Interacting with Police

I recently made a post, but this has to be shared. I also recently made the mistake of commenting on a political-leaning post on Facebook, reminding me why I use this as my outlet instead of Facebook. The post I commented on involved a Black couple talking to their child about how to interact with police. They essentially were telling him to be submissive to police, put  his hands in the air and do as the officer says, even if the child (teen I would guess) does not understand what the officer wants and to not question if he becomes confused. I made the comment that the parents should be teaching their child to start with respect for police and that should help in most situations. While I understand this could sound naive, it feels more like a solutionist (if that wasn't a word before, I'm making it one) answer, than total submission EVEN IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND something the officer has said. I feel that is just as likely to lead to disaster than finding a way to politely ask the officer to repeat or clarify their statement. This does not invalidate, or deny that there are bad cops out there who are not worth their badge. If the officer is worth their badge they should be willing to work with people so that there are no shootings, there can be miscues from both sides though. Total submission without questions or even trying to stand up for your own rights is not going to change the situation, and more likely to put the officer on edge. I ask you, the reader (assuming you exist), to place yourself briefly in the shoes of the officer, the shoes that seem to me to be the most ignored. You are trained to read body language, and to look for threats because you need to be able to respond in a quick manner to protect yourself and/or others involved. You see a person, pulled over for broken tail light, place their hands up as if you are already pointing the gun at their head, or they remove themselves from the vehicle and lay on the ground with their hands on the back of their heads. What does this tell you? They aren't asking any questions, not even the standard "what seems to be the problem officer?" Do you try to reassure them? How do you go about it? Do you become suspicious because this person seems to be acting in a guilty manner? This is not saying that racial profiling isn't a thing, but does it only come from the officers? Does it come not just because the officers are biased, but because parents truly do have that type of conversation with their children and the person you have pulled over for a broken tail light believes that you are going to treat them unfairly, and possibly shoot them for something they probably didn't know about, and had no control over? Did this person's friends and family instill such a fear of officers that they immediately fear for their safety and are dong this in an attempt to get home alive? Cooperation is one thing, but submission seemed to be the message. I couldn't find a good wording to search for this picture, but I'm sure if you try you can find it. I'm sorry I don't have it in the post.
As stated in previous posts, I used to work in therapeutic group homes (I now work at a hospital), and the large majority of my group home kids were Native (I live in the Western US, this is our main minority group, followed by Hispanic/Latino). These children were taught practically from birth that police were bad, it caused them to be more defiant with officers, or to be terribly frightened of them. They would look to us the staff before interacting with the officers, as if they needed to know that it was alright for them to say anything.
What I want people to try is respect first. If the cop is worth his/her badge, that officer will work with you, regardless of race (I would hope, I understand this isn't always going to be the case), and if they are not worth their badge, they would probably have given you a hard time, no matter what you did. I hate to think that there are that many police officers who are not worth their badge, but we all know that the media is about the most biased thing outside of Congress. Spread respect, I know that it's slightly different for everyone, but try some general kindness like please/thank you, if you have to reach for something in your purse/wallet/glove compartment, state what you are retrieving and try to keep your hands as visible as possible. Also, for anyone, try to have that type of stuff out before the officer reaches your window, It can help you remain calm (or hide your fear as is more likely, cops are scary and getting pulled over is never fun) and helps to make the stop shorter so there is less time for a situation to escalate into violence for either side. Most officers are men and women just trying to do their jobs and keep people safe, this includes you.
I found the picture, here it is:

The Worth of Lives

Once again, I feel I have an opinion too controversial for posting on Facebook, so I will post it here. I post these things here because then they are out, but I don't have to deal with fighting in the comment sections of anything I post on Facebook. I don't think anyone actually reads this, but that's alright.

There has been a lot of fall out recently about police in Louisiana (most recently) fatally shooting an unarmed person (who appears to have been a convicted felon, so any firearm that he may have had would have been illegal). I am not saying that the officer who pulled the trigger was in the right, I am not familiar enough with the situation to make a determination on that front. It's possible that the situation was escalated that far, it's also possible that the officer misread the situation. And yes, it is possible that the officer involved was abusing his power as law enforcement. There are situations that an officer may find him/herself in that requires the use of lethal force in order to protect the community as a whole by ending a bad situation. That is not every time that someone gets non-compliant with an officer, but it can happen. It's possible that departments, especially ones with high officer involved shooting rates, need to re-evaluate their policies regarding the use of lethal force, and adjust the process by which that decision is made. However, there are always going to be issues with people who abuse the power of being an officer of the law. That is an unfortunate truth, and one that departments around the nation need to work on changing.

Now, part of the fall out has been citizens shooting officers, and some of these shootings have been fatal, or permanently damaging. To me at least, it is NEVER alright to shoot an officer, The only exception I can imagine would be the if the officer was abusing power, in an obvious manner against oneself, and that only if other methods have been exhausted. Less drastic intervention, though possibly still physical, can be used if another person is the victim. Still, lethal intervention should be avoided, on both sides.

I, as just about every other driver in the country, have had the occasional encounter with an officer in the form of a traffic stop. I have spoken with the police three separate times. The first to times I got off with warnings. The third I got a ticket, but I fully expected it, and was fully deserving of that ticket. The first time I cut off a person while making a lane change when I was getting off work, this was my fault and I had made an improper lane change without looking for other vehicles. I admitted that I had not checked for other vehicles and the officer let me off. The second time I was pulled over for tail-gating. I am still certain that the vehicle I was behind was not going the posted speed limit which caused part of the problem. I have no depth perception and judging my distance is difficult, especially at night, which was the case this time. I knew there was a car behind me, because I could see the head lights, but couldn't tell how far behind me they were, I was trying to increase my distance from the car in front of me without getting too close to the car behind me. I explained myself to the officer who had been behind me (and pulled me over), he asked if I had been going about the posted speed limit, and let me off with a warning when I told him that I was driving about the speed limit. The third time I had tried to make a U-Turn and failed to check properly causing me to bumper car a city bus. The bus was not really damaged, and no one was injured, but because it was a city vehicle I had to pay the price for my mistake. I was more freaked out by having just been in the first accident that was completely my fault. I paid the fine that was my punishment.

The biggest thing when dealing with police is to be polite, they are humans too. They are trying to do their jobs and keep people safe. We may need to seriously look at the way officers go about their interactions with people, but only to keep everyone involved safe, that means that officers are going to have to carry guns, tasers, or other devices/weapons in order to keep peace as best that they can. It does mean that there is the possibility for misinterpretation because the officer must make a decision quickly that might have several factors that are difficult to weigh properly in the seconds that an officer has to make the decision to use lethal force or some other intervention.

That is what needs to be remembered by people who are against the police in regards to officer involved fatal shootings .Every officer involved shooting is investigated, hopefully by non-biased people, but those are incredibly hard to find. Everyone's lives matter and need to be treated like humans, with respect. That needs to be remembered by EVERYONE, officers and citizens alike.