A North Carolina police department supervisor has been disciplined after saying officers confronting demonstrators protesting George Floyd’s death in June were about to “hammer” them.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police sergeant was suspended for two weeks without pay after comments he made during the June 2 protest in which officers deployed tear gas, pepper balls and other chemical agents against largely peaceful demonstrators, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Bolding mine, because police departments are increasingly reversing the "cause & effect" formula in their approach to keeping the peace during protests. They are trying to gain the "upper hand" by using deceptive tactics, like concealing their numbers and then exploding into a "shock and awe" show of force. Which includes preemptive violence to discourage violence, the logic of which is questionable at best. On-the-ground supervisors (like the idiot above) are given more and more discretion so they can "adapt to changing conditions," but in order for that to work well, it requires integrity and intelligence all through the ranks. Which brings us to another (apparently not alarming enough) trend that should have been dealt with 16 years ago:
In case it's not obvious to anyone reading this, the phrase "defund the police" is ten kinds of stupid and needs to be banned from everywhere. It's not even accurate and it implies actions that will alienate people who don't or won't bother to think it through.
Alternative language is critically important, so let's hear some possibilities. Please, please, please, jump in with ideas before this train gets too far out of the station. Here's a short list of top-of-mind possibilities.
Latest reader comments