Having been a deputy sheriff, I have pointed a gun at people, had to restrain people, and I had to make practically impossible split second decisions that with one incorrect move, assumption, strange shadow, etc. could have ended in disaster. People can be quick to judge without truly knowing the insane amount of pressure there is in those situations and how very little it can take for a bad outcome to occur.
That being said...
It was a callous disregard of life, and there was no excuse. It was murder.
There absolutely is systemic racism and profiling, and it needs to stop.
Too many people of color are dying, and we have to take extreme measures to reverse that.
Many of the people who go into policing really do go into with the ideal of helping people, but the training they receive practically beats that notion out of them because there is a level of paranoia that is ingrained that everyone wants to kill you. I can guarantee you that almost all of the training videos I watched involved criminals who were black. It is so easy for an officer's worldview to become very skewed, which is exacerbated by almost always seeing the worst our society has to offer in crime, abuse, addiction and the most horrible situations. It is incredibly difficult to stay positive when you see that every day and in training. Had I stayed in that career I may have had a different opinion than I have now. When you are on the inside, it is not easy to see through the fog of the system. Even officers of color often have the same dangerous mindset. As I said, the training really does a number on your mind. You essentially become paranoid that every person of color is potentially a criminal.
None of that is any sort of an excuse for the inappropriate killings, but not only has our society put people of color in the disadvantaged position they are in today, they have also twisted our police force into what it is today too. And when I say they, I generally mean old white guys protecting their territory and beliefs, as it has been from the beginning of our country. I say that with confidence. Having a degree in history, and a lifelong obsession with learning, I've spent most of my life digging into real history and not the whitewashed BS most people get in the school systems. That too, needs to change.
I never intended to get on a soapbox, but there you go. I really hope we can move forward and do better. There is so much work to be done.
