I noticed today in the news reports of Colorado Springs that we are no longer citizens, we are "civilians". Actually, I've been watching the shift since the post 9/11 build up to invade Iraq and take down Hussein. Believe it or not, youngsters, the local police of the 80's and 90's were not paramilitary. They didn't call people civilians, they didn't tend to shoot much and the only ones who wore flak jackets were the S.W.A.T. teams we'd see on television shows (and very rarely on the news).
In the last 15+/- years we've shifted to supplying police departments with military grade warzone hardware and the training to use it. You know that saying about if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail? It applies. But then we as a nation found ourselves with a surplus of war veterans and few jobs. So our lawmakers gave them a bump to the head of the line for police jobs, as it was assumed they already had the training to take people down. Because that's all policing is, right? I mean it wasn't a war in the MidEast, it was a, "police action". Too bad we didn't budget for or provide transition help, therapy or any other reintegration tools for those men and women so they could learn that not every "civilian" is a threat simply by existing, or looking different.
And then there is the racism that has infected police culture, but that's a whole 'nother topic all on its own.
Rarely are officers taught any longer to talk someone down or to simply slow down. Even more rarely are they now taught to identify people with mental illnesses, developmental issues or other atypical conditions or behaviors.
That should scare anyone who reads Wrong Planet.
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“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”
―Carl Sagan
28 Nov 2015, 6:25 pm
