Thread by @AlexandraErin

The way to stop police from killing people is the same way you stop anyone from doing it:

Stop tolerating it.

"I felt unsafe" - how unsafe? If there's NO risk in shooting, someone will take the shot any time safety is not total. Shooting to kill is the conservative option.

We've all seen videos of cops trying to detain drunk white guys in their underthings who are SWINGING at them or talking down white shooters to take them alive.

Why?

Because they perceive a risk in just shooting the guy, in those cases. They weigh that risk.

We hear so much of the snap decisions made in the moment and how "you can't know unless you're there" but we see them also make the same snap decision and go the other way.

In a snap decision, people tend to break towards the easier option.

And we've made murder obscenely easy.

When cops fear consequences, THEN they give warnings and THEN they use their de-escalation and negotiaton training and THEN they think of serving and protecting.

More training isn't going to do anything if they have no reason to use them.

If you think there is a 1% chance someone might shoot you dead and a 0% chance you will be held responsible for shooting first -- and you have no regard for the person you're shooting at as a human and a job culture that is militarized and speaks of "enemies" and "animals"...

...then it is inevitable, inevitable, that you're going to wind up shooting, if you're in that position enough times. The in the moment calculus is you act to "save your life", because the cost of doing so is nil. No risk of conequences, no loss of any life you respect.

The answer we get when we propose accountability is: the cops can't do their jobs if they're fettered like that.

But what job are they doing, that needs doing, that is stopped? What do they do for the community?

Whatever they think they're doing for the community that requires them to be able to dispense executions like Judge Dredd... they can stop doing that. We don't need it.

And if they don't want to serve a community if they can't do that part? We don't need them.

The whole IDEA of law & order policing is that if people don't fear consequences, they will not behave. Bad actors will destroy society if they do not see that there are repercussions for their actions.

So how can we have a police force that does not fear repercussions?

Police need to be held to higher standards than everyone else. If we're supposed to respect them for putting their lives on the line... let them put their lives on the line.

I've never heard a firefighter argue that they should be the last one to run into a burning building, that their job doesn't mean risking their lives for other people's.

Cops, though?

"You can't expect them to risk taking a bullet by not shooting."

I mean, just imagine if the culture around firefighters was:

1. They risk their lives for us.
2. Therefore we owe them respect.
3. Respect means we can't expect them to risk their lives by going near fires.
4. Fires are dangerous.
5. What, do you hate firefighters or something?

If the culture of firefighting got to the point that firefighters were considered too venerable and important to do anything risky like fighting fires, we would all recognize that it was useless and not worth supporting as an institution.

And they still wouldn't be *harmful*.

Of course, firefighters are trained in risk assessment, management, and mitigation. They do not throw their lives away casually. They are trained to deal with danger.

But cops are, too.

And when they fear consequences for casually killing or endangering someone, it shows.

Make the police know -- make them believe -- that there will be consequences every single time someone comes out of an interaction with them dead, that there are no "good shoots" and no "righteous kills" and any shots fired are to be regarded as a negative outcome, then watch.

Watch how fast the culture of policing changes when they are no longer above the law.

The whole PREMISE of the police is that this approach works, that consequences alters behavior.

It doesn't have to be draconian. It doesn't have to be punitive.

Once police understand that their lives do no matter more than those of any single one of the Innocent Until Proven Guilty people with whom they interact, that they cannot deprive any of those people of life casually... the culture will change.,

Every cop who puts on a uniform is prepared to treat a little blonde haired blue eyed white girl like her life is worth more than the cop's, when they put on the uniform. Most will do the same for a drunk but neurotypical adult white man in a tank top and boxer shorts.

The myth we hear is on one hand we have to respect the uniform because it signals they will risk their lives for ours, and on the other hand because they're willing to do that, we can't expect them to risk their lives to save "some dirtbag".

But the law knows no dirtbags.

The deal should be this: if you put on the uniform, you're putting your life on the line. You're putting it on the line to keep your community safe, whether they're angels or not. Your life is not worth more than a murderous drug dealer... especially since they might not be that.

Cops are either community servants or they are jackbooted thugs. They can't be the law and be above the law.

If they can't do their job without shoot-to-kill powers... their job doesn't need doing.