Develop Mental: Part 1

The next topic at hand is which resistance works. Do to my research there are five ways to actually stop police brutality. We have seen videos circulating of peaceful protesters getting teargassed, tased and shot at by rubber bullets. Changes to policy around policing can reduce death at the hands of police. These steps alone cannot end racism but they can save lives.

Step one: Check the problem, before the killing of Michael Brown there was no official way to trace police killings, now a mapping police violence database has been created. The database uncovered that black people are killed disproportionately by officers making up 24% of the deaths despite being 13% of the population. Sometimes incompetent data means the data just does not exist. 

The next step would be to demilitarize, it’s known that as threats become bigger you require more protection but do the police really need military grade equipment? From grenade launchers to MRAPS which are military trucks designed to withstand explosions, it’s a proven fact that police departments with more military equipment force more military grade harm. A department with no new equipment in a year could expect .065 few were deaths in the following year. A department with new equipment can expect .188 more deaths in the following year.

Step number three change the police culture. Training is considered the ultimate way to reduce racial bias. So, if and when a police officer is trying to promote the likelihood of the account ending with in an arrest the necessary lethal force is less likely to happen. This falls back into the implicit and explicit bias theory that I had mentioned previously. 

There are eight policies that need to be brought to the surface, these policies include but are not limited to:

* require officers to deescalate before using force

* using previous references to find the type of force that is necessary for the situation. 

* restricting officers from using chokeholds and or strongholds

* requiring that a verbal warning be necessary before any type of deadly force is used.

* prohibiting officers from shooting at moving vehicles unless the action is completely necessary

* requiring offers to exhaust all other options before the use of deadly force

* establishing a duty by officers to intervene if one of their colleagues is using excessive force being too aggressive

* requiring all officers to report all uses of force and all attempts to use force

Departments that incorporate four or more of these policies have had 38% of fewer police involved killings. These are strictly to reduce the common use of force and increase accountability as well as to create a sense of rapport between the police and the community.

We will continue with more steps next week, stay tuned into what and how you can save your own life by understanding the different perspectives of the police force.

Thank You,

JP