Four LEOs fatally shot

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(07-08-2016, 09:41 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Even if there wasn't a race angle being highlighted there would be another one. People killing other people. Police get so much attention because they have authority. The citizens of this country want them to be held to a higher standard, to be perfect, but we are all humans and no one is perfect. No matter whether the angle is race, gender, religion, ethnicity, whatever, it boils down tot he police having authority and power and when people are killed by police in ways that are seen by the public as questionable it is going to create a backlash because it is seen as an abuse of that power.

How we fix this, I don't know. There are a lot of theories out there, a lot of ways LE agencies around the country, and really the world, try to do community outreach to make it so there isn't so much tension. But because they have that authority, that power, any minor slip up is magnified in the minds of those that feel a commonality to those that are the victims. And that isn't to say the use of deadly force unnecessarily is a minor slip up, just saying that even minor slip ups are magnified, so situations like those as of late are even more tumultuous.

Edit to add: I am not saying they don't deserve a high level of scrutiny, because anyone given the authority they have by the state should be under scrutiny, I am just explaining why this becomes such a heated topic.

"How we fix this...."
I saw a couple interesting pieces yesterday advocating police departments following the fire department model. Firefighters don't patrol for fires, they are called and respond to them. The idea was to end police patrols which so often lead to people feeling harassed for doing nothing or for very low level crimes and just have police respond when called. I thought the idea seemed to have some merit - maybe a thread is already here for it or should be... I have only been on the MB a few minutes today...