17 Solutions To Tackle Police Brutality In America

By Luke Miller Truth Theory

The way many American police are exercising their powers on the street is now at crisis point. Many people argue that this is not a new problem and that the only difference between 10 years ago and now, is the fact that we can police the police with cameras. No matter how you dress it up things are getting out of control and this has sparked backlash from local and global communities and given birth to movements such as “black lives matter” due to these issues effecting the black community a hugely disproportionate rate when compared to other races.

Here are a few stats that put things into perspective-

Taken from Cop Crisis– “Cops are indicted in less than 1% of killings, but the indictment rate for Citizens is 90%.”

In their words – 84% of officers say they have  “Witnessed fellow officers using more force than necessary.” and 61% say they “Do not always report serious abuse by fellow officers.”

From Mic.com

“A quarter of those killed were identified as mentally ill by police or family members.”

And from The Guardian

“Young black men were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015”

“One in every 65 deaths of a young African American man in the US is a killing by police.”

One of the people at the front line trying to tackle police brutality is Shaun King a writer and civil rights activist. He is noted for his use of social media to promote charitable and social causes such as Black Lives Matter. He is also the senior justice writer for the New York Daily News.

I recently started to follow Shauns Facebook posts and was impressed by the the clarity in which he is able to express ideas for social change and reform of the way police behave. So I compiled some of his posts with links to the articles he has written so you can explore the ideas yourself.

 

Here are 17 Solutions To Tackle Police Brutality In America-

SOLUTION #1: Radically diversify America’s Police Departments READ MORE

SOLUTION #2: Require American Police to have more training than cosmetologists READ MORE

SOLUTION #3: Police must be routinely and randomly tested for steroids and other illegal drugs READ MORE

SOLUTION #4: Bad Apples MUST Be Fired – they are toxic and dangerous READ MORE

SOLUTION #5: Police must be required to earn 4 year degrees – it changes everything READ MORE

SOLUTION #6: Policing for profit must become a banned practice. A profit motive must never undergird law enforcement. READ MORE

SOLUTION #7: We must overhaul 911 – particularly for calls made about the mentally ill. It is the rotary phone of emergency services. READ MORE

SOLUTION #8: Take women from 12% of police to 50% of police – they are more professional, less brutal, and just as effective. READ MORE

SOLUTION #9: Require cops to live in or near the areas they police. It’s too easy to mistreat strangers. READ MORE

SOLUTION #10: Communities of color actually need less policing. Start by decriminalizing addiction and petty offenses. READ MORE

SOLUTION #11: American Police must be regularly tested for racial bias. READ MORE

SOLUTION #12: American Police must be regularly tested and treated for PTSD. READ MORE

SOLUTION #13: Why we must take bad laws on policing all the way to the Supreme Court. READ MORE

SOLUTION #14: Good police officers must actually speak out on bad cops. READ MORE

SOLUTION #15: We must decriminalize mental illness. READ MORE

SOLUTION #16: We need to unleash the full power of body cameras. READ MORE

SOLUTION #17: Police departments must create and enforce reasonable new use of force standards. READ MORE

These articles have been taken from Shaun Kings 25 part article series on how to tackle police brutality you can check out his profile on New York Daily for the rest of the series when they are uploaded TAKE A LOOK HERE

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