Joe speaks out

[HarleyDog]

(05-30-2020, 07:16 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: As 2pac once said "and they say it's the white man I'm to fear, but it's my own kind doing all the killing here".

2pac would be considered racist by 2020 standards.

That said, since this isn't leaving JN, I guess I'll provide my meaningless opinion:

1. The Minnesota cop was 100% wrong (clearly). He's a murderer that deserves everything coming his way.

2. We can't use this as evidence that killings like this happen all the time. They just don't. Most of the time, the media reports instantly any death of a black man to a white cop. Often while jumping to conclusions with little to no evidence. Feeding this narrative that we have a massive amount of racist cops just running around gunning down every innocent black man they see.

One time an "unarmed black man" turned out to be a drugged out dude that tried to mow down cops with his car.

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To sum this up, I do think we have a problem. I do think we need new standards and reform of how cops are screened, trained, and how they are treated when they commit questionable (at best) killings.

No, I don't think it's as big a problem as the media (etc) portrays...and I do think it's a problem that requires people to be open to dialogue from all sides...without labeling people racist if they aren't 100% lockstep with the narrative of systemic racism and corrupt murderous/racist cops infesting every police department. That's just going to cause an us vs them mentality among all sides.

My daughter makes fun of me sometimes because I'm a white, 52yr old 2pac fan. I love some of his music, but not all. She loves his music as well, but anyway,

I applaud this post. I think police deal with a lot of emotional stress from the experiences of the job. I think the support lacks the position they are in. When we talk about first responders needing love, what scene is there usually not the police there first? Rather it be an accident, murder, fire or whatever? These guys see some serious heart and brain tugging events while on the job. Yet, they are expected to come to work everyday and continue doing what they are doing. They get spit on, punched, threatened (even families threatend) etc.

Cops in my little town make about $15 an hour, but they do it for a reason other than money. Just like soldiers make dog crap money but serve. Would $50 an hr change what happened? No it wouldn't. This dude messed up big time. He took a life and should be held accountable. I think we need to focus on 3 things. Police brutality, racism and emotional health of those we ask to do those things we either fear to do, or don't want to do. Theres no doubt in my mind there are many officers walking around doing the job with ptsd. That's something that should be addressed.

There's a song by Tim McGraw that I love called Humble and kind. It would be a miracle if we, as a people were able to think this way. But we are not able, we will have another bad story, and we will be sad because we didn't make the difference when given the chance. We have the power to do so if we talk and refuse to let hate come into the discussion.