MICHAEL DAVIS: Keith Knight Speaks For Me, Here

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1. You know how people (usually those not in the group being talked about) say “How come those people try to get the ones acting up and perpetuating those negative sterotypes to stop doing it, so there will be less “proof” that it’s not just a stereotype”?

   Problem is, most groups that people say that about don’t all get together and have meetings. There’s never a chance to say, “Hey, Luigi, cut it out with all the spaghetti eating, you’re making us all look bad”

   But here’s the thing.

   POLICEMEN DO.

   They meet every morning in their precincts, and they’re all members of a national organization dedicated to helping them work together.

   Of course, exactly what work they’re trying to do together is sometimes not that which we want them to do, but hey, bitter with the sweet.

   I don’t know if having more diverse, representative police forces is the answer. For a lot of people, something happens when you put on that uniform, regardless of who you are.

   Greater accountability is part of the solution. Cameras, worn by the police and carried by the public, make it very hard to play the “your word against mine” game. The footage shared globally via the internet needs to be given weight in the investigations.

   But largely, I think we need a change in mindset. There’s got to be a point where police realize they are partially culpable in creating a society that views the police as at best an inconvenience, and at worst an opposing force, and makes an effort to do something about that. Just as civilians should return to the assumption that the police are there to start stuff and get you, the police need to do the same. The level of potential threat when making a drug bust is not the same as stopping a shoplifter. They don’t both need the same level of force, and odds are neither (o at least very few of the former) need a tank.

   I likely won’t get an argument if I say the onus is on the police to disarm and calm down first.

   We’re past the point of “Well, he shouldn’t have fought back”. When snotty white kids act up, they get tickets, phone calls to parents, and on rare occasions, epic YouTube videos.

   You know what black kids get.

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   1. Yeah. I know.

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