Its amazing to see the difference arising on a city to city basis. Not sure how much you guys are paying attention to local news, or how the national media is portraying it, but how cities have been responding has a direct correlation on the protests and riots.
Camden compared to Philadelphia has been a great example. Just a river separating the two of them, but a world of difference. Here is an article describing the transformation. Basically in 2013 they disbanded the whole police force and built it from the ground up. It was a radical approach but has seen huge improvements. In 2012 they had 70 homicides, last year just 25. And besides the obvious effects and crime and the community, this reformed police force has dealt with 0 riots. Somehow this hasn’t been obvious to other cities. The people are out protesting police brutality and excessive force. Many departs have responded with brutality and force…. What do they expect to happen?!?! For many it prove their point and incites rage, fear, and riots.
Just last Austin TX, has more protests and riots. But look at this. That video shows cops opening fire on a peaceful protest for no good reason. Said city then has issues late into the night. How is this surprising?
A different example is Lincoln NB. The recently passed legislation yesterday to hold cops accountable, and have more legislation in the pipeline to reform their force. This is what their protest looked like. Notice the lack of shooting, and the increase of dancing. Shocking what happens when the community sees action being done, they don’t react poorly.
DC after the rough Sunday night has gotten better. People don’t want to be looting or affiliated with violent criminals, here is a video of people tackling someone vandalizing property in DC and turning him over to the police.
But other city’s will continue to struggle as long as protest are not treated like humans. NYPD pulling down a person face mask to pepper spray them is not a good way to build trust and diffuse the situation.
If you want to be mad, here is a 2 minute video showing violence.
Just wanted to share some examples of what is going on. I know that many of you still rely on more tradition media and I am not sure everything that is happening is being shown. What is important to understand is that this is what my generation is seeing on an hourly basis. These videos are just the tip of the iceberg, and the bad vastly outnumber the good.
Change has to occur, and I am starting to fall into the mindset that a complete overhaul is necessary. I think we will see complete resets like what happened in Camden start to occur in other cities.Different training, different enforcement priorities, more transparency and accountability. These changes will occur, and I think places will enact them through legislation, but also by defunding police forces and rebuilding them with the new rules in mind.