muddybrazos said:
My question is what is the end goal of all of these protests? We all know that there will never be 0 deaths of unarmed people by cops. There are already very few deaths each year and there will always be some dick head cops. The media will never stop furthering the narrative that black folks are being hunted down by cops even though the stats do not show that. It's a catch 22 where you have to choose less policing and more crime or more policing and more bad run ins with cops.
How can we know unless we are actually involved in them (the civil protesters - not the violent ones)? No, there will never be 0 deaths in the future, but perhaps the goal is to end the perception (will address later) that the outcome of a confrontation that does result in some "dick head cops" killing or brutalizing someone is no different when the victim is black (or other minority) or white.
Why these cops do these things is beyond any explanation, especially when they see time and again in recent history what it ends up meaning for them. I don't know what their motive is in thinking they need to do these things.
But the perception is that given all of the above, given a similar situation, given a "suspect" that is doing the same thing, has the same outward appearance in both look and actions....the perception for too many cops is that the black man is assumed to be a greater threat for whatever than the white man. That is the perception. Whether that is reality is impossible for us to say because we are not inside the cops' heads. It could also be that the white cop is trying to display superiority that exists in his warped sense of justice or ego..
Bottom line, the protesters may want more, but it seems to me that what the end result should be is that people are treated fairly, the same way, regardless of whatever the color of their skin. For the bulk of cops that is true. But it happens way too often that it appears the color of the skin inflates the risk for a bad ending because it may involve cops that shouldn't even be on the force.
It isn't about whether or not the "victim" is innocent or guilty of a crime. It isn't about whether or not they are a responsible person or not. It is about treating people fairly across the board, not assuming that one person is inherently more a threat or deserves less respect than another because their skin is darker than another's.
Whether it is training for police, vetting in the hiring process, or some other administrative policy, we have got to get the bad actors out of the game to the greatest extent possible. The protesters likely feel that too many have leaked through and there are too many red-necked yahoos like those two in Georgia or wherever it was go after a man because he is black. No way they would have gone after a white guy in the same situation. If you don't think that is true for those types of people, there is no reason to discuss things. Those types certainly should not be policemen and too many probably are. That attitude is what needs to change, and, once again, the
perception is that the police have not made that a high enough priority to do more to weed out these people and these actions.