You also have to take into account that officers these days are under a lot of stress and flak when their job description is to literally protect and serve? Officers these days are in more danger than ever because the few who actually do their jobs are reprimanded for it, and then the people turn around complaining the cops don't do shit for them. No shit Sherlock, they are afraid of you guys crying wolf all the time. These riots are nonsense and the fact they even have the BALLS...to say that the police have no right to use military grade hardware is complete bull. Meanwhile poor officers getting betrayed and in some cases fired for doing the right thing...makes me mad. Not to say there are not bad eggs out there, news flash artards EVERY FIELD OF WORK HAS BAD EGGS. Let the police do their jobs and stop bringing race into everything. Hate to say it, really do, but some criminals have it coming. Don't matter if you are white, African American, Latino or other, you do a crime, you pay the price, period.
Anyways, my rant is over.
Eh, this is probably my California liberalism speaking, but I honestly don't think that cops should have military grade hardware or the ability to use deadly force on a whim. Yeah, sure, you could use the justification that they're needed for riots and for dangerous criminals, but for the former, if you have riots in your city you have bigger problems than not having the latest hardware; and for the latter, that's why I said on a whim. A cop shouldn't be able to pull out a pistol anytime they feel 'scared' about a situation, as if you have a scared person with a gun, they're probably gonna shoot somebody.
And as for 'protect and serve'? I don't think there's much of that around when a common reaction to a petty criminal trying to leg it is to shoot them in the back. Sure, you could go on about bad eggs being in every field of work, but I don't think my cashier being an asshole is gonna get somebody killed. And if police officers are getting fired for doing the right thing, that kinda leads me to think that there's more than just a few bad eggs.
And lastly, yeah, criminals do deserve what happens to them, but only if the punishment fits the crime. I don't think a magazine to the back is exactly the right punishment when the person's crimes amount to petty theft and running from a cop. Granted, I don't have to worry about that happening to me, because I'm white. But all my minority friends? They're 21 times more likely to get shot by a cop than I am
(Source). If race really didn't matter in the long run, than why is that so?
Anyways, that's my bit to say.
