community is saying that we refuse to continue being the guinea-pigs who are being killed in this fictitious weeding out process of bad cops. After the 15-year period, and over a decade of docu- mented positive societal change, these laws can possibly be eased back and amended to require White officers to serve in the Black community while being partnered with a Black officer. Yet just as troubling, men are simply not
bred to be peacekeepers. We are taught from a young age, in every culture, that we have to win confrontations - and usually by some level of force. And when you couple that natural environ- ment with racist ideology, it makes it very diffi- cult to separate the two forces for any white male in the middle of an official police altercation - es- pecially one with a black male. Men’s ego’s will quite often supersede their legal duty in the heat of a confrontation - as will the male suspects’ duty to public decency in the case of police inter- actions. This is what we’re culturally bred to do. And whether by a lack of trust, a totally disrespect for each other, inherit fear, or a media-fueled combination of the three – White men can no longer keep the peace in the Black community. Therefore, the citizens of this country need to de- mand to our elected officials to take an aggressive stance towards replacing these current male offi- cers that will eventually retire/resign from US po- lice departments with female officers. Woman are a lot better suited to live up to
the pledge to “protect and serve.” “Most” female officers are naturally warmer and strategic in their approach to police-involved situations - more social worker than enforcer. And each of the ones I’ve observed in action tend to concentrate on diffusing the level of tension on site from the time they get out of their cruiser. A lot of them bring a mother’s compassion to the job - but will not take “no shit” if you push them. Yet they are also three times less likely to be named in a citi- zen's excessive force complaint than men. And costs between 2½ and 5½ times less than the av- erage male police officer in excessive force liabil- ity lawsuits. If trained properly, I envision a typical fe-
male officer more apt to shoot fleeing suspects in their lower body to disable them with their serv- ice weapon - rather than immediately escalating to deadly force. I also think male suspects will not
take the same aggressive stance with a female of- ficer than they do with another male. Moreover, modern policing has evolved to the use of mili- tary-style weapons and tasers as their tools of in- timidation. Women can aim and pull a trigger just as efficient as a man, and I trust a woman to exhaust all other options of apprehension before pulling that trigger. Currently the US ranks near the bottom of the rest of the developed world in its number of female officers - ranked 11th behind the leader Sweden where a third of their national police force are woman. Nevertheless, whether male or female,
White people in the US are generally unaware, and miseducated by the media - about our Black cultural rituals, our natural mannerisms, and even our language. They can’t possibly safely po- lice our neighborhoods at this time in history. Dozens of police departments around the country have been actively recruiting Spanish-speaking officers for the past decade. And it’s mainly be- cause of the rapidly-growing Hispanic popula- tions in both large and midsize US cities. Several of these police departments have shown an in- ability to safely police these communities by offi- cers who cannot speak their language. I contend, that the Black community’s lan-
guage and loud voices, our aggressive gesturing when joyfully interacting among friends, and our ever-changing body language - can easily be mis- diagnosed by a White police officer. And this mis- interpretation, like with the Spanish language - has in the past cost Black and Hispanic people to lose their lives. And there will continue to be these types of shootings unless legislation like mentioned in these 8-demands are put into law. These new laws will obviously require that this country hire and train many more Black po-
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