Listening to Thom Hartman today. A caller talked about how young people are wary of cops nowadays

[kimbutgar]

Growing up I was told to respect cops and they were my friends. Cops take care of the bad guys to keep you safe. I used to like Adam 12 as a kid. Now I feel apprehensive when I see them myself because of all the police violence towards minorities.

That said, when I was teaching this past year I did a social studies unit with my k-2 special ed class. We talked about helpers in our community. Police, Firefighters, Doctors, etc. One little 5 1/2 year old kindergartner boy who is Latino told me police are bad and all they want to do is arrest you. I told him, 'No they are there to protect and serve you". The little fellow he was so adamant that police are the bad people. We went back and forth a few times on this topic and finally I changed the subject. But I was stuck how a little brown child had such a negative view of law enforcement. How many of these small children are out there now with a genuine fear of law enforcement? This militarization of law enforcement with the scary body armour is creating nightmares for all of us.

I fear there is going to be a breaking point in this country unless we address this issue. And I doubt the cheeto will be able to address this issue and instead if he is elected will make our law enforcement even more brutal.

[frazzled]

1. Young people's bad relations with police is nothing new

In my generation, in the later 1960s, police were definitely the enemy, and were called "pigs" nearly universally.

Minority youths have always been wary of cops, because what we are seeing of police abuse has been going on since forever: it's just that now we have video cameras in our phones to show it. But even white youths have been wary. Thirty years ago I saw a group of police beating up a trio of white kids who were restrained against the police car, and apparently doing nothing to resist. In my day it was drugs and protests against the War in Vietnam, and the way we dressed, that made us scared of cops, who were quick with the batons and tear gas.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I'm Wary Of Them, And I'm Not Young People

6000 people in this town. 29 full time cops plus administrators. That's as many cops as Chicago, per capita and the industrial and commercial protections are not required because there are far fewer businesses and almost no industry.

K-9 crews (plural). Even if this was the drug trafficking capital of Illinois (and it's not), that's ridiculous in the city this small.

Too much unchecked authority in bloated departments. I have a hard time believing it's restricted to my little town on the fringes of Chicagoland.

[craigmatic]

3. Are his parents documented? That could explain part of it. The killing could explain

the other part.

[kimbutgar]

4. Yes they are

[meow2u3]

5. Nobody's calling attention to juiced cops

Roids is one of the contributing factors to the epidemic of police violence. Steroid abuse can also explain, but definitely not excuse, the hair-trigger temper some cops seem to have nowadays. Ever notice how LEOs have become bigger and more muscular than 20-30 years ago, along with the attitude problems?

These two kinds of juice don't mix: steroids and authority, and cops should be routinely and randomly drug tested to identify who's juiced and who'd just plain rogue..

[kimbutgar]

6. I witnessed my friend's husband who took steroids have an episode

He was usually a mild mannered guy but he turned into a monster. I tried to calm him down when my friend and him got in a fight in front of me. He pushed me down and I was scared seeing a look on his face I had never seen before. Every video I've seen of cops beating down someone they seem unusually enraged. Round rage would explain this phenomenon of police going wild.