I appreciate the sentiment of this piece, identify problems, but also pose constructive solutions. I do want to take issue with something you said re:resisting arrest. If we had a system where black and poor people weren't harassed by the police a policy of always complying and never resisting arrest is sensible. If we had a system where filing complaints against police did something (with the exception of those with political power) then I would agree. We don't have that system. Fixing that, would allow communities to use the process to fix things rather than resisting arrest. While I hate the term white privilege, your belief that the system will work for you if you were ever the subject of excessive violence by the police is clearly influenced by your experience of how the system treats you. This is one of the fundamental differences I see in how poor people experience the system vs rich, or Black vs white. I'm a huge Sam Harris fan and that episode you linked to was his most oblivious in his entire catalog. It incensed me. My anger doesn't make me right, but hopefully that conveys some context.
I agree with what you are saying here and I would love to see some big changes re: how communities are policed, especially poor and black/brown communities. And on top of that, bad police departments need to be held accountable, as well as bad police officers.
That said, the number of unarmed people who are killed by police is minuscule (around 100 per year) compared to the number of people who die each year of almost any other cause you want to name, and part of the reason we're so focused on it is because of a few high profile killings where video was captured and then spread like wildfire on social media. Much of the reason we find ourselves so angry today is an anecdotal fallacy--we see things like George Floyd and rightly think: this is insanely unjust--and it IS!
But the number of people we could help by having universal healthcare, a robust UBI, better schools and infrastructure generally, and eliminating child poverty is just astronomical compared to the rare, but gross injustices we see thanks to ubiquitous smart phone usage and social media.
So in sum: I agree 100% with you that we should fix how policing works in this country. The last segment on Pod Save America actually had some really good ideas on how we could do this, whether having different units respond to mental health disorders or having traffic police write tickets instead of making arrests or even simply not prosecuting dumb misdemeanors like having expired tags.
That said, your cause will never, ever be helped by fighting with the police or resisting arrest--I mean, I guess unless you get away, but even then you've now committed another crime on top of whatever aroused their attention in the first place.
But on the rest I agree, attention placed on George Floyd still killings takes away the attention from how we could prevent crime in the first place by creating a healthier society.
> # of unarmed is a red herring. The real issue is the everyday violence that doesn't include murder. The harassment, the excessive force.
Would love to see this point made more often, because to be quite honest, it's something I hadn't considered. Instead protestors tend to point toward a specific instance of injustice and so I think for admittedly, a white guy like me, I don't get that experience.
I also don't find the rioting to be compelling, but I guess at some point anger is going to boil over and that kind of stuff is going to happen.
Very much appreciate your perspective and helping me think through this!
Yes, sadly, to bring attention to the broader issue of how policing is done, it's easiest to get attention by focusing on the most extreme cases. The larger issues often get lost. It's kind of a catch-22. Black people have been trying to explain police abuses for decades. It only got attention when it was first caught on film with Rodney King, and now that everyone has iphones with the most egregious murders. Now all the attention is on the wrong issue which causes the typical reading of it to go...I mean I see in this case this seems bad but statistically this is such a small issue.
Agreed, the riots are not productive, but kindling, gasoline, match...we're all just human.
"because in most cases the world isn’t out to get you."
This! Guess what folks... You are not a target unless you make yourself one.
I appreciate the sentiment of this piece, identify problems, but also pose constructive solutions. I do want to take issue with something you said re:resisting arrest. If we had a system where black and poor people weren't harassed by the police a policy of always complying and never resisting arrest is sensible. If we had a system where filing complaints against police did something (with the exception of those with political power) then I would agree. We don't have that system. Fixing that, would allow communities to use the process to fix things rather than resisting arrest. While I hate the term white privilege, your belief that the system will work for you if you were ever the subject of excessive violence by the police is clearly influenced by your experience of how the system treats you. This is one of the fundamental differences I see in how poor people experience the system vs rich, or Black vs white. I'm a huge Sam Harris fan and that episode you linked to was his most oblivious in his entire catalog. It incensed me. My anger doesn't make me right, but hopefully that conveys some context.
I agree with what you are saying here and I would love to see some big changes re: how communities are policed, especially poor and black/brown communities. And on top of that, bad police departments need to be held accountable, as well as bad police officers.
That said, the number of unarmed people who are killed by police is minuscule (around 100 per year) compared to the number of people who die each year of almost any other cause you want to name, and part of the reason we're so focused on it is because of a few high profile killings where video was captured and then spread like wildfire on social media. Much of the reason we find ourselves so angry today is an anecdotal fallacy--we see things like George Floyd and rightly think: this is insanely unjust--and it IS!
But the number of people we could help by having universal healthcare, a robust UBI, better schools and infrastructure generally, and eliminating child poverty is just astronomical compared to the rare, but gross injustices we see thanks to ubiquitous smart phone usage and social media.
So in sum: I agree 100% with you that we should fix how policing works in this country. The last segment on Pod Save America actually had some really good ideas on how we could do this, whether having different units respond to mental health disorders or having traffic police write tickets instead of making arrests or even simply not prosecuting dumb misdemeanors like having expired tags.
That said, your cause will never, ever be helped by fighting with the police or resisting arrest--I mean, I guess unless you get away, but even then you've now committed another crime on top of whatever aroused their attention in the first place.
# of unarmed is a red herring. The real issue is the everyday violence that doesn't include murder. The harassment, the excessive force.
While it's logically true that resisting arrest doesn't help you, logic plays no part in most humans decisions
I'll use an example from a fantastic film, Shawshank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE7JKLRraoQ
Why doesn't Andy just suck Boggs dick?
But on the rest I agree, attention placed on George Floyd still killings takes away the attention from how we could prevent crime in the first place by creating a healthier society.
> # of unarmed is a red herring. The real issue is the everyday violence that doesn't include murder. The harassment, the excessive force.
Would love to see this point made more often, because to be quite honest, it's something I hadn't considered. Instead protestors tend to point toward a specific instance of injustice and so I think for admittedly, a white guy like me, I don't get that experience.
I also don't find the rioting to be compelling, but I guess at some point anger is going to boil over and that kind of stuff is going to happen.
Very much appreciate your perspective and helping me think through this!
Yes, sadly, to bring attention to the broader issue of how policing is done, it's easiest to get attention by focusing on the most extreme cases. The larger issues often get lost. It's kind of a catch-22. Black people have been trying to explain police abuses for decades. It only got attention when it was first caught on film with Rodney King, and now that everyone has iphones with the most egregious murders. Now all the attention is on the wrong issue which causes the typical reading of it to go...I mean I see in this case this seems bad but statistically this is such a small issue.
Agreed, the riots are not productive, but kindling, gasoline, match...we're all just human.