SOMETHING was a common denominator making cops act like they do. Let's look at the difference. Back in the day when you got stopped for a traffic violation you got out of the car as a courtesy to the officer. It's called "sucking up." If you made it easy for the cop you just MIGHT get off with a warning. Telescope that to now. Unless you've been living under a big yellow rock for the last thirty years you KNOW that if you don't show your hands and announce in a loud voice that you are reaching for your wallet you might get shot and the Grand Jury will exonerate the officer WITH a raise and promotion. Now why is this?
One word; Training. It has become accepted that the American public is dangerous, out of control, and either drunk or drug addicted. And what is training? Training is the programming of conditioned responses. We all have those. Your very muscles learn, and memorize things. You don't think so? If you are right handed, just try to operate a combination lock you've owned for years with your left hand. You CAN do it, but you'll be amazed at how hard it really is. What training does is condition and fine tune the responses we already have. Now here's where it goes wrong.
First, let's admit that most police officers are not evil people, but they have been told that these over the top methods are what's needed to protect their life and safety. When you install a trigger that trigger will pull with the same force on any situation that fulfills the criteria pre-programmed by some instructor during police training. The frontal lobe of the brain goes into park, and the survival core goes into over drive. That's how cripples in wheel chairs get beat up in jail. That's how homeless men in the desert get shot for waving a pocket knife and then turning to walk away. That's how twelve year old boys get SHOT two seconds after the squad car pulls up for reaching for a toy gun!
I'm not saying that the police don't have a dangerous job, they do. What I am saying is that they have traded common sense for training. The training itself becomes a legal defense before a grand jury. "The officer followed all procedures correctly." How many times have you heard that crap?The right or wrong of the action goes right out the window. When six officers gathered around a homeless man on the ground and shot him, it's all good. They followed procedures. They were doing as instructed. We've seen this before. "I vas only following ordehs!"
And what are we doing while RoboCop is blowing the hell out of Suzie Sweetcheeks for jaywalking? We are kissing the glove, too afraid to even talk back! If you saw a hoodlum slam a teenage girl on the ground you'd probably find a brick and slam HIM on the ground. If you see a cop do the exact same thing you'd be afraid to even question his action. This reinforces the cop behavior. Every time they do this stuff, and don't get jacked they are assured the training worked. The training absolves all sin. What would happen if it were possible to bitch slap a cop for such actions and NOT do twenty years for assault on a peace officer. Ok, I hear all the jaws hitting the table. What would happen if just telling the jury that training was followed when you shotgunned a nun held no sway, but rather you had to explain where you put your brain that day?
Until we have those two things under control we will continue to see the atrocities like those in Cleveland, L.A. and Arizona. We have to stop just standing around with our cell phones making videos while cops do whatever they want. I don't believe Wyatt Earp ever beat up a teenage girl. I can't find one newspaper story saying that he shot one dog. I have read the coroner's report and I see no reference to one stray bullet hitting anyone not directly involved at the OK corral. But then, Wyatt wasn't a REAL police officer. He didn't have any TRAINING!
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