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Jo Mathie's avatar

One of my best friends is a police officer, but we live in the UK. Guns are really rarely used except in extreme circumstances. He says he can't imagine what the American police force are thinking when it comes to gunning down Black people. Over here unless you are an actual criminal people generally trust the police, it seems the total opposite in the USA. He reckons a lot of it is insufficient mental wellness checks and a overly macho culture where it is more convenient to shoot than talk someone down. Add racism to the mix and you get this. Such a waste of a life for no reason, so sad for his poor family and friends. At least the officer was arrested, but I guess we'll see what happens there...

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Stone_Monkey's avatar

Don't kid yourself. I would heartily disagree that only criminals in the UK don't trust the police. I'm speaking as a black Briton who grew up hearing far too many stories of previously healthy young black men who were arrested and died from "undiagnosed heart disorders" in custody, which were then shown, at inquest, to occur after receiving severe beatings in their cells.

If the police in the UK carried guns on an everyday basis, I would hazard that they'd be shooting black Britons to death at least as much as the US police do, or possibly even more.

And lets not even mention the RUC hits squads and their close ties to the Loyalist Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, shall we?

Or the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad (Unofficial Motto: "If you want a serious crime, we're your men"), infamous for fitting people up to order.

Plenty of people in the UK who aren't criminals don't trust the police. And they have good reasons for not doing so.

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