The problem of police violence is a complicated one. Summing it up:
1) It takes a particular types of person to get involved with law enforcement and that type is usually more aggressive than the average person.
2) It doesn't help that it takes a particular type of person to be a criminal and that type of person is usually more aggressive than the average person, creating a fun time when the two of them clash.
3) If the most peaceful person tends to lose it occasionally under high stress, imagine how long it would take for that person to lose it when lives are constantly on the line.
4) Keep in mind that not all people are inclined to help the police, and think that it is their responsibility to obstruct the police, especially if they can help with an investigation. Some of these people are aggressive in their obstruction, which adds to the problem.
Combine all four liberally, and it gets weird. Of these problems, the only that can really change is the fourth, and if you can figure that one out, you woul see a major decrease in police violence. Note that I'm not pinning the fault exclusively on the civilian population; police need better training in how to handle their emotions and the hiring process needs to get better at weeding out problem recruits. Of course, that also means that police departments also need to increase recruitment in order to ensure that they have better choices as well. That would also go a long ways towards eliminating police violence.
On the civilian side, there are basically two sides to the conflict. The first is that the civilians needs to at least feel as if they have some control over the police; they need to have a voice in not only how the department is run but have the ability to see something done about their complaints. A civilian oversight board should be instituted in order to field those complaints as well as provide feedback to the police department; even if the board has no actual power it should nonetheless help provide a way for civilians to see what happened during an incident and for both the police and civilians to work towards a better way of doing things.
The other is that the standard vicious cycle needs closing. The issue is that certain neighborhoods feel as if the police don't like going to those neighborhoods and that the police treat them rougher than other neighborhoods; the police feel that it harder to investigate crimes in that neighborhood and that they are in danger in those neighborhoods. Adding to this is that cops often don't serve those neighborhoods as well as they do other, even as the cops find that cnducting an investigation in those neighborhoods is tough. While there is there no question that police need to serve those neighborhoods better, those in the neighborhoods need to help the police out; the police need to feel less on edge going into those areas, and a good part of that is their reception in those neighborhoods.
It doesn't help that some comunities don't like the police. Ignoring gang-controlled areas, you have a lot of areas where immigrants traditionally enter the city, and those immigrants are coming from lands where the authorities were corrupt, where law was controlled by the rich, and where it basically sucked to have to call in the police. When they come in they are already distrustful of any authority, and so they have learned to basically monitor themselves. However, in far too many areas you end up with a contnuation of the system from where they came, but in some cases worse as the new authorities are not only judge, jury, and executioner but also need to deal with justice on the spot as they lack any kind of jail. These areas have even less respect for authorities.
And there is the problem that police departments are attempting to change but are caught in the past: They are becoming more receptive to non-traditional solutions, and are actively working towards becoming more color-blind. Some are trying to figure out how to weed out potential problem recruits, while others are instituting programs in order to better educate their cops. In some areas beat cops are making a come back as precincts find that they are not only a great way to deter crime but work as part of a community outreach program. Other precincts are creating civilian oversight programs in order to deal with public relation problems. That's the good news.
However, there is a lot of bad news as well. Some precincts are having a problem finding enough recruits to fill slots, creating forces are too small for the area being enforced. Others are having to deal with communities that want their cops living in that community even as no one from that community wants to be a police officer. It doesn't help that some precincts are dealing with problems from the past, either that the community has lost faith in the police or never had any to begin with. It doesn't help that some precincts have a well-deserved reputation for violence that needs to squelched.
In summary, police and their communities need to come together in order to figure out how to solve the problem. This is not to say that both sides shold not be wary of the other, but at some point things will only happen if both sides put away the majority of their mistrust and start working together. They need to pull together as a community in order solve this problem, and until they do the problem will only get worse.
1) It takes a particular types of person to get involved with law enforcement and that type is usually more aggressive than the average person.
2) It doesn't help that it takes a particular type of person to be a criminal and that type of person is usually more aggressive than the average person, creating a fun time when the two of them clash.
3) If the most peaceful person tends to lose it occasionally under high stress, imagine how long it would take for that person to lose it when lives are constantly on the line.
4) Keep in mind that not all people are inclined to help the police, and think that it is their responsibility to obstruct the police, especially if they can help with an investigation. Some of these people are aggressive in their obstruction, which adds to the problem.
Combine all four liberally, and it gets weird. Of these problems, the only that can really change is the fourth, and if you can figure that one out, you woul see a major decrease in police violence. Note that I'm not pinning the fault exclusively on the civilian population; police need better training in how to handle their emotions and the hiring process needs to get better at weeding out problem recruits. Of course, that also means that police departments also need to increase recruitment in order to ensure that they have better choices as well. That would also go a long ways towards eliminating police violence.
On the civilian side, there are basically two sides to the conflict. The first is that the civilians needs to at least feel as if they have some control over the police; they need to have a voice in not only how the department is run but have the ability to see something done about their complaints. A civilian oversight board should be instituted in order to field those complaints as well as provide feedback to the police department; even if the board has no actual power it should nonetheless help provide a way for civilians to see what happened during an incident and for both the police and civilians to work towards a better way of doing things.
The other is that the standard vicious cycle needs closing. The issue is that certain neighborhoods feel as if the police don't like going to those neighborhoods and that the police treat them rougher than other neighborhoods; the police feel that it harder to investigate crimes in that neighborhood and that they are in danger in those neighborhoods. Adding to this is that cops often don't serve those neighborhoods as well as they do other, even as the cops find that cnducting an investigation in those neighborhoods is tough. While there is there no question that police need to serve those neighborhoods better, those in the neighborhoods need to help the police out; the police need to feel less on edge going into those areas, and a good part of that is their reception in those neighborhoods.
It doesn't help that some comunities don't like the police. Ignoring gang-controlled areas, you have a lot of areas where immigrants traditionally enter the city, and those immigrants are coming from lands where the authorities were corrupt, where law was controlled by the rich, and where it basically sucked to have to call in the police. When they come in they are already distrustful of any authority, and so they have learned to basically monitor themselves. However, in far too many areas you end up with a contnuation of the system from where they came, but in some cases worse as the new authorities are not only judge, jury, and executioner but also need to deal with justice on the spot as they lack any kind of jail. These areas have even less respect for authorities.
And there is the problem that police departments are attempting to change but are caught in the past: They are becoming more receptive to non-traditional solutions, and are actively working towards becoming more color-blind. Some are trying to figure out how to weed out potential problem recruits, while others are instituting programs in order to better educate their cops. In some areas beat cops are making a come back as precincts find that they are not only a great way to deter crime but work as part of a community outreach program. Other precincts are creating civilian oversight programs in order to deal with public relation problems. That's the good news.
However, there is a lot of bad news as well. Some precincts are having a problem finding enough recruits to fill slots, creating forces are too small for the area being enforced. Others are having to deal with communities that want their cops living in that community even as no one from that community wants to be a police officer. It doesn't help that some precincts are dealing with problems from the past, either that the community has lost faith in the police or never had any to begin with. It doesn't help that some precincts have a well-deserved reputation for violence that needs to squelched.
In summary, police and their communities need to come together in order to figure out how to solve the problem. This is not to say that both sides shold not be wary of the other, but at some point things will only happen if both sides put away the majority of their mistrust and start working together. They need to pull together as a community in order solve this problem, and until they do the problem will only get worse.
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