Good question

[supergee]

If you are so scared, why the hell are you the police?

Comments

[snippy]

I believe LEOs who claim fear should forfeit their extra pension and right to retire early, because they get those things for enduring that fear.

[amaebi]

Yes, you'd think it would count as a disqualification.

Particularly the biased fear.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Because if they answered honestly, they might actually be held responsible for murdering people, so they say what they know will get them off the hook.

Re: Well ...

[johnpalmer]

That's a bit too harsh - some of them may have panicked or been legitimately afraid, especially because modern firearms training pushes how much danger you're in. Some may have done something dumb, not believing there was immediate, imminent danger, but, a lot of people do dumb things in their first high stress/life or death situation. Some may have committed murder or manslaughter, too, if it can be proven.

But you do raise an extremely good point: they know what to say, and they're usually given plenty of time to think about what to say and how to say it. That's what makes lesser police brutality so easy to get away with. The victim of the assault is assumed to be making a self serving statement - but the officer's statement is not so assumed. Unless there is video or a confession, it's not likely that it'll result in charges or discipline.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>That's a bit too harsh - some of them may have panicked or been legitimately afraid, especially because modern firearms training pushes how much danger you're in. <<

Most police departments do train people to be afraid. It contributes to the problem. Those that provide good training do not have cops murdering their citizens. This makes me look down on the poor training and its results.

>>Some may have committed murder or manslaughter, too, if it can be proven.<<

The problem is, it doesn't have to be. Less than 1 in 100 police shootings goes to court. They don't even have to justify what they've done. And less than 1 in 100 get a conviction, because the process is stacked so heavily in favor of police, the favoritism they're given that nobody else gets.

I think every citizen death should have to be justified and police should be held to exactly the same standards as everyone else. Because what we have now isn't a police force, is a state-backed gang murdering people and getting away with it. The numbers are ghastly. And they're not just bad for people of color or anyone with a disability or a vagina the cops feel like fucking. Those problems mean people don't talk to police, sensibly, which means crimes don't get solved, which is then everyone's problem.

>>Unless there is video or a confession, it's not likely that it'll result in charges or discipline.<<

Video doesn't matter. We have video of police slowly strangling someone to death in broad daylight in public, using forbidden techniques, and they got away with it. They are above the law in the most literal way possible, and that's a problem.