Quote:I'm always for better training, but I don't know how / why that's the default go-to for people that don't know how / where to improve the training. It's like people say because they don't know how to improve training. If you don't know how to improve the training, then I don't know how you can say it needs to be improved.

 

I think the point here is it needs to start happening.  It needs to be developed.  I won't pretend to know the answer, but can we do better?  If we can then lets do it.  It'll either happen by foresight or it'll be forced to happen.  As I said though, it will happen one way or another.  I do think body cameras are a huge step in that direction.  Think about this.  In Rialto, California, after cameras were introduced in February 2012, public complaints against officers plunged 88% compared with previous 12 months.  Officers' use of force fell by 60%.

 

So if cops are doing the right thing in general as we speak and we really don't need better training or change within law enforcement, why would body cameras have that big of an impact?  Use of force dropped by 60%!  Wow.  You really think most cops are doing the right thing?  I can't imagine a few bad apples would make that big of an impact on the numbers.

 

As for your second comment, it's irrelevant to the point at hand. I've personally witnessed a black Sergeant violate policy and state / federal law, threatened to sue the county, and was then promoted into a position he didn't deserve. I've seen inferior minority candidates promoted over extremely qualified candidates for nothing more than threatening their supervision with lawsuits should they not be promoted. Three examples come to mind. In these examples, are the minority officers valid in their concerns? No. They have a misconceived nothing that they're being overlooked because of their race when it's actually their skillset. On the slip side, I'm not naive enough to think a bad white candidate wasn't promoted over a better black candidate. 

 

How is black people serving longer sentences compared to white people who commit similar crimes irrelevant?  Really?  You think it is just a fluke?  20% longer.  I don't think it is irrelevant for the people serving longer sentences for the same crime.

 

Having said all that, my point is that police officer or not, people aren't immune from making absurd claims of racism. I think what you're talking about goes more into the cultural problem. People don't want to be the problem. They can't admit that THEY did something wrong, so they excuse it by saying something no one can disprove--racism. I believe, however, that's a different conversation for another day.

 

<b>I think the body cameras Rialto, California showed it is as much a police issue as it is a cultural issue within neighborhoods/communities.</b>