Police in America

The problem with the American police is that they have the mentality of soldiers who regard the general public as the enemy.

My message will be regarded as inflammatory and will be reported and removed.
Why can't we delete our own comments?
I should amend it...The American police APPEAR.....

Racism and inequality exist in every state and every country- It's written into laws- It's a global matter, and the death of George Floyd has promoted open discussion of both around the world -- because it's everywhere -

We've been discussing the police situation in the United States for decades, prior to Trump, prior to Obama- And if this country was that prejudice Obama wouldn't have ever taken office- But because it's that racisit, Trump's approval ratings remain in the 40% approval range-

A small city in my home state took matters into it's own (hahaha a racoon just looked in the window at me!) hands- They didn't defund the department, they dismantled it and rebuilt it from the ground up to weed out corruption-

Other cities and communities have done similar- So it isn't that there has been zero interest-

rosecarmel

I agree with your post.

No raccoons here in my garden just birds busily feeding their fledglings.

I was surprised to discover that America had 18,000 police forces. They don't share training, standards or values. Its no wonder that some are ethical and well run but others seem to licence thugs and bullies. I hope its the latter which are being disbanded.
PS shame about the gun culture. That can't help.

I think there definitely are "rogue" police forces in the US that appear to be largely consisting of corrupt, barely trained and trigger happy bullies who are more reminiscent of the Mafia than public servants.

So there needs to be a strict re-assessment of individual officer performance, ongoing monitoring and training and proper investigation of any incidents of violence - and severe penalties for those who think they can use violence with impunity. There should be a concentration of recruiting new officers who have undergone rigorous scrutiny, including psychometric testing to weed out those who are unsuitable.

However, if the proposal is that some police forces be stood down en masse with immediate effect and with nothing left to protect people from crime, I think that is a very bad idea. It will be a very happy day for criminals - and perhaps that is the idea. If there is then complete mayhem, better off individuals setting up their own private security forces (as has even happened in this country) and less well off people being left to cope alone, the authorities, who claim they are very upset about these sorts of incidents against black people but who appear not to have done anything to put a stop to them, can say "see, look what happens when you don't have a police force." People have to beware of traps being laid.

Poor managers appoint poor subordinates. It happens in every walk of life. That is the problem.

The police in the US certainly view any suspect with a lot more caution than the U.K., that’s hardly surprising because so many guns are routinely carried by the public. Even in a routine traffic stop for speeding any failure of the driver to obey instructions will have the cops drawing a firearm.

You can’t blame them because the risk of being shot on duty is far higher than in the U.K. where it is rare for police to be shot. In the US more than 1 Police officer a week is shot and killed, although I enjoy visiting the US I wouldn’t want to live there. For me society is too polarized Republicans hate Democrat’s and vice versa, the social divide between white and non white is much more obvious, it’s not perfect here, it is better than the US.

That’s mainly the problem Davidhs......that when anyone can ( and often is) carrying a gun, it makes the police more nervous and sometimes heavyhanded.
That’s certainly not to excuse any racism, which in some US States is still very much there.

I'm watching the Netflix series "Designated Survivor" at the moment. It's about an independent representative who, because the Capitol Building is blown up with all but 2 delegates inside, becomes the president. It's relevant at the moment because it covers racism and police brutality in the States plus a lot of other stuff.

Forgot to add - there is also discussion about gun control.

Gun Control, if a democrat majority were elected there is a good chance that automatic assault weapons would get banned because of the multiple shootings in schools, there is no chance that handguns get outlawed.

I dont think racism is actually worse in the US than here, the races don’t like or trust each other much and mostly live in separate areas just like the UK. We hear today that a Drama school has admitted to discriminating, an establishment that should have been squeaky clean. In general there are few public racist incidents but the undertone is widespread in private.

The town I live in is about 99.56% white while Detroit is about 87.5% African American- Demographics is a huge factor-