Creating Accountable, Professional Police in America
American policing is infected with a cynicism towards the very people it is supposed to protect. State and federal law enforcement see the dark, ugly and dangerous side of humanity on a daily basis. They are also trained from a militarized perspective to overwhelm and control. These realities create a mindset to control, not to protect, the very public they are sworn to serve. That law enforcement instinct to control inevitably evolves into an assumed right to control by any means necessary.
From 2015 through 2022, police in America killed more than 8,000 people, averaging more than 1,000 each year. Most of those killings were labeled justifiable homicides, given the circumstances of each case. But each year, increasing numbers of police killings are not justified from either a legal or practical perspective. A hamburger or a cell phone mistaken for a gun by ill-trained or shoot-to-kill-minded officers has taken