| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="SecondEssay" |
|---|
| |
<
< | Lack of Discernment when Cops are Afraid? | >
> | Lack of Discernment when Cops are Afraid | | | -- By TaleahTyrell - 16 Apr 2021 | |
<
< | Different Looking People Spurs Suspicion and Fear | >
> | Suspicion and Fear Damages Ability to Discern | | | Pretextual Stops
A year ago, while driving around an affluent San Diego neighborhood with my boyfriend the cops stopped us.
"May I ask what we did wrong officer?"
"Your license plate is not from California." | |
<
< | We looked at each other, scared as the cop walked back to his car to run the license. A few minutes later he came back to the car, this time, completely ignoring him, only speaking to me. | >
> | We looked at each other, confused and anxious as the cop walked back to his car to run the license. A few minutes later he came back to the car, this time, completely ignoring him, only speaking to me. | | | "Where is he from?" the cop asked me. And then, "Ma'm, I need to see your license or identification too."
Luckily I'd brought my wallet along. I gave him my identification and he said, "Oh, you are from here." He let us go. | |
<
< | We left angry, confused, hurt, but most of all embarrassed. Why did he ask for MY license if I was not the one driving? Why did he stop us for driving around with a Tennessee license plate? Through the frustration however, I began to wonder if maybe that cop was actually a kind man with good intentions, maybe with kids and a family that lived close to the area. What if, he, from his perspective, genuinely viewed our activities as a threat and it was instinctual for him to stop us? | >
> | We left angry, confused, hurt, but most of all embarrassed. Why did he stop us for driving around with a Tennessee license plate? Why did he ask for MY license if I was not the one driving? I tried to put myself in that officers shoes, ignoring my tendency to assume mal-intent from all cops. What if he was a kind man with good intentions, maybe with kids and a family that lived close to the area. What if he genuinely viewed our activities as a threat and it was instinctual for him to stop us? | | | Police Officers Discernment
De-Funding is Insufficient | |
<
< | Cops unnecessarily killing people of color has re-sparked a movement in America in 2020. After the death of George Floyd, millions of Americans united to protest police brutality. This movement sparked citywide changes across the U.S. Efforts to "defund the police" have spurred throughout the country as a way to eliminate the problem altogether. The main goal consists of allocating police resources to other services such as mental health counselors, community vigilante groups, and social workers, arguing that they should be alternative numbers of citizens to call for help during a situation. However, those efforts will largely fail if the crucial role police discernment plays is not identified. At the end of the day, police officers hold a valuable role in society. They are trained to protect, serve, and keep law and order in our society. They cannot be fully replaced by mental health counselors as evidenced by approaches like this that have failed in the past. Accepting the reality that officers are here to stay leads to the effort of identifying why discernment fails when police officers are tasked with policing Black communities. | >
> | The unnecessary killing of George Floyd in 2020 re-sparked a movement with millions of Americans united against police brutality. This movement propelled citywide changes across the U.S. Efforts to "defund the police" spurred throughout the country as a way to eliminate the problem altogether. The main goal consisted of allocating police resources to other services such as mental health counselors, community vigilante groups, and social workers, arguing that there should be alternative numbers accessible to citizens to call for help during situations. Though this effort may sound ideal on paper, these plans will largely fail if the crucial role police discernment plays is not identified. Police officers hold a valuable role in our society. They are trained to protect, serve, and keep law and order in communities. They cannot be fully replaced by mental health counselors as evidenced by similar approaches that have failed in the past. Accepting the reality that officers are here to stay leads to the effort of identifying why discernment fails when police officers are tasked with policing Black communities. | | | Discernment: A Police Officers Greatest Tool | |
<
< | According to Merriam Webster, "discernment" means "the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure" or "an act of perceiving." Police officers are tasked with this role daily. They drive around neighborhoods examining individuals and situations making quick decisions based on human dispositions, activities, clothing, demeanor, etc. With this input of information they must make quick judgments about whether to arrest, interfere, assist, help, or interrupt. Quality discernment becomes an officers most valued skill and a method to success in their field. This ability to comprehend is not necessarily always a conscious decision. A good discern-er couples conscious thoughts with quick subconscious judgments that analyze those thoughts. For officers, after many successful arrests, de-escalations, or detainments, these subconscious judgments are inevitably trusted more and more, leading to a confidence that a good officer should have. As such, the valued skill of discernment can become diluted or weakened when its only source is derived from a subconscious experience. In these times, fear or anxiety may be confused as discernment and result in unjustifiable and unnecessary use of force. | >
> | According to Merriam Webster, "discernment" means "the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure" or "an act of perceiving." Police officers are tasked with this role daily. They drive around neighborhoods examining individuals and situations, making quick decisions based on human dispositions, activities, clothing, demeanor, etc. With this input of information they must make quick judgments about whether to arrest, interfere, assist, help, or interrupt. Quality discernment becomes an officers most valued skill and a method to success in their field. This ability to comprehend is not necessarily always a conscious decision. A good discern-er couples conscious thoughts with quick subconscious judgments that analyze those thoughts. For officers, after many successful arrests, de-escalations, or detainments, these subconscious judgments are inevitably trusted more and more, leading to a confidence that a good officer should have. As such, the valued skill of discernment can become diluted or weakened when its only source is derived from a subconscious experience. In these times, fear or anxiety may be confused as discernment and result in unjustifiable and unnecessary use of force. | | | False Discernment: A Police Officers Greatest Weakness | |
<
< | This false discernment, which is a mix of fear, anxiety, and rash actions is evidenced by the officer who shot 13-year old Adam Toledo. In the video, Toledo drops a handgun then turns to the police raising his hands. The cop immediately shot him. As graphic as the video is to watch, more telling are the words of desperation as the officer chases Toledo down the alley "Hey! Don't F**move! Stop, STOP!" An eerily similar sheer desperation is also reflected in the voices the the cops that scrambled to stop Daunte Wright. This time, the officer mistakenly shot her gun thinking it was a taser, killing the 20-year-old. | >
> | Though a common narrative now is that there as some "bad apples" that contribute to racism in the police forces, what is more likely is that many regular apples have adopted false discernment, which is a mix of fear, anxiety, and rash actions. False discernment is evidenced by the officer who shot 13-year old Adam Toledo. In the video, Toledo drops a handgun then turns to the police raising his hands. The cop immediately shot him. As graphic as the video is to watch, more telling are the words of desperation as the officer chases Toledo down the alley "Hey! Don't F**move! Stop, STOP!" An eerily similar sheer desperation is also reflected in the voices the the cops that scrambled to stop Daunte Wright. This time, the officer mistakenly shot her gun thinking it was a taser, killing the 20-year-old. | | |
Eliminating False Discernment to Properly Police those that look Suspiciously Different |
|