There's been a lot of talk these past couple months about race and police brutality. The latest incident being an unarmed homeless mentally ill man that was shot to death by members of the LAPD. Before we even get to the part where he might or might not have been reaching for a gun, I have to ask myself, it's multiple officers against one and they are not able to subdue him without shooting him to death? What are they even getting paid for? But, that's not the point of this diary.
We've heard a lot of things that could help and they've come particularly from one side of the issue. To me, there is a problem here. To others it may not be, and that's okay because everyone has a difference of opinion. Though, if you think there isn't a problem, I'd have no problem labeling you, as Wendy Williams would say "less than smart".
Body cams, separate prosecutors, separate departments in a whole to investigate one type of incident, harsher punishing. All have been recommendations to police forces as how we can begin to fix this problem. But this is only really showing one side of the issue, because it's only coming from one side of the issue.
Here's the definition of a conversation
Conversation: Conversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people.
Did I read that correctly? It says TWO people. If your on the side of having a family member being murdered then of course you would have some issues with that, and you would want to help so it does not happen again. If you are on the side of people constantly being oppressed, be it because you are black, Latino, or poor, of course you would have some issues with that, and you would want to help so it does not happen again.
Today I am specifically asking questions to the other side of this.
Police officers.
We need some type of input from you. We need some type of voice. Be it on dailykos, or in your daily life to people who criticize police. I'm asking do you have suggestions as to how we can solve this problem? And by suggestions I don't mean behaving like the NYPD did, in what I like to call, "showing their ass". I'm not asking for back turning, I'm not asking for a work slowdown, I'm not asking you to make beyond stupid remarks in public for some political gain.
I know there are police officers who visit dailykos. I'm personally asking you, or any retired police officer, or anybody who has police officers in their family, or friends of police officers, or anyone in some type of security job. I'm asking anyone who is as close to the other side as we can get. What do you want? Do you even think there is a problem? If so, can you think of any solutions as to how we can fix this problem? If so what are they? I'm asking because in order for the problem to be fixed we have to first have a conversation about the problem, which requires two people, or in this case, two side to one issue.
So, I'm asking you, police officers, what do you want?