the situation before it has an opportunity to escalate. He finds that the person trying to break in is claiming to live there. He hasn't seen that person's ID and hasn't made contact with the caller yet. He sits there gun drawn and asks the person to get down on the ground and that they are going to be detained until he can figure out what is going on. The person becomes irate and says no, and begins advancing towards the officer saying he isn't following the order because he lives there. The officer doesn't know if it is true, yet.
What should he do at this point? Run back to his patrol car, lock the doors, and wait for backup? No. If he is being threatened he is going to shoot. He isn't going to risk hand to hand and hope he can hold off the guy until backup arrives. If he fails, he could be beaten, killed, or who knows what else.
Tasers don't always work. I've seen instances where a taser doesn't even affect a person. Then what? The person has already advanced on you and now you have to drop the taser, unholster your weapon, and try to fire. Or hope you can fend them off.
We're still armchair quarterbacking here. If there are better ways join the force and start pushing for change.
And why is it that so many White Republicans (and I used to be a Republican) are so obsessed with crimes by Blacks, but seem so unconcerned with mass murders (such as Las Vegas), which almost always turn out to be by Whites? And before you say that you are just as concerned, take a year's worth of posts about Black crime versus a year's posts about White crime, and it doesn't even come close. Nor do they seek actual strategies to change things in that regard.
They're not just obsessed by crimes with blacks and unconcerned with murders like Las Vegas. The difference is that white are constantly having to defend themselves against black people who want to throw the race card every five seconds and remind them that before they start labeling, the pot needs to meet the kettle. No one is perfect and it's unwise for one group to so consistently to paint the other as bad.
Take a year's posts about whites being racist and compare that against a year's posts on blacks being racist. There is a huge disparity there. It typically begins with whites who physically confront blacks and that turns into whites reminding blacks of the statistics showing who is more violent.
If you want this to go away....... then you have to stop pointing fingers and look within our own communities to make a change. It does no good to tell other groups what they are doing wrong without being able to admit that their own groups have issues to fix as well.
They're not just obsessed by crimes with blacks and unconcerned with murders like Las Vegas. The difference is that white are constantly having to defend themselves against black people who want to throw the race card every five seconds and remind them that before they start labeling, the pot needs to meet the kettle. No one is perfect and it's unwise for one group to so consistently to paint the other as bad.
Take a year's posts about whites being racist and compare that against a year's posts on blacks being racist. There is a huge disparity there. It typically begins with whites who physically confront blacks and that turns into whites reminding blacks of the statistics showing who is more violent.
If you want this to go away....... then you have to stop pointing fingers and look within our own communities to make a change. It does no good to tell other groups what they are doing wrong without being able to admit that their own groups have issues to fix as well.
Gee, I'm glad you never throw in the race card.
And where is that admission of issues to fix for your group that you mention. Have I missed a lot of your posts?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
