Watching the confrontations the past couple of weeks between police and demonstrators I am reminded of one of the first lessons from treatment foster care training. DON"T ESCALATE A CONFRONTATIONAL SITUATION! One of the necessary things to learn when you are given any type of authority is that you are expected to be the mature adult when others are acting in an immature manner. Any mature person has to remain in control of their emotions even in difficult situations. Force can only be used in relation to the level of the threat. Striking someone who is yelling in your face is an inappropriate response. Giving a weapon to an immature person in authority is asking for trouble. Ask any parent who has been pushed to their limit by an acting out child how difficult it is to remain as a mature parent.
Some of the problems with policing today maybe the way police are recruited. Recruiting former military personnel to become police may not be the best way to have police seen as part of the community. Training to look at people as the enemy to be confronted with force will be problematic in any community. This is especially true when 80-90 percent of police work is more related to social services than crime. Add to this that many police departments have received military equipment that has been surplused from the Iraq and Afganistan wars. The problem with policing today is not the "bad apple" but the culture that sees the community as the enemy to be controlled.
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