New York Times Editorial on #Black Lives Matter- with comment chain

 New York Times Editorial on #Black Lives Matter
 
To discuss this issue productively it must be removed from partisan politics; beyond the vilification of the movement by Republicans and support by many Democrats there is a reality. Let's accept that there is a group pathology brewed of fear and power among many police departments. And we must also speak the unspeakable, that African American young men do commit more violent crimes than other groups. We are also the only country where by default, almost anyone may carry an instrument that can cause instant death in the time it takes for a policeman to approach a driver.
It is not politically possible to remove guns from our society, yet police are charged with engaging situations of potential lethal danger. I follow a website that endorses and has a majority of members of #blacklivesmatter. There is no toleration for comments such as I just wrote, and for those who agree with the conclusion of Eric Holder's department of Justice that Michael Brown did not have his hands up when shot is excoriated. In spite of extensive testimony and forensic evidence to the contrary, they believe as an article of faith that this young man was assassinated by the Ferguson Police Department.

Government police power is feared and hated by the extremes of left and of right. It's part of our DNA, but it's getting dangerous. We have tried zero tolerance and three strike out, and now are going in the other direction.

Partisan buzzwords only makes this worse.

AlRodbell.com

this is link

From: Kye

Washington, D.C. 54 minutes ago

 

Whether or not black males commit more violent crimes doesn't justify police brutality. Several recent incidents that attracted national attention show that many of these police officers have an "us v. them" mentality and could benefit for better training. For example, Walter Scott was shot in the back while running from a cop, Freddie Gray went into a paddy wagon alive and came out near death, Tamir Rice (a 12 year old) was shot dead by a cop for brandishing a toy gun, Eric Garner was choked to death while selling loosies. I could go on and on. The use tropes like "African American males commits more violent crimes", and presenting them as fact is unproductive and largely informed by popular television programs rather than actual statistics. Above all, it does not justify the deaths of innocent people.

Kye,
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In response to my comment you wrote, "Whether or not black males commit more violent crimes doesn't justify police brutality. Several recent incidents that attracted national attention show that many of these police officers have an "us v. them" mentality and could benefit for better training."

I fully agree with the above, yet the "us v. them" phenomenon is found in situations such as troops at war throughout history and controlled experiments where the dynamics are synthesized, such as found in a search of "Stanford prison experiment"  While this thread of research ended in the 1970s gives a depressing view of human propensity of lack of empathy, they provide clues on how to dissect the combination of rules and personality traits of those in authority to mitigate this major social problem.

AlRodbell.com