This will be a difficult—and potentially fraught—article to write. I’ve been putting it off for a while, and for perfectly good reasons. One, I prefer to keep things on the lemonade side of life here at Cappuccino. Two, I have a visceral loathing of all brute-force authority, including cops. Three, all my love and empathy and support belongs to people of color, especially those who’ve been victimized by law enforcement. Four, it’s a weighty subject, and one that I feel ill-qualified to discuss.
Hi, in possible solutions you've overlooked the main one:
Gun control.
There are a myriad of places, mostly in nature, I'd love to see in the US.
I have no doubt though that I most likely never will. I simply don't want to be in a society where a large part of the population is insane with their love of guns.
The US needs to spend more money on police and populous for education,
First cop I ever had a conversation with was an E-6, a Staff-Sergeant, when I was in the army. We became friends in part because we discovered we both loved history and playing Avalon Hill wargames. One day, at of nowhere that I can recall, he looked over at me and said, "I only carry ONE offensive weapon." At which point he pulled out his pen and clicked it several times.
A woman I dated for many years (we're still friends) Brother in Law was one of the top homicide detectives in Chicago. Those folks all dress in cheap clothes (we're talking Ross is a step up for them), not because they want to or can't afford better. Neither of those claims is true. Rather, it is because that BiL had an incinerator in his back yard, and at least once a year his wife would have to burn everything he'd been wearing that day because of the stench.
I once had to deal with a dead body. It was a goat. I had to hoik it into the wheel barrow, then cart it off to the woods behind the barn. A simple run through the washer was enough for my clothes.
Super interesting, well written article! I also live in Italy, and it is interesting to note that the Italian police force has two branches: the police, and the carabinieri you mentioned above. The latter having military status and there mostly to ensure public safety.
Yes, gun control is huge. In virtually every city, cops are outgunned by the very people they're supposed to police. Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight.
I do agree that if we truly want cops to be successful, they must be paid more, more must be expected of them (within reason), and- most importantly- more training and sub-lethal means of apprehension must be available for use. A cop is never a substitute for a mental health professional; yet how often is an officer armed only with a gun and their wits dispatched to deal with someone in the midst of a legitimate mental health crisis? How can you de-escalate something you've never been trained to address?
As a society, we also have to lose the expectation that a cop must be absolutely 110% perfect each and every time out. They're every bit as human as we are...but we don't see our actions and reactions analyzed, parsed, and broken down by the millisecond. As a former military police officer who dealt with nothing remotely close to what today's police deal with, I can't begin to imagine or appreciate the stress they operate under every single day.
We need to recognize that being a police officer is a uniquely, terribly, and often horrifically difficult and stressful job. We should be providing training and mental health care sufficient to the task of ensuring that cops aren't returned to their families irretrievably broken after their 20 years are up.
As for seeing death up close and personal day in and day out...how many of us could do that without being driven completely fucking nuts? I'd submit that damned few of us would emerge unscathed.
Hi, in possible solutions you've overlooked the main one:
Gun control.
There are a myriad of places, mostly in nature, I'd love to see in the US.
I have no doubt though that I most likely never will. I simply don't want to be in a society where a large part of the population is insane with their love of guns.
The US needs to spend more money on police and populous for education,
especially on nonviolent conflict resolution.
First cop I ever had a conversation with was an E-6, a Staff-Sergeant, when I was in the army. We became friends in part because we discovered we both loved history and playing Avalon Hill wargames. One day, at of nowhere that I can recall, he looked over at me and said, "I only carry ONE offensive weapon." At which point he pulled out his pen and clicked it several times.
A woman I dated for many years (we're still friends) Brother in Law was one of the top homicide detectives in Chicago. Those folks all dress in cheap clothes (we're talking Ross is a step up for them), not because they want to or can't afford better. Neither of those claims is true. Rather, it is because that BiL had an incinerator in his back yard, and at least once a year his wife would have to burn everything he'd been wearing that day because of the stench.
I once had to deal with a dead body. It was a goat. I had to hoik it into the wheel barrow, then cart it off to the woods behind the barn. A simple run through the washer was enough for my clothes.
Super interesting, well written article! I also live in Italy, and it is interesting to note that the Italian police force has two branches: the police, and the carabinieri you mentioned above. The latter having military status and there mostly to ensure public safety.
I hope your IFM is doing well!!
All cops are bastards and so are you, sympathizer
Yes, gun control is huge. In virtually every city, cops are outgunned by the very people they're supposed to police. Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight.
I do agree that if we truly want cops to be successful, they must be paid more, more must be expected of them (within reason), and- most importantly- more training and sub-lethal means of apprehension must be available for use. A cop is never a substitute for a mental health professional; yet how often is an officer armed only with a gun and their wits dispatched to deal with someone in the midst of a legitimate mental health crisis? How can you de-escalate something you've never been trained to address?
As a society, we also have to lose the expectation that a cop must be absolutely 110% perfect each and every time out. They're every bit as human as we are...but we don't see our actions and reactions analyzed, parsed, and broken down by the millisecond. As a former military police officer who dealt with nothing remotely close to what today's police deal with, I can't begin to imagine or appreciate the stress they operate under every single day.
We need to recognize that being a police officer is a uniquely, terribly, and often horrifically difficult and stressful job. We should be providing training and mental health care sufficient to the task of ensuring that cops aren't returned to their families irretrievably broken after their 20 years are up.
As for seeing death up close and personal day in and day out...how many of us could do that without being driven completely fucking nuts? I'd submit that damned few of us would emerge unscathed.