Don't think it's fair to compare US to NZ. The New York -> City <- is more populated and complex than New Zealand.
I am a kiwi, but have lived in Japan for two decades as well. You could just about swap out my mentions of NZ for Japan as a second example, but I can see some comparison there not being considered fair either
I think it is fair to look for comparisons in other countries - my main point is that racial profiling happens in other countries too - but the acceptable professional standards for police engagement with the community are vastly different to what seems to be the norm in the States.
For where most of my life experience lies, whether it be Japan, Australia or New Zealand, people are not afraid or nervous of interacting with the police.
Some root cause analysis to shine the light on where the issues are would be helpful I think. I think racial issues are a partial-cause - but there are racial issues in NZ, Japan and Australia where you don't have anything like the same aggressive nature of police interaction.
It just feels like the U.S. discourse on the subject is on the side effects versus the root cause. I could be wrong - but would love to see it discussed.
- there're terrorists, they have attacked the US and might try to attack again. Police is the 1st line of defense.
- Both Japan and NZ are island s. Border control is easier to some extent. There criminals crossing borders with drugs and other illegal stuff - and illegal immigrants as well.
- Social differences: hundreds of billionaires, billions of poor people.
- Race differences: people from every part of the world wants to live there. So there's a considerable number of Latins, Asians, Middle East, Africans, plus the racial issues with afro descents. It's not easy to provide security to all those differences, each has their own culture.
https://medium.com/s/story/fearing-for-our-lives-82ad7eb7d75...
I don't think the reasons you have given should give the U.S police license to default act aggressively towards others - due to being in fear of their lives.
From my perspective, the U.S. police are not in fear of their lives through fear of immigrants or terrorists. They are trained to be in fear of someone having a gun pointed at them.
and racial issues are a major component to what these protests are about our current policing system doesn't work well w/ diverse populations.
arrest related deaths top 1k/year (bjs.gov) in the US that means every 3 years police kill more people than the largest terrorist attack in US history. they are far more dangerous than any terrorist group to american lives.
so yeah reforming them is probably a good idea.
'kia mihi'