Officer Going Down

This should probably be called in...

When flipping through images this one immediately stuck out.  I mean, after watching all the protests against police brutality what else was I going to see in these images.  Police disciplinary action. 

The story is... well, its shakey.  I'm trying to walk a fine line between commenting on a serious issue and how to tackle it and making something both sexy and funny.  I'm not sure that line can be met, but at the very least I can speak about the issue that gave me the impitus behind this cap. 

Fair warning, if you don't want to read political, discriminatory, or current event topics, stop reading now. 






















You've been warned.  First, I don't see how there's two sides to this.  Racism is wrong.  Full stop, that's it.  W R O N G.  There's going to be a lot of topics covered in various amounts of nuance, but if you can't agree with "Racism is wrong" then please just leave this blog.  I don't want you here and I don't want to make you feel good.  Ever. 

So, that's the only thing here that's full on right vs wrong.  Everything else there can be two sides to it as you give more specific examples.  Police brutality, protests, riots.  These all have various shades of gray and I don't fall down on once side or the other fully. 

Let's take police brutality.  My opinion is going to be colored as I work in a prison system.  I work where officers... un-armed officers... control a population of inmates that outnumber them more than ten to one.  And yet control is maintained.  If you think that the inmates never perpetrate or threaten violence on officers or other employees, then you're dreaming.  These men and women maintain their control through training and respect.  They use force proportional to the force being used against them.  No higher.  I don't know how they define each and every step but if an inmate is not threatening death or great bodily harm, then they are not allowed to use techniques which are likely to cause death or great bodily harm.  And yes, they know those techniques with just their hands, tasers, and pepper spray. 

Here's an example:  If an inmate is speaking disrespectfully to an officer and refusing to follow an order, the officer will not even touch his taser or pepper spray.  That would be a threat of harm and the inmate hasn't even threatened that.  IF an officer even THREATENED an inmate in that situation by putting his hand on his taser, that officer would be in for severe disciplinary action up to and including termination. 

Now, correctional officers on the inside are not police officers on the outside.  But it's not because they know that all inmates are convicted felons because that doesn't mean that any inmate has a history of violence or is even capable of violence.  They can't assume that the inmate doesn't have a weapon as just about anything can be turned into a weapon.  I don't know what the necessary differences is, but I can tell you that the officers I work with deal with many situations that are similar to those that we see happen on television.... and if my officers acted like those officers, they'd be canned.  Putting your knee on someone's neck?  Why?  There are more effective means to keep someone down with far less of a chance of causing harm.  And once the 'perp' or 'inmate' stops struggling, why is the officer continuing to use any force?  Choking out someone?  Nope, that's not allowed.  Ignoring pleas for help or medical assistance?  Nope, they'll call a nurse just like a police officer can call an ambulance. 

So, I have a very low tolerance for police behaving badly.  Combine that with historic and ongoing systemic racism and you have a fucking powder keg.  I could give police the benefit of the doubt in many of these cases, but after whats been shown incident after incident, year after year, they have done nothing to earn that benefit.  And just consider, how many thing like this are happening and we never hear about them?  How many of these incidents occurred before cell phone videos, dash cams, and body cams have immortalized the bad behavior to video? 

The police need to be reigned in.  I respect the job that they want to do, but their training is lacking and their system of doing their job is faulty at best.  Yes, there are immense numbers of "Good Cops" out there, but they work in a system that sets them up for these acts and encourages them to protect each other.   They need to be reigned in.  I don't know how that can or should be done, but I know it CAN be done and NEEDS to be done. 

Protesting... I wrote about protesting over at my other blog.  And yes, I considered this as a write up for the other blog, but I wanted it out here where it could catch some more eyes.  It's more about the patriotism of protesting during the national anthem, but it's still relevant as I just don't understand why people dislike protests.  If you group them into violent acts, then you don't know the difference between protesting and rioting. 

When I see a group of like minded people get together and talk (...or march, or block streets and preach, or sit in public areas...) I can find no fault with them.  They are voicing their opinion on subjects that are important to them.  They are demanding my and other people's attention and have something to say.  It seems to me that the responsible thing to do would be to stop and listen.  Maybe their grievance has merit.  Maybe it's something I haven't heard of.  Maybe it's something I've never considered because I haven't experienced it.  Maybe I can learn something. 

Or I can call them selfish and deride them for protesting and just assume I know everything and can't learn anything from anybody anywhere. 

Me?  I'm a learner.  So I just don't understand how people can be against protesting.  If you are against it, I'd love to hear from you.  I'd love to learn. 

And finally riots. 

Man... I'm lost on this one.  On the one hand, I abhor violence when it can be prevented.  Thats violence against person or property, so yes I shun the burning of cars or buildings.  When I see the peaceful protesters and then see the violent ones, I cant' help but think that they are from different groups.  In this current protests/riots, I've heard it's Antifa as they are violent and would support the #BlackLivesMatter movement.  I've heard it's white supremacists sneaking in to give the protests a bad name.  I've heard its just more extreme people that are venting their frustration and rage in an inappropriate matter. 

But then I heard this on "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver".  If you want to watch a lot of information about police after all these protests started, then by all means watch the entire show (I think it's awsome that HBO allows this to be available for free on YouTube!).  But the part I want you to hear about violence and rioting is at the end.  Skip to 31 minutes and 55 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4cea5oObY

It's only a minute and a half of her speaking, but damn it... I'm ready to go help them burn it all down. 

These are all very complex subjects with a lot of nuance.  No, I don't want the police to go away.  No, I don't think protests to happen anywhere and shut down a city.  No, I don't want there to be violence in the streets.  But I do want police reform, I do want protests to occur undeterred,and I do... at times... want to burn it all down. 

I'll return to my forced femme corner and start working on a new story or maybe a new cap.  That's it... I just wanted to get that off my chest.