Re:To Make Police Accountable, End Qualified Immunity
by mirchibajji on Sunday May 31, 2020 @08:19PM
(#23374360)
I was with you until the last point. If someone is legitimately afraid of dogs, and deliberately go to a park where dogs have to be on leash, and someone shows up with a dog running around, and just don't listen to polite requests? What are they supposed to do? Out here in the UK, I wouldn't call the police (I'm not that bothered), but I can imagine it being a legitimate concern.
Re:To Make Police Accountable, End Qualified Immunity
by ryandrake on Monday June 01, 2020 @12:39AM
(#23375507)
As a general guideline, you shouldn’t call the police in the US unless it is serious enough that you are willing to risk having your situation be escalated into (sometimes deadly) violence. POSIWID.
I don't think you can convince a rural Montana rancher that their local Sheriff needs to be retrained because (as they likely see it) gang bangers in Chicago "force" police to be more heavy handed.
I'm all for incentivizing police to improve their own culture, but I'm cynical that it won't happen. I'm all for giving police more funding and better tools to do their job more politely, but they already chew up 40% of all local government spending.
I think the solution can't be "expect policing to change" and has to be something more like "change the policy and show America civilians how our policing expectations are broken".
Americans call the police because a dog is off-leash in a large grassy park. Until we figure out how to tolerate small infractions or at least deal with them without involving law enforcement, there will always be a risk of violence during escalation.