The interesting thing about the riots, is that the protesting would be peaceful early on. Then you would have a handful of extremists come in and give the peaceful protestors a bad name. I really feel that these rioters hurt the cause they purport to support. The irony is that some of these rioters seemed to be these young woke white college kids that were from affluent and stable households. They would go and destroy many businesses and private property, many which belonged to African Americans. And they ruined the lives of many black Americans, all under the name of "racial justice". I never doubted that anyone at the Racket News were strongly opposed to rioting over the past summer.
The problem is that some people are so partisan/tribal that they push this either/or dichotomy. If you condemn the Capitol Hill lawlessness of 1-6, then you somehow are okay with the riots of the past summer. If you condemned the woke riots in Spring/Summer 2020, then somehow you are okay with storming the Capitol to overthrow an election. While I think the insurrection is significantly worse, due to the greater threat to our elected constitutional republic, it is completely possible to be thoroughly disgusted at both and not have to choose at the either for/against narratives as the fringe left and right would want use to do.
Since you aptly mentioned about the importance of body cameras, we have a way of objectively looking at every deadly or injury causing incident that occurs between civilians and cops. This is where objectivity and nuance are important. Many incidents are close calls, where a split-second meant the difference between a dead law enforcement officer and other innocent civilians, versus the death of the suspect. The slim perception-reaction time that cops face in these situations is what gives me a lot of respect for those had to make these split second decisions. Too often, many people draw conclusions that fit their desired narratives on both ends, when the truth often is a lot more nuanced and complicated. All too often, noncompliance by the apprehended results in unnecessary added duress to the situation, pushing the limit of a cop's perception-reaction time. Emphasizing lawful compliance is also helpful in reducing unnecessary deaths or injury. A combination of better expectations on both the police and civilians can go a long way for improving things.
Obviously, the bad cops should be held fully accountable for their bad deeds. In addition to what you said about qualified immunity, I think public sector unions, such as police unions, must be either done away with, or at the very least, heavily reformed. They are major reason why there are people in the law enforcement profession that don't belong there. A constructive solution would be to heavily boost the pay of law enforcement officers in addition to providing them top level training to give them more resources and know how in dealing with tough situations and close calls. With that higher pay, we can attract more to the profession, which will give more wiggle room to expect more from our good law enforcement officers while letting go of the not so good ones. Pay more, expect more seems like a win-win.
Along those lines, those 4 Capitol Police officers deserve a massive raise in their pay and benefits. They are among our very finest. Those in the MAGA crowd ridiculing and mocking these 4 ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's not "back the blue, no matter who", but more of "back the blue*" with the asterisk meaning "insurrections excepted".
Those might have been pepper balls fired at the observers on their porch: at the end of the clip, it looked more like the person was dusting something off.
The interesting thing about the riots, is that the protesting would be peaceful early on. Then you would have a handful of extremists come in and give the peaceful protestors a bad name. I really feel that these rioters hurt the cause they purport to support. The irony is that some of these rioters seemed to be these young woke white college kids that were from affluent and stable households. They would go and destroy many businesses and private property, many which belonged to African Americans. And they ruined the lives of many black Americans, all under the name of "racial justice". I never doubted that anyone at the Racket News were strongly opposed to rioting over the past summer.
The problem is that some people are so partisan/tribal that they push this either/or dichotomy. If you condemn the Capitol Hill lawlessness of 1-6, then you somehow are okay with the riots of the past summer. If you condemned the woke riots in Spring/Summer 2020, then somehow you are okay with storming the Capitol to overthrow an election. While I think the insurrection is significantly worse, due to the greater threat to our elected constitutional republic, it is completely possible to be thoroughly disgusted at both and not have to choose at the either for/against narratives as the fringe left and right would want use to do.
Since you aptly mentioned about the importance of body cameras, we have a way of objectively looking at every deadly or injury causing incident that occurs between civilians and cops. This is where objectivity and nuance are important. Many incidents are close calls, where a split-second meant the difference between a dead law enforcement officer and other innocent civilians, versus the death of the suspect. The slim perception-reaction time that cops face in these situations is what gives me a lot of respect for those had to make these split second decisions. Too often, many people draw conclusions that fit their desired narratives on both ends, when the truth often is a lot more nuanced and complicated. All too often, noncompliance by the apprehended results in unnecessary added duress to the situation, pushing the limit of a cop's perception-reaction time. Emphasizing lawful compliance is also helpful in reducing unnecessary deaths or injury. A combination of better expectations on both the police and civilians can go a long way for improving things.
Obviously, the bad cops should be held fully accountable for their bad deeds. In addition to what you said about qualified immunity, I think public sector unions, such as police unions, must be either done away with, or at the very least, heavily reformed. They are major reason why there are people in the law enforcement profession that don't belong there. A constructive solution would be to heavily boost the pay of law enforcement officers in addition to providing them top level training to give them more resources and know how in dealing with tough situations and close calls. With that higher pay, we can attract more to the profession, which will give more wiggle room to expect more from our good law enforcement officers while letting go of the not so good ones. Pay more, expect more seems like a win-win.
Along those lines, those 4 Capitol Police officers deserve a massive raise in their pay and benefits. They are among our very finest. Those in the MAGA crowd ridiculing and mocking these 4 ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's not "back the blue, no matter who", but more of "back the blue*" with the asterisk meaning "insurrections excepted".
Those might have been pepper balls fired at the observers on their porch: at the end of the clip, it looked more like the person was dusting something off.
Which just emphasizes the point about bad cops.