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by ryandrake 55 days ago
Replace the phrase "people with guns" with "institutional violence" because that's what the police are. When police are called to the scene, the intention of the caller is violence, not to help. If the intention was help, then actual helpers would be called instead.
2 comments
WarmWash 55 days ago
If you watched random police encounters for 6 hours a day (pretty much everything is bodycam'ed nowadays), every day for the rest of your life, you would see about 1 police killing video per decade, and probably never see a police murder.

Don't let headlines and internet rage detach you from reality.

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AngryData 54 days ago
Not all police abuse results in murder, but that still doesn't make it okay just because it could be worse.
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JumpCrisscross 55 days ago
> the intention of the caller is violence, not to help

This is mostly nonsense. Most cases where wellness checks result in a tragic outcome did not stem from the caller having violent intentions.

> If the intention was help, then actual helpers would be called instead

I believe clinician-led wellness checks are more effective than police-led ones [1]. But it’s untrue that police-led interventions are unhelpful. Not every person or community has a healthcare contact who will personally conduct a check. If the choice is between no check and a cop, you’ll save lives with the latter.

[1] https://www.proquest.com/openview/5504a2f3d69ee782daddda0ce1...

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cucumber3732842 55 days ago
>This is mostly nonsense. Most cases where wellness checks result in a tragic outcome did not stem from the caller having violent intentions.

No, it's not. What's the point of the police? They bark orders that are backed by violence.

The caller doesn't "mean" to add violence to a situation in the same way my racist grandma doesn't "mean" to be racist simply through her choice of vocabulary.

This is completely tangential to suicide by cop. Even if the cops themselves smart enough not to escalate straight to a shootout they will apply increasing violence until you comply or die. It's literally their job.

The degree to which police led interventions are helpful is mostly a reflection of officers and departments understanding that they need to behave like EMTs on those calls rather than cops and the people who they are being called on being compliant.

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