Do progressives dislike the police?

[Beet]

I've explained my point as clearly as I know how to. I think it's pretty clear. I think it draws a very large and significant distinction between police killings and private criminals.

[Green Line]

Police killings are an especially sensitive matter because the police have the full force of the law and the community behind them. They are supposed to represent the community, so when they kill someone, it's like the whole community saying yes, we hired you to kill this person as a part of your job.

The private murderers you speak of already have everyone against them. If police officers who killed without proper justification were treated the same as private citizens who did the same, there would be no protest.

So the lives of people killed by the police matter more than those killed by the gangbangers? Not trying to create a strawman argument, but I don't understand what you're saying.  The fact is that thousands of "progressives" have marched against and spoke out against the police this past year, while at the same time hundreds of black men have been murdered in our cities, yet no one is bothered by that.

Sure - Selective engagement on this matter seems sh**tty but that doesn't excuse any wrongful behavior of some police officers, and/or the overly-punitive or flat out terrible criminal justice policies in this country.

I'll just say this:  No black man in this country is being shot randomly or without cause.  Laquan McDonald was on PCP, slashing car tires, and brandishing a weapon.  There are no "innocent" men being killed in these situations.  Have the police fired too many bullets in some situations?  Maybe, but they go to work every day in literal war zones.

[Virginiá]

I'll just say this:  No black man in this country is being shot randomly or without cause.  Laquan McDonald was on PCP, slashing car tires, and brandishing a weapon.  There are no "innocent" men being killed in these situations.  Have the police fired too many bullets in some situations?  Maybe.  They go to work every day in literal war zones.

There are justified killings and unjustified killings. Some are so unjustifiable that people demand prosecution, and that rarely seems to happen. The people don't want police officers rolling into their communities and shooting people in situations that do not warrant it.

Maybe it's bad training, or bad cops, or bad policy, or whatever, but things need to change and there have been certain people/groups blocking that change for many years now. So it shouldn't be any surprise that the people most affected by this dysfunctional system are angry.

[Green Line]

I'll just say this:  No black man in this country is being shot randomly or without cause.  Laquan McDonald was on PCP, slashing car tires, and brandishing a weapon.  There are no "innocent" men being killed in these situations.  Have the police fired too many bullets in some situations?  Maybe.  They go to work every day in literal war zones.

There are justified killings and unjustified killings. Some are so unjustifiable that people demand prosecution, and that rarely seems to happen. The people don't want police officers rolling into their communities and shooting people in situations that do not warrant it.

Maybe it's bad training, or bad cops, or bad policy, or whatever, but things need to change and there have been certain people/groups blocking that change for many years now. So it shouldn't be any surprise that the people most affected by this dysfunctional system are angry.

If the people of Chicago don't want the police to use their guns, then they should have funded alternative weapons such as tasers.  As of now, there are a few hundred tasers for 12,000 officers in the city.  Not the problem of the police.

[Famous Mortimer]

Literally the only people I've ever met who like the police are people with close family members who are police.

I've never met anyone under 30 who liked the police. Liberal or conservative.

[Asian Nazi]

F**k the police

[dead0man]

You guy's don't really hate the police, it's just silly allegations from the right.

[Asian Nazi]

You guy's don't really hate the police, it's just silly allegations from the right.

I hate the police, but most "progressives" don't really.

[Virginiá]

If the people of Chicago don't want the police to use their guns, then they should have funded alternative weapons such as tasers.  As of now, there are a few hundred tasers for 12,000 officers in the city.  Not the problem of the police.

Well apparently they are getting more now.

But as for use of their guns - Using guns when actually necessary is fine, but generally people don't want police coming in and needlessly murdering their neighbors. It's not like Chicago held a giant town hall and asked everyone if they wanted to fund deployment of tasers, either. It took a series of overreactions by police to spur the deployment of this stuff, which wouldn't be the case if the government didn't always side with police against the wishes of the people.