I’ve stayed away from writing about Fergusson, not because I don’t think there is a real problem with our local police departments and bigotry but because I didn’t think that the two victims being ballyhooed by press and public were not worthy of being lionized for their misdeeds. Neither Eric Garner nor Michael Brown deserved to be shot to death for their misdemeanors but to make either a hero is just wrong. Both were punks. Neither deserved to die, but both instigated their own demise. From that point on, the police in both instances were dead wrong.
What got us to this very necessary place was probably a combination of circumstances; the media, hungry for a sensational story and a public that has just taken enough. Unfortunately they had neither the patience nor the foresight to wait for the right victim, one around whom not just the emotional segment of society but also the thoughtful segment might rally. The child who was shot in Cleveland just a few weeks later and whose shooting is being all but ignored would have been the perfect martyr but unfortunately he came too late to the scene. The current heroes of the movement are not exactly the stuff of which martyrs are made.
The little Asian man who was seen being bullied and stolen from by Brown, may not wish him dead but he probably wouldn’t have objected to Brown’s sustaining a couple of flesh wounds.. Garner, even as described by his wife was a punk, too lazy to work for a living, known to everyone in his area as a petty criminal. He didn’t deserve to die but he was grossly overweight which probably led as much to his heart attack as the chokehold that didn’t look that much like a serious choke hold on the video. “I can’t breath,” could have been as much a result of his having a heart attack, as it was that he was being choked. You don’t say anything eleven times if someone has you in a real chokehold. You can’t. But that’s all for those who have a much more intimate knowledge of the situation than this writer.
Regardless of the anecdotal circumstances, this is a real problem in our country and it has to be dealt with and right away. Black mn and boys are being killed all over the nation by white policemen while the likes of Cliven Bundy can stand his ground and have his punks point weapons at federal marshals with no retribution. There are only two conclusions that can be drawn from this situation. Bundy was white so it’s okay or the Feds are afraid of him and his skinhead followers. Neither is acceptable.
There has been a whole wagonload of solutions including federal prosecutors, more integrated police departments, suspensions or firings for any officer involved in any incident anything like the ones that occurred or even far lesser incidents and all of them have some validity, but there is really only one solution and it’s education and training.
Police work can be dangerous although it is mostly boring and the pay scales across the country while differing vastly are mostly no more than average. Most departments require only a high school education, although many will help with higher education if the officer qualifies. So you’ve go mostlyt a mid-level labor pool, usually in need of more education and training than they get. In addition you find fundamental, societal influences that in most areas will have a negative effect on their job performance. Because they are basically a paramilitary organization, police bring with them, the understandable, us against them, syndrome taught to every high school athletic team in the nation.
All these influences, along with individual prejudicial preferences, tend to work against efficient and functional police work. Add to that the natural instincts that come into play in occasions of stress and violence and it’s no wonder that we have incidents like Fergusson and Staten Island. Given these conditions and influences it takes a very well trained person to react the way we expect, in fact demand, for our own protection and for society’s stability.
Our police forces are just not being given that sort of training at this time and without it they will continue to fail in both their duty and our expectations. The answer to the problem is not in proper prosecution of the cop after he’s shot some kid, the answer is in proper training to keep him from shooting the kid. Proper prosecution doesn’t help the dead kid. Proper training may keep him from getting dead.
What we need, right now, is a universal standard of police training that allows for those men and women who we send out into the streets, carrying guns to have the background to know how and when, not to use them