Fire all of them, if they think that shoving someone on the pavement, causing a brain injury and then walking away is acceptable behavior.
Obviously, the police in many cities are totally out of control. The police in my small city haven't shot any unarmed people, as fas as I know, but I think we have far more police here than we need. I"d much rather see that money used to expand our pubic health department and to give our teachers raises, along with our lower paid essential workers. I'm not saying we shouldn't have a police department, but it could be downsized substantially and we'd still have more than enough police to deal with violent criminals, break ins, etc.
One thing that would help would be to decriminalize all recreational drugs and legalize cannabis on the federal level. Many of the inappropriate violent acts committed by the police are due to drug raids. If the drugs weren't illegal, that would cut down on the need for so many police and it would help us stop putting so many, mostly black males, in prison. It's a well known fact that white people use recreational drugs at least at the same rate as black people do. But, far more black folks are imprisoned for using or selling these drugs. ETOH is one of the most harmful drugs out there if used in excess, but it's legal and regulated. If the other drugs were legalized, or at least decriminalized, we would save an enormous amount of money on enforcement and trials, and imprisonment. It worked for Portugal without increasing drug use. It could work here as well. But, I digress.
Police unions are another huge problem. If police unions were more like other unions, that would be fine. But, can you imagine a nurses union protecting a nurse who abused her patients! No, neither can I. So, a police union shouldn't have the power to defend a bad cop. Unions should be about pay, benefits, working conditions and such, not about defending incompetent employees from being fired. The Minneapolis Police Union has declared that that protests are a terrorist movement! WTF! Have these assholes ever read the 1st amendment to the constitution. The vast majority of the protests were peaceful, and in some cases, it was the police who acted like terrorists or warriors who perceived the citizens as the enemy.
Then there is the militarization of the police departments. Giving military equipment to police stations can give some police the idea that citizens are the enemy. I'd also like to see those who have had recent combat experience, more carefully screened for mental health issues and tendencies to be violent. Combat often does terrible things to some people.
All of the above have the potential to influence our police to serve and protect the public, instead of acting like warriors who are trying to defeat an enemy, the enemy being the rest of us.
