mindless aggression

"Don't fuss the police.  Don't tease them, don't challenge them -- just -- don't fuss the police."  That's what I have always thought, over the years, when we hear about these conflicts.  That kid in Ferguson Mo -- I thought, you know, policemen please don't shoot a guy, but, kid, don't run "at" the policeman, or run after him or whatever.  Don't fuss the police -- leave them alone...


I think a lot of people need to go "back to school."  For re-learning and re-training...People need to re-learn how to leave each other alone and not pick on each other.

People shouldn't pester the police about stupid stuff.


And LE's job isn't to pick on as many citizens as they can find who they think are vulnerable, their job is to protect and serve, and they can do that with a friendly smile, and weapons-free.  (I've been proposing weapons-free here on my blog for about two or three weeks now, and -- you know...so far I don't think anybody's listening...)


(Some of these people who make Reader Comments contend that policemen and highway patrolmen (LE) pick on what they refer to as "the poor."  I don't think anyone wants to be called "poor" -- they should say "working people" instead, because what they're talking about is the non-1%.)


I used to think differently -- or maybe I should say, I "assumed differently," about these kinds of situations, but watching that South Carolina video is traumatizing.


And it's starting to seem like -- come on!  These policemen in the South and on the East Coast seem to be getting awfully hard to please...
---------------------- One of these guys is shot to death by police because he ran toward the policeman, another is shot to death by police because he ran away, the newest one is dead because he "made eye contact."  Now this is just getting stupid.  They can't run toward, they can't run away, they can't be on the street, they can't be on the sidewalk, they can't "make eye contact," they can't look away, they can't drive their car -- that's harassment, and immature behavior...


Like little kids -- "He's breathing my air!"
"He looked at me!"
("He made eye contact!")
"He's reading my cereal box, make 'im stop!"
Waaaaaahhhhh!"
"He looked at me now he must DIE!!!!!!!!"


It's just fussbudgeting.
And unreasonable, over-aggressive, over-controlling behavior.


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And when the police spokesman in Baltimore said they'd received "a credible threat" that gangs were coming to harm the policemen, I just didn't believe that.  (Like -- "a credible threat" -- Ah!...as opposed to the kind of threat you just made up?...What, was he afraid the bloods and crips might come 'round and read his cereal-box...?)  Seemed publicity-obsessed, inappropriate focus, escalating when he should have been de-escalating...


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And the thing a few people talk about but not many is that you can "slide" race out of the picture, and still observe the inappropriate aggression in society.


You can also "slide" police (and highway patrol etc.) out, and still see that there's an inappropriate-aggression problem in our society.


The problem is the behavior -- you could start to notice it escalating in the mid-nineties...


As Keith Richards said





in the seventies when punk-rock bands





started spitting at their audiences, "We can do better than that."


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