The tragedy of the two recent “suicide by cop”(de facto) episodes have resulted in a nationwide examination of how cops respond to criminal behavior.
This seems to be way more of a problem in the US than say in Canada.
However given the lack of any national media conversation regarding the failure of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice to comply with the law and the cops I perceive a major lost opportunity to educate America’s youth as to the propriety even necessity to behave and obey.
As it stands, I’m afraid either the national reaction will only further exacerbate the problem of deaths at the hands of the cops.
This is from someone who does have personal grievances against cops but I’ve never disobeyed one, having been detained dozens of times. That is how I managed to live to the age of 64 so far and why I recommend the media to focus on behavior towards cops as a solution to the problem of unfortunate shootings.
I think it’s two fold: Obey the cops, but cops also need to go through some sensitivity training. They was some (a lot really) cops talk to minorities, teenagers and women is deplorable.
If everyone just fucking obeyed the law, there wouldn’t be any need for cops. Except for occasionally directing traffic.
The cops’ *job *is dealing with jerks who don’t obey the law and who quite possibly aren’t planning to obey the cops either. And it’s the cops’ job to bring those situations under control. While shooting the jerks to death is certainly one way to do that, I have to think it isn’t the only or the best one.
Our uniformed cops don’t carry guns. I can’t remember the last time a policeman here killed a civilian - it would create a national uproar. And yet they routinely manage to bring situations under control, even situations involving jerks who’ve committed crimes and who don’t have any particular love or respect for the police.
I don’t think it’s because our cops are better human beings than the ones in the US. It’s because they’re thinking in terms of bringing the situation under control, rather than in terms of blowing the fuck out of people.
(I’m sure many or most US cops think in those terms, too. But there are clearly some who don’t.)
It seems to me that if I was just innocently (in my mind, at least) doing my thing, and a cop suddenly showed up and stared barking orders, it would take me several seconds, at the least, to figure out what was going on, what they wanted, how they wanted me to move, even that they were actually talking to me. This goes double, of course, if I were 12 years old.
“Just obeying” is not so simple - however much you may want to avoid trouble and be compliant - when you are in a confusing situation and people are yelling at you. Most people’s first reaction is going to be “Huh?”
I’ve been in a confusing situation with men in uniforms yelling at me, and (as it turned out) a lot of muzzles pointed at me.
When it was sorted out, the sergeant very kindly apologized for the confusion, and gave me the most valuable piece of advice I’ve ever gotten: if a cop says lie down in the mud,* lie down in the mud*. You can always sort it out later (including suing them, getting someone disciplined and/or going on 60 Minutes) but if they are shouting orders like that, they are not in a mood or position to discuss it while you stand there twitching.
Or you can stand on your dignity and rights as a sovereign and equal citizen, but as Robert Heinlein put it, apologies are of no use to a corpse.
Fuck. That. Shit.
When a bunch of people burst in waving weapons at you and start yelling things at you, more than likely not in unison like the Vienna Boys Choir, then there is a damn good chance panic will set in. I don’t give a flying fuck about their precious mood-send them back to class and teach them how real humans react when situations like that occur, then figure out how to do it right.
edited to add: Not even a ghod damned drill sergeant expects grunts that have signed up for boot camp and have been told what to expect are automatically going get it right when he tells them to kiss dirt the first time-that kind of blind obedience is taught.
Besides which, SOME PEOPLE might reasonably believe that if they instantaneously obey law enforcement dictums, things will all turn out all right. Those people are not the only subset of “people” and those people are not necessarily correct.
Rather than obey he reached for a realistic replica gun. Reaching for a fake gun when confronted by police with real guns requires a special kind of stupid.