GOP needs to deescalate the situation

Throughout my life, believers in the death penalty, have told me that capitol punishment is a good thing because it deters criminal behavior. I can not pretend to get into the criminal mind and determine whether that is true or not, but the defenders of the death penalty - largely members of the GOP - now are upset that Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts of murdering George Floyd in board daylight. 

My answer to those idiots on the right who are defending a guy who kneeled on the neck of a handcuffed person until the life left his body, is we need to hold these bad cops accountable in order to deter them from killing unarmed or handcuffed people at will, especially black folks who seem to be the targets in most cases whether it is warranted or not.

This one verdict, by itself, will not be enough to deter cops from feeling like they have the public's blessing to kill black people when they get "uppity, or resist" and talk back, etc. This needs to happen to 100 or 200 bad cops before they get the message that the courts are no longer going to protect them when you indiscriminately kill unarmed black folks. The "Blue Wall of silence," or police unions are not going to protect you any longer when you kill the citizens you are suppose to be protecting whenever you have a bad day, or they piss you off. 

The police's job is not to be judge, jury and executioner, but is instead to detain people and process them for the courts if the situation so warrants it. In the field, a police officer's job is to deescalate the situation, not inflame it.

Here is a prime example of the opposite. What not to do:

 "I have not done anything wrong" and "I am afraid to get out of the car." Police response "you should be."

"What is going on?" Police response - "You are fixing to riding the lightning." This is an older term describing someone who was fixing to die in the electric chair. Really? Is that what we do now in this country to someone whose tags you didn't see displayed.  

That's right. Before we go any further, this is a traffic stop over his tags not be displayed on the vehicle, but they were in the rear window. If I were this person, I would also not want to get out of the car. George Floyd ended up with four people on him until he could not breath and died. I'm not going out like that. What happened to license and registration please?

The police's job is to deescalate the situation. Full stop. The officer could have talked to him calmly, but instead this veteran had two guns drawn on him, and was eventually sprayed with a chemical to attempt to force compliance.

This is the activity that is happening across the country on a daily basis that the right seems determined to defend. And before you claim that I am some radical leftist who wants to defund the police, let me just say, go banh ankles. I have always respected the police and the difficult job that they do, but I think the police and all suspects will be safer if they address potential risks in a non-threatening manner. Research in other countries in Europe bares that out. People who give respect are more inclined to receive similar respect in return.