Hint: It’s not about race

Checking the headlines today, and there’s all this buzz about a couple of cops getting shot in Ferguson, MO. The city has been a hotbed of violence and tension since the shooting of Michael Brown, a black man, and especially since the white police officer who shot him, Darren Wilson, was not indicted for the shooting.

I’m no fan of cops. They are the guys who strap on guns to unquestioningly carry out the edicts of politicians, just because they won a popularity contest. For a paycheck, these people threaten violence against everybody else for a myriad of “crimes” that almost never involve an actual victim. They threaten, assault, kidnap, rob, and even murder, with legal impunity.

So the temptation to label them as racists is understandable to me. What better way to stir up hate against a group of people that rightfully ought to be hated, right? To be labeled a racist in 2015 is a serious problem, and the debate around that subject has become so distorted that saying “My best friend is black” only serves as proof that you really are a racist. I’m not saying this makes sense, just making an observation.

So if you’re a blatantly dishonest propagandist who just wants people to hate police, have at it folks. That’s a fine smear tactic, just don’t expect me to take you seriously as an accountability activist. You’re completely disregarding the real reason that police and ordinary people are killing each other.

Why Police Kill People

To understand why people are killing police, you need to first look at who started the conflict. Police kill citizens at a rate of 4:1 per the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the ratio is actually far higher when you look at other sources like KilledByPolice.net.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to understand why that happens. It is their job to kill people.

Now of course this is the part where police sympathizers pipe up and say “No, it’s our job to enforce the law!” and I say the two are synonymous. “Law” today means little more than what a group of unaccountable psychopaths decided everybody else would have to do “or else”.

Take any petty offense, say, I don’t know, selling cigarettes on a street corner. (Too soon?) Police show up to “enforce the law” and one of two things is going to happen. Either A. The suspect realizes the officers are a superior fighting force and backs down. or B. The suspect refuses to comply and police escalate the conflict.

There is no possible scenario where the suspect says “Yes, I broke your law, now fuck off, I’m not hurting anybody” and the officer goes out and looks for real criminals. The police officer is going to use whatever level of violence he has to, to bring the suspect into compliance. If that can be done with handcuffs, fine. Mace? Sure thing. Taser? Why not? Baton to the skull? Absolutely. Chokehold? Of course. Bullet to the chest? No problem.

This is the nature of all “law enforcement”, and the fact of the matter is they are more likely to kill somebody for possession of marijuana than they are to kill someone for a rape homicide. Everybody who supports police has to get that through their heads and accept it before this conversation can continue in a rational manner. If you are a police officer, you are the hired guns of politicians, and nothing more.

Why People Kill Police

Politicians are unpopular. Confidence in government is at an all time low. Times are tough financially for many, and getting worse. The overall tension in America and throughout the world is rapidly building as people realize that government is not a benevolent institution that exists to protect them. They might have wildly differing ideas on what government is, or how to fix the problem, but the consensus is, government is screwing everybody.

Police are the enforcement wing of that institution. They are the ones who use violence against those who disobey the people who are screwing everybody. Most of us will never come into contact with a politician, but many of us will come into contact with police. If my governor or legislator is a crook and liar, then the guy who threatens to kill me for disobeying him is an even lower form of life.

On top of that image problem is the very real issue many of us face that the government asks impossible things of us. I’ll use myself as an example. I’m having money trouble, my vehicle is uninspected, and I cannot afford to repair/inspect it. The car is safe to drive, and I drive it anyway, illegally. Every time I do that, I realize that some cop might pull me over and write me a ticket which will demand of me more money that I do not have, further delaying my repair/inspection. If I don’t pay the ticket, my license will be suspended, and then I’ll be subject to arrest if caught driving, which will add more fines and penalties which I cannot afford to pay. This relatively petty matter quickly escalates to the point that people can’t drive to work to make a living to feed their families.

So add that up. A violent figure of poor moral character is violently preventing someone from feeding their family. His only justification is “I’m just doing my job” even as he violently prevents others from doing theirs. Every time I get in my car I am constantly aware of the threat that he poses. With each and every contact, the conflict escalates. I’m far from alone in this. Take any number of issues, drivers licenses, child support, the war on drugs, taxes, even sex. Once these people insert themselves into your life, the choice they leave you with is “Obey or die”.

This all comes together to make a person feel like they have nothing left to lose. As far as they can tell, their life is pretty much ruined, and there in that uniform is the guy who he is going to hold responsible for it. The cop is not an innocent person, he harms people every day for money, and social status.

You can be upset by it, you can call it wrong, you can say whatever you want, but there it is. As long as this goes on, the conflict will escalate. For better or for worse, you can expect an ever increasing amount of violence against police in the coming years, because government is perpetually creating people with nothing to lose, and making it all too clear who is to blame.

Race pimping, body cameras, condemning “excessive force”, demilitarization, and all the other “accountability” rhetoric that goes on is pointless. As long as this is the nature of our relationship with the police, people will see them as the enemy, and when it gets bad enough, they’ll fight back.

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The above post from: http://christophercantwell.com/2015/03/13/the-real-reason-police-get-shot/

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