Have The Police Admitted There Is A Problem Yet?

[Yallow]

Until one admits there is a problem, you can't begin recovery.

I feel the police (nationwide) should acknowledge they need to do all they can to stop senseless killing of citizens.

Make a public statement, and (far more) outreach to affected groups. Many departments have done a fairly good job already, and need to keep it up, and do more and more and more. Then you have Pasco Washington..... The police execution capitol of the world.

Now for the rest of the story. It must be hard as hell being a policeman with so many armed (and angry or scared) citizens. They have to look at every person as someone armed, angry, and ready to shoot at them. People unhappy with the violence need to understand many folks who get shot leave officers no choice. That's just a fact. There are 300 million guns in America, and every policeman thinks everyone they deal with has one. They have to in order to stay alive.

We as a society need to find ways to make changes in so many areas, it is not all the fault of police. They are actually in charge of collecting taxes (fines/tickets) to help run their towns in many areas. I also know too many people that are so angry, and beaten down they look at life different then I do, and we need to give them hope, and a future other than prison.

Good luck America.

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/05/462017461/guns-in-america-by-the-numbers

[Moostache]

1. Mutual reciprocation is mandatory.

The police bear a responsibility to confront the "thin blue line" mentality and challenge the bad actors among their ranks, to internally enforce standards of behavior that de-escalate situations instead of employing attack dog mentality in interactions with the public.

The public can then reciprocate by supporting the officers' attempts to thin their herd of racists and unfit members and acknowledge that of course not ALL police are bad, just as not ALL police are not good either.

I have a real problem with the concept of automatic benefit of the doubt to anyone.

There are officers who deserve praise and respect for their daily sacrifices and impeccable service records and bravery above and beyond the call of duty. There are also officers that should be stripped of their badge and gun and imprisoned for conduct unbecoming a mafia button man. Somewhere in between, and hopefully skewed FAR to the former and away from the latter, lies the majority of police. Good men and women dealing with a difficult job, underpaid and underappreciated by a society obsessed with praising the wealthy and material. The stress and grind of the job are beyond my comprehension, but I see something in the behavior of police - like the ones in St. Paul refusing to work security at the Minnesota Lynx game because the players dared to show solidarity with BLM and ALL of the tragically deceased last week - that speaks volumes of their collective mindset that must change.

There cannot be progress though as long as the unwritten rule in policing is that the police are always right and no officers should make it easier to weed out the problems from their own ranks. If the police continue to protect their own through lax investigations and minimal punishment for misdeeds and misconduct, then there cannot be a true period of healing. The first step to correcting a problem is admitting there IS a problem to address.