So many thoughts on this one. It's true that there's good and bad people in every organisation, not just police. It's also true that good people sometimes make bad mistakes (Not saying the police officer was good - 18 complaints against him for excessive use of force in 20 years). And that bad people win when good people do nothing (18 complaints - and was still in the force?). But they are all platitudes. They solve no problems.
The problem is bigger than the wrong people, or the wrong training. It's a problem that's been multi-generational, systemic, and it's fairly core to human psychology.
Start with the Stanford Prison Experiment. 21 one people - pre-vetted, just like police are pre-vetted, to have no mental health issues, or personality disorders, divided into either guards or prisoners. And within a day:
"According to the lore that’s grown up around the experiment, the guards, with little to no instruction, began humiliating and psychologically abusing the prisoners within twenty-four hours of the study’s start."
Bear in mind, these prisoners don't even fill your typical stereotypes of your violent criminals. The prisoners were not tattooed, muscle bound, or particularly anti-establishment with attitude. in fact, any history of crime, or any indication of anti-social behaviours from the vetting ruled you out.
That's the baseline for our our absolute best case, without proactive training to stop the abuse.
But then throw in a mix of truth and myths, and you get what we have here. That black men are more likely to commit violent crimes, that a lot of cops die in the line of duty. That there's an us versus them mentality between the black community and police. How much is racism, and how much is true? Are there stats on whether police killings are more likely to be committed by a person of colour? (I genuinely don't know).
But even if it is pure racism, who is to blame - the person? Or movies, who almost always portray black men as the criminals? Or music? You think of white musicians, and you think of people like Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles, whose songs mostly deal with love and romance. You think of black musicians, and you think 50 cent and 2pac - mostly about the hard life, drugs, and f*** the cops. Yeah, sure, there are some exceptions like Eminem and Usher, but they do tend to be the exception, not the rule.
The brain uses short cuts - even more so in stressful situations. Even in your own life, you don't know if a person is going to be nice or bad. You're walking through a bad part of town and hear someone behind you. You see a person, how can you make a judgement? Are they bigger than you? How are they dressed? What's the expression on their face? How do you know little Tiffany isn't going to murder you?
"Then I saw little Tiffany, thinking 8 year old white girl, middle to ghetto, this time of night with a bunch of monster, quantum physics books... She about to start some shit" (Will smith in Men in Black, if you haven't seen it):
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Anyway, under stress, police do use mental short cuts. "This guy is bigger than me", "This guy is in a hoodie, not a suit", yes, even "This guy is young, and black". Not saying kneeling on someone's neck for 9 minutes is part of this response, but it certainly is cases like Phillando Castile.
Speaking of which, throw in the 2nd amendment. Not a problem by itself, but so that there are MANY more guns, both legal and illegal, so that the police don't know if you're reaching for a wallet or reaching for a gun. Some criminals will always be able to get their hands on a gun. No question. But where it's very hard to get one, like in the UK and Australia, only serious criminals like mid to high tier drug dealers and senior members of bikie gangs have them. Police mostly only expect guns to be pulled on them when doing planned raids, not routine traffic stops. In the US, it seems that it's always a possibility. Even in the nicer parts of Minneapolis, when a young white woman is coming up to your car apparently...
And so we give police bigger weapons and better armour - military grade in some instances, so they have a better chance against the criminal who is carrying. Put in training that a suspect has to be "Secured", even if they aren't carrying, and you get training in choke holds and other dangerous moves.
Now add politicians who declare a "war on crime" and you complete the "us vs them" mentality.
I had a lot more to say, but this is long enough, and I have a work meeting to attend. Anyway, my point is that there won't be a resolution to these riots for the foreseeable future. At best, they can provide police better training to avoid the more preventable ones like George Floyd. For the rest, unless American culture changes, it will only ever be a fine balance between protecting police, and protecting the public from jumpy police.
