There have been several articles talking about the root cause and effect of the recent police violence.
Here is one in today's Union-Tribune by Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times:
And here is one by the Union-Tribune Editorial Board about release of police recordings
There was another recent incident on June 14 2022 where the SDPD harrassed the head of the Taxi Driver's union for apparently no reason. Then now 9 months later the police still have not released the body cam video as promised. It seems that there should be some sort of discipline for the officers involved, but apparently, nothing has been done.
Its clear that we've come a long way in the past 20 years. 20 years ago, police would arrest people taking video of a police incident and often confiscate or break their camera or phone. Now the police are supposed to be wearing a camera themselves. I really wonder how many people over the past 100 years have been treated badly by police, but there was no video to refute their story.
I think there needs to be a post-event analysis of what was going through the police officer's minds when they were busy beating a suspect? I know that's difficult because the officers don't want to admit what they did, since they are subject to discipline and legal action. But what causes these highly trained people to treat their neighbors so violently? Is it revenge for something the suspect said? Is it because adrenalin is flowing through their veins and they can't think straight? What actually goes on?
When I see a police action underway in the streets, or when I see videos of the notorious interactions when police have killed or permanently injured suspects, it always seems like there is a mob of police gathering around the suspect. In my small town of Oceanside, I've seen a couple of police detain a 12 yr old, search him and while that was going on, 5 other police cars show up, each with two officers. So with 12 officers and 6 total cars, it would seem the entire Oceanside police force on duty was there. It looked like the police spent about a half hour intimidating the boy, having him sit and lie on the ground, for example. Then they all left and the boy just walked away. I have no idea what went on! However, the incident certainly didn't call for more than 2 officers to handle it. Why were the others there? For certain the young boy will never trust a police officer again.
I wonder if the primary arresting officers feel different when they are being watched by a crowd of fellow officers. Do they need to act like tough guys because their peers would think they were too "soft" on criminals? When one officer starts beating or abusing a suspect, do the other officers join in because of "mob mentality?" What should the nearby public do in such a situation? It seems that if they yell at the police to stop, it actually infuriates them. Of course if they tried to physically interfere, they'd be arrested also. It seems like a subject that deserves a serious study. If we understood the dynamics maybe something could be done during police training that could reduce the effect
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