I am going to way in with my opinion on this tragic subject. I agree with Tom that there is no question that the rioting and looting has to be brought under control, the perpetrators arrested and prosecuted to the fill extent of the law.
That being said, the African American community has a legitimate and constitutionally protected right to protest, and peaceful protestors have to be permitted.
In the mean time, it is high time that the issue of police interaction with members of the minority community be addressed on a national level. I have watched video of, and read accounts of, literally dozens of fatal interactions between police and members of the Afrtican American community in the course of my adult life. It seems to me that there are two distinct types of incidents: (1) Lone or outnumbered police officers, often inexperienced, panic and fire when they perceive a threat to them. An example of this is the rookie Asian American NYPD who was patrolling the stairwell of a NYC Housing Authority project, panicked when he heard people running down the stairs at him and fired, killing a man who was running down the stairs with his fiancée to meet friends. (2) Circumstances where police use force to subdue a subject which ends up killing him, which the police subsequently announce involved the police using methods which they claim were part of their training and appropriate, but which to everyone else seem particularly brutal. I would propose the following solutions: (1) Require police to travel in larger vehicles like vans or SUV's, with a Sergeant and 3-4 other officers together, as opposed to alone or in pairs. This would both eliminate panic on the part of lone, inexperienced police, and make the police safer (for example in a traffic stop situation, which is, statistically, the most dangerous moment for a police officer, as they approach a driver's side door alone, not knowing what the driver plans to do). (2) Absolutely ban any training methods which allow police to do anything to the neck or head of a suspect. I am sure John from Texas can speak to this far better than a beat up old guy like me, but in the last century (around 4 decades ago), when I studied martial arts, I was taught simple wrist locks and arm bars that allowed me to subdue opponents while putting only their arms at risk, as opposed to their lives. Police must be trained never to use tactics which have proven, time and again, to cause death or paralysis. (3) Finally, as much as I respect the police, and believe that 99.999% of them are fantastic people who protect all of us, when there is a questionable incident, it cannot be left to local prosecutors and local government. A Federal Law, requiring investigation and prosecution by the FBI and United States Attorneys, will ensure that the few bad apples that are racists or corrupt are prosecuted effectively, and punished accordingly.
As long as we do not address the underlying problem, and demonstrate to the African American community that their lives do matter, we are going to see repeats of this incident, and the resulting, horrifying, rioting looting and violence. As Rich points out, since the 1960's, extremists and criminals have used peaceful protests as an opportunity to loot and instigate violence. It is only by eliminating the need to protest by addressing what is an undeniable societal problem in the United States will we ensure that the rioting and looting do not re-occur. That's my view.
I pray that this mess is over soon, that no one else's life or livelihood are put at risk, and that the families of those people killed in the course of this disaster see justice. Be safe, my friends!
