What Are Black Lives Matter’s Demands?
Usually sports is sports and politics is politics and gambling sites like Sloto Cash online casino are still going to be gambling sites. But times have changed, and what was true 50 years ago is not necessarily true today — the good and the bad.
Many football players are kneeling during the national anthem, both in the US and in other countries, in support of Black Lives Matters. But what exact changes does Black Lives Matter want?
Reassigning non-gun needed police duties to other organizations
Right now, items like making sure that vendors have proper licenses falls under the jurisdiction of police officers. Those people do not need to carry a gun in order to do their job, so they do not need to carry a gun.
Separate organization to handle overseeing police officer complaints
Most people who agree this makes sense. Nobody would want a Judge to be biased or an investigator, no matter what the crime is.
People overseeing police disputes should be elected by the people
I don’t agree with this one, because I personally do not think that people would educate themselves enough to make an educated decision. But maybe I am missing something in this.
Community liaisons to the police officers
This one makes sense. A board of education usually has open meetings where community members are allowed to speak their disputes. The same is true with city council meetings. But a similar type of system does not exist with police departments. These meetings don’t need to be once a week. Once a month may be all that is needed where people can “talk to the police” without the whole “the police officer is the one carry the gun and the regular citizen is not”.
In other words, the two sides are put on equal footing in order to discuss issues that are going on in the community, or even for the police to talk to the community or educate the community or to even just to get to know the community.
Getting rid of police unions
The main complaint here is that “bad cops” are not fired, because unions make it too difficult to hire a police officer. I agree with that statement.
On the other hand, the same can be said for teacher’s unions. Bad teachers are not fired, because teacher’s unions make it too difficult to fire teachers. The same can be said for government employees.
Police Unions should not be allowed to contribute to political campaigns
I am going to say for this item the same thing that I said for the item above. If you want to say that police unions cannot contribute to political campaigns then you have to say exactly the same thing for teacher’s unions, government employee unions, electrician unions, grocery store unions, or any other union that exists in the US.
You can’t have one set of standards for police unions while having a different set of standards for all other unions. Either all employee unions are allowed to contribute to political campaigns or no police unions are allowed to contribute to political campaigns.
All calls to the police do not necessarily need to be handled by a gun carrying police officer
I will agree with this one. There are calls that are done to the police where the issue might be better handled by another organization.
In Wyoming, both emergency and non-emergency, are done with 911. The first person who answers the call determines how to route the call. Is the police needed? Is an ambulance needed? Is the fire department needed? Or is this a general “help” call? Or maybe setting up a 912 number, for non-emergency help.
Youth Police Officers
There needs to be police officers that are specifically trained to deal with kids. With kids, the first goal always needs to be intervention. Trying to stop the problem before it happens. That involves forming relationships with the kids of the community. Getting to know them as people BEFORE the police officers ever meet these kids “in the line of duty”.
Community Outreach Officers
This is what one community outreach officer did.
He had an official facebook page. He had an email address that everybody knew. He was a regular at board of education meetings and community events. He was the one who was saying, “I am here for the community. If you need anything, have a question, no matter what, I am here.”
As for what he wore, you usually dressed in a polo shirt with the police logo, not a traditional official police union. In the community that I was a part of, whenever the police were assigned to interact with the public in community events or meetings or other things, where their role was outreach and community support, they wore the polos with the police logo, and not the traditional police uniform.
It gave the message of, “Yes, I am still a police officer, but I am here in a community outreach capacity, not an enforcer capacity.” It may see minor that just wearing a different shirt can make a difference, but it does make a difference. It makes a difference in how people view the police officer, and it makes a difference in how the police officer interacts (and sees his interaction) with the public.
Local Community Facebook Groups and Social Media
This is one that was not said by Black Lives Matter, but from personal experience I know that it works.
One community that I was a part of, two of us started a local community Facebook group where membership was restricted to people who lived or worked in the community. We did not want outside agitators interjecting themselves into local issues.
The Youth/Community outreach police officer was a regular member of the Facebook group. When people were seeing things that did not sound right, it usually started with Facebook chatter in the local community group. “Do you think we need to call the police?” But the police were part of the group, part of the community, so they heard the chatter. The police did not hide this fact. They were not spying on the community. His facebook name clearly said, “Office Joe, Youth Police Officer, Community Outreach Officer”.
The police officer posted notices to the community. But he also posted kudos to kids in the community. He would go to their games and visit them during sports practices. He would walk around the schools. He would walk around the parks. He became a figure that everybody knew, and respected, in the community.
He became somebody who you knew you could approach without feeling like you were “wasting the time of the police”.
Making chokeholds illegal
Everybody is agreeing on this one. President Trump agrees with this. Congress agrees with this. It is quickly going to become the law.
Anti-Lynching laws
This law did not pass, because according to Rand Paul, the law did not clearly define the word “lynching”. But as Rand Paul said, if the word lynching is not clearly defined, somebody could get a hangnail and then say that they were lynched.
Gang violence is already illegal, including punishing people who are just standing around, just letting the crime happen.
Summary
Some of the complaints that Black Lives Matter has are valid.