So,we charge teachers and Doctors CRIMINALLY for not reporting abuse, and it’s way past time to hold cops to the same standard. Shouldn’t ALL police killings go to an independent prosecutor and be charged  AUTOMATICALLY? Shouldn’t we let a jury figure it out EVERY time, and not just if the chief and prosecutor feel like it? Failure of an officer to report a crime committed under the public trust by another, should be a FELONY all by itself. Right now, how can you expect a cop to violate the blue wall, when if he does he is risking his career and often literally his life, and there are NO downsides if he doesn’t? You want to fix “cop culture”? Make the payment of wrongful use of force jury verdicts payable through the police budget. No pay raises if the dollar value of the verdicts and settlements rises above a set percentage of the budget, or even pay cuts to cover the cost if the payouts exceed that percentage. Economic self interest takes away any incentives to cover for bad cops. A market-based (i.e. it involves munnies) solution! Taking away their donuts is an idea so crazy it just might work.

The “justice system” with its emphasis on prosecution win/loss records as opposed to actually seeking justice is half the problem. prosecutors who don’t want to be perceived in the media or the community as being a bunch of criminal-coddling pabulum. It’s easier and safer for them to just gin up a story about how the dead person was a criminal or was endangering the cop or someone else, or would have certainly gone on to commit a crime had s/he not been stopped. UoF insurance. Say, a $100k bond to be carried by every officer, paid by the department and not the union. Legal fees come out of that, all overages also paid by the department. If a cop retires without ever having to cash it in, he gets to keep it.

Amerikkka is stuck in an 80’s cop movie where crime is rampant (even though it’s been declining for a while) and only a bad cop with a gun can stave off the hordes of lawless gangs, rapists, and vandals (re: minorities) trying to destroy decent (re: white) society. It’s one of those myths stuck in our national conscience: like anyone can become the president and you can get wealthy if you work hard enough. We treat terrorism like an 80’s movie too: If we just kill enough people and blow enough shit up, that will end terrorism.

Sure, proper “training” is essential, yet the majority of police shooting are ruled “justified”. The real solution to this is mandatory “special independent prosecutors” for all potential criminal acts committed by a police officer. The system is broken because as we have seen over and over again local state attorneys are reluctant to go after cops because they work closely together and they don’t want to burn bridges. When cops realize that they are going to be prosecuted aggressively by a prosecutor who doesn’t owe them any favors, I guarantee police involved shootings and misconduct will go down.

Even with the country awash in guns, cops don’t need to be so gun-crazy. Want to have your mind blown? In Scotland, it’s been three and a half years since police have used deadly force against a suspect, despite receiving 1.8 million emergency calls annually. Three and a half years. In America, that might be seen as proof that cops are fat and lack ambition. Or maybe it’s a sign that American paranoia about the need for everyone to have a gun, to ward off a police state, has actually handed us a very deadly state of policing.

If not any of that, I’d settle for police forces who don’t see the environments they police as the occupation of Fallujah. Take away the armored vehicles, grenade launchers, tear gas, and mounted machine guns and other automatic weapons. Go semi-automatic; make each shot civilian a choice! And bayonets. Besides s’mores, what could they possibly need bayonets for?