I am european, and police in the US really is something else: the mindset, the culture, the engagements. There needs to be a nation-wide police reformation.
I would argue that slaves and indigenous populations experienced a violent dictatorship.
I don't think it's actually too much to expect that our officers fix their own culture. I just think it won't happen because they have a toxic tradition of ignoring the cultural cues given by civilian leadership (except the ones that praise police forces no matter how bad they act).
How should people protect their houses/shops when armed criminals try to rob your place?
What about the gov being oppressive? HK would be diff.
Confiscation from lawful gun owners, why, what crime did they commit?
> They aren't using them to defend against tyranny so what good are they.
They are using it to protect their homes and stores from rioters so they are atleast doing something.
Its very easy to say take away their weapons but you dont provide a realistic solution for defending life and property.
I don't think you can convince a rural Montana rancher that their local Sheriff needs to be retrained because (as they likely see it) gang bangers in Chicago "force" police to be more heavy handed.
I'm all for incentivizing police to improve their own culture, but I'm cynical that it won't happen. I'm all for giving police more funding and better tools to do their job more politely, but they already chew up 40% of all local government spending.
I think the solution can't be "expect policing to change" and has to be something more like "change the policy and show America civilians how our policing expectations are broken".
Americans call the police because a dog is off-leash in a large grassy park. Until we figure out how to tolerate small infractions or at least deal with them without involving law enforcement, there will always be a risk of violence during escalation.