Sometimes I genuinely feel that common sense is lacking when it comes to law enforcement in the US. Arresting people and violence is the first response when it should be the last response.
I wonder why the US, as a country that defines itself as the "land of the free" or "leader of the free world", is so prone to resorting to these kind of extreme actions? There's a certain disconnect between the propaganda and the reality and it's sad because people suffer for it.
Militarization of the police in both equipment and training, largely due to a surplus from the various Middle East wars and a need to expand the military industrial complex (this isn't a political statement, the way budgets are determined in the military highly incentivizes branches to get rid of old equipment) is a large factor.
Training dollars have largely fallen across the board, and there has been a growing emphasis on combat/SWAT training while training for things like neighborhood policing, de-escalation, non-violent combat, and situation management have dropped significantly.
Falling real dollar salaries for police don't necessarily attract the best and brightest, which means most people who join for personal reasons (i.e. your stereotypical bright eyed rookie trying to make a positive difference) leave the force rather quickly due to the myriad of problems within modern police culture. This reduces the force to people mainly interested in pensions and knocking heads.
Largely misplaced political and social fury put on individual actors instead of systemic problems has created an us vs them mentality where departments circle the wagons and refuse to regulate internally, while conversely most people have never been less likely to help, trust, or assist police.
Economic incentives (private prison industry, asset forfeiture, speed ticket revenues, etc) have created a culture where "good policing" is policing that turns a profit.
We had (have?) a "War on Drugs" where the opposing combatants were the police and the populace.
Zero tolerance rules, repeat offender policies, license plate scanners, and policies largely stemming from the Drug War incentivize a shoot first, ask questions later mentality. Police are also much more likely to assume the worst of a citizen they are approaching regardless of race or sex compared to 20 and 30 years ago (there was a this american life about this a while back I believe).
We've woven a very tangled web. Hopefully we can get out of it, but it'll be very difficult.
Thanks, that's a very detailed and interesting reply.
Yes, a lot of those factors are most likely to have an effect. I hadn't thought about the equipment surplus coming from the Middle East wars.
It's very unfortunate and it's a problem I believe when the public learns to be fearful of the police. As soon as the police is no longer seen as public servants who are here to help, their stated mission and reason to exist is compromised.
The response here is surprisingly harsh on the police and lenient on the school.
Key passage: "she and her son had been called into the school for state standardizing testing April 12; while they were there, she said, officers arrested her son for an incident that occurred in October"
Why is the school having children arrested without parental notification? Why is the school deceptively luring a student into the school to be arrested? Why didn't the police just arrest him at home?
The policeman may or may not have any context re: WTF is going on. He has a warrant an an obligation to act, and without context he's going to assume the worst.
This is a failure of the system. If a 10 year old child is doing something that rises to a felony, there should be an intervention involving child protective services and social workers. The police should be the last line of intervention, as they are by nature a blunt instrument not equipped to handle children in this context.
I'll go further and say that the very concept of defaulting X offense to Y level is flawed as it does not respect context. This is self-serving on the part of the legal system - we often see crimes lawyered down dramatically from automatic jail time to a small fine. It hurts those who are ignorant, can't afford a lawyer, or both.
In the case of a special needs student, afflicted by a condition that professionals know can include lashing out physically, there's no damn reason to treat/charge this kid as a felon. Once more, a school should be a nurturing environment aimed at educating, not a stand-in sting operation.
While I don't disagree, I do think there's a general lack of empathy here; we're so overloaded with information, our senses are always tingling at 11/10, making it even more difficult to understand others or appreciate their version of the human condition.
It does not take a lot to become a cop. I don't think you even need a HS Diploma. A large majority of Police are already mentally unstable to even want the job. The best advice I can give anyone is avoid them as much as possible. Their resources are endless and yours are finite.
Incredibly distressing to see an imbecile treat a fragile child like an animal. I really hope the cops and school are sued for millions.
Lets get this straight: A "professional" who claims to and is paid for working with developmentally disabled children attempts to physically force a child into a "time out" against his will and is surprised when the child resists... to the point of thinking that criminal charges against a 10 year old is a proportionate response?
Perhaps a new profession for this "professional" is in order. Somewhere where they don't contact people, animals, or scary plants like overly tall grass.
I see a case of clueless police here, not the "evil police". They don't apply excessive force and are generally respectful. They execute dumb instructions the best they can; what they don't know is that for this particular child the experience could be 100x more traumatic than for a neuro-typical child, and this child shouldn't have been arrested in the first place, even if he misbehaved.
Instead of blaming police I would see this is an opportunity to educate everyone on the autism and how to properly deal with it. Especially given the fact that April is the National Autism Awareness month.
People talk about diversity and inclusion a lot, in the context of gender or race or anything; I have never heard "diversity specialists" talk about neuro-diversity even though this impact major part of the population. This has to change.
It is quite interesting how I as a European citizen often come to think I would understand American culture (because I'm constantly confronted by it on reddit, hackernews, the NYTimes etc.) but get disproved a lot. Is it generally acceptable in the US to handcuff children as young as 10 and take them away from their parents although they appear to not currently be a threat to anyone? (And btw: can a 10 year old even be an actual threat to an adult?)
The fact that the boy is autistic seems to be the point of the article and (part of?) the reason for the outrage, but in my opinion the whole process of doing that to a small child is just unbelievable.
America is a pretty large country with big cultural differences between different regions. I'd imagine the more authoritarian or puritanical subcultures might be okay with it (who probably are the same people that say that adults who resist cops had it coming when they get shot / killed unnecessarily).
I don't think I know anybody personally (right or left leaning) who would think that it's acceptable to handcuff children like this. I would hope that most people I associate with would think it unacceptable.
At the same time, this kind of thing is so common that I think people have been numbed to it. What maybe could be said is that in general, Americans don't protest this kind of thing as often as they should.
Maybe you disagree, but I believe our country's (USA) treatment of individuals with mental health conditions is extremely important. There is much room for introspection - could we "fight crime" and improve quality of life by treating affected criminals medically in lieu of, or in conjunction with, punishing them criminally?
It speaks to the broader issue of prison reform, not to mention the embarrassing history of how society has shunned, abused, and generally mistreated individuals with mental health conditions.
I wonder why the US, as a country that defines itself as the "land of the free" or "leader of the free world", is so prone to resorting to these kind of extreme actions? There's a certain disconnect between the propaganda and the reality and it's sad because people suffer for it.