BuzzSteem: Police Brutality
Hi guys!
So, as many of you know, I was training to be a police officer, and life somewhat got in the way. Since then, in my own neck of the woods, officers have been in a debacle in Mesa after videos were released of them brutalizing an unarmed suspect.
I have friends that work for Mesa police, and they would never act like this.
Why then, are there so many instances of police brutality?
Well to put it bluntly: Meatheads.
The police testing system is designed for men to pass, and not just men, but really strong, fit men.
But Beth, there is a written test as well. Surely this is something put in place to prevent just strong, unintelligent people from becoming police.
Well yes and no. When I took my police test, I rushed through it and got an 85%. A lot of the questions are based on memory recall, which I admittedly suck at. But guess what? Exceptions are made if you have even a basic learning disability, or at least say you do. They will give you a 15% credit on your test if you tell them you are dyslexic or have trouble reading, etc. You don't even have to prove it, you just have to tell them.
You only need a 70% to pass. So someone who scored a 55% on a fairly simple exam could still get in to the police, especially if their physical skills are exemplary.
Ya know what they don't make exceptions on?
Physical testing.
So if you are a tiny female and struggle with getting over a 6 foot wall, fuck you.
If you can't bench press half your weight, or do 33 situps in a minute, fuck you.
If you are intelligent, level-headed, don't want to just beat the shit out of people, but struggle a bit in the area of fitness, fuck you.
And these agencies consistently are perplexed at how much brutality there is.
Who exactly do they think they are going to come out for these jobs? Certainly not the people they decry they need most.
I personally think the police could do well with more women.
See, the issue is that so few women qualify, that the ones who do are immediately swooped up off the beat in order to fill other positions. (Either lush desk jobs as administration for "equality visibility" or special unit jobs that require women.)
Either way, few women remain on the beat, and that's where the first line is. That is who you see in these videos. That is who goes out on a call in the instance of domestic violence, robberies, assault and reports of erratic behavior.
In the event that state-militarism could be abolished altogether, that would be awesome.
Since that is seemingly a lifetime away, I am a fan of practical solutions, and I think if the police force can lower the bar on intelligence, they could stand to not be such strict enforcers of having to clear slippery 6 foot walls.
Let me know what you think in the comments!
Stay Steemy My Friends!
- Beth
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The police has never ever helped me for anything when I needed them. They have only served to extort me every single time. Fuck them ALL very much. They are only servants to the thiefs of the government. They are only there to collect fines and abuse of their 'power'. Again fuck them all very much.
100% this
Every time I called the police they didn't do jack shit and I could have saved my time.
They don't even care about enforcing the law here in Germany if it doesn't fit their agenda or if they are lazy.
Are you ok?
So you believe that more women in the police force will cause less occurrences of police brutality because...women handle situations differently? You'd be better off arguing for changing the way police officers are trained than making a weak gender-based argument.
Well it's not just a "belief" actually, but the words of many chief officers around the country, including a few at trainings I attended at my own city's police headquarters.
There are also dozens of articles like this one with a simple google search:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/02/how-more-female-police-officers-would-help-stop-police-brutality/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2f0020f62cc0
Training has actually very little to do with how officers respond. It is completely reasonable for officers to be able to defend themselves if they are threatened physically, and to use lethal force if their life is in danger.
As many know though, police brutality has little to do with this, and the officers that are in the wrong aren't following training.
Do you really think officers are trained to beat the shit out of people? Give me a break.
The problem is who these departments are hiring. And in this instance my "weak, gender-based argument" is perfectly valid. The perfect candidate for a Phoenix Police Officer is someone who can barely pass a written test but then can make up for it in sheer brute strength.
Women are different than men. They aren't built the same way, and they aren't driven the same way. It is statistically improbable to find a woman who would go into a school and shoot a bunch of people, or rape little boys and then kill and bury them to later be known as a serial killer. Women are typically not the ones involved in bar brawls, they aren't cartel leaders, they aren't responsible for the majority of gang violence, and they aren't the stars of these videos beating the shit out of people. It's statistics dude, it's not a weak argument.
Female officers are typically tiny, cross-fit types in order to pass these physical exams. So pray do tell me, why aren't women the ones, in fear of their lives, who are mowing down unarmed civilians all the time?
Why is it big, burly men doing that?
Could it be that women have a different mindset and approach to situations making them more suitable to handling said situations?
Just as the article states, women have a different approach to policing, which is anti-authoritarian in nature, and that is important.
Some people love the police, because they want to protect people from dangerous things. Some people do not like police anymore. They may disguise themselves as police, continue to beat people at will, their goal is to damage the reputation of the police. So people hate the police.
Have a good day @bethwheatcraft
This is an interesting perspective. I think primarily the reason why the police have so many confrontational issues has to do with it being a paramilitary organization. More women officers would offer different perspectives and alternative to deescalate situations, but that would only put a dent in overcoming the "us vs. them" mentality along with the institutionalized discrimination (I mean the L.A. SWAT team was invented for the sole purpose of keeping low income non whites in their neighbourhoods).
More importantly we need women AND men of all different backgrounds on these police forces. Unfortunately the very same people we need more of in the police, more often than not grow up mistrusting and resenting them and want to disassociate with them altogether. We don't invest in crime prevention...rather we profited by creating a system aimed at controlling minorities and are reactive to crime. Until some of our inequalities have be leveled out (unfair first drug offense arrests, racial profiling etc.) we will continue to see those headlines you despise.
You are right though, there are not nearly enough efforts to hire intelligent officers with negotiating skills in addition to physical strength. And honestly, I believe it is because no one in power wants to invest in breaking down the criminal justice systems to even the odds.
I don't have all the answers to solving this problem because it's basically a drug-resistant metastasized cancer on an elephant living near a toxic waste dump-- there's no one reason for the problem and many attempts to cure have not been fruitful.
Here in Germany you have cities with only female police officiers, when I saw this I knew this would be a great place to live in.
Why? Because there is no hard crime.
It was a traditional small German town surrounded by nature.
Anyway, here in Germany you don't need to be strong and smart to join the police. In fact, you can be 1.60m tall, weak, and don't know shit (the state wants to keep control at all times so they want us stupid).
After all the police men and women are just puppets of the state. Little brainwashed soldiers that enforce the law.
And the law is just the will of the elite to oppress the people.
The more you understand in regards to who controls the world the more you understand that civilization is not for people that prefer freedom over "security".
I cannot give you an answer to your question at hand because I do not support something that just enforces the will of the state aka the elite few whose only interest is $$$. For that they enslave their own people.