Quote Originally Posted by mraynrand View Post
I've heard the same thing from some southside cops. That, plus demographic prejudice can lead to some cops having hair triggers. It's a messy world. I wish I had a good answer how to de-escalate the rhetoric and the police encounters. Believe it or not, most cops don't want to shoot someone. But if they don't have the experience and wisdom to handle what seem to be tense but non-life threatening situations, they shouldn't be out there. The 'us or them' rhetoric doesn't seem to be helping.
I don't doubt that, as people, most cops don't want ever to be in the position of pulling the trigger and that many of those who do will be haunted or destroyed by the experience. But the culture and the training seem to be more powerful than the individual's conscience. David Couper, who became chief of the Madison PD in the midst of the student riots in the early 70s, had a real talent for calming heated situations. His take on current the current situation is that dialogue between police and community is impeded by cultural chasm. Police don't see themselves as public servants and don't want to listen to criticism or accept direction from the community because the community has never been in their shoes. He has some fairly specific recommendations for improving police-community relations in his book Arrested Development.