I'm not sure some of you understood what I tried to say above.

I don't think this is a reason for shaming either the police, or the people who get shot at. I used to get mightily annoyed when one Mudcatter thought she needed to start a new thread every time a minority got shot by a police officer. I'm glad she finally stopped.

I'm not sure the U.S. needs to disarm police officers. As long as civilians are armed, I think that police officers probably need to be armed, also. But as I said above, the good police officers never have to draw their guns. A well-trained, competent police officer knows how to defuse a situation before it gets to the point where there is any thought of a need for weapons.

To do this, police departments need a philosophy change, and they need much better training. Control without violence, needs to be seen as the standard. Officers need to see a management and public attitude that sternly frowns on the use of firearms, or any other weapons. And police agencies need to work hard on community relations, especially on building trust with minority communities.

I get lots of Facebook thingies from my nice, conservative friends, asking me to support my local police. The last one I got, I replied that most people I know support their police just fine, and there's no need to have some sort of support campaign. And I get lots of Facebook thingies from my nice, liberal friends, asking me to join in their outrage against certain police agencies or against the police in general. I respond to them that we need to work to build bridges between the police and the communities they serve.

And I get downright huffy to people who want to condemn the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

The black people who live in our community are mostly middle-class people who are fully integrated into the community, but we do have a large Hispanic community that has problems with the police on occasion. In the largest city in the county, our social justice nonprofit has organized bilingual social gatherings and tours at the police department (led by a very popular and handsome black chief), and they have been very successful and a lot of fun. Changes in community and police attitudes can make a lot of difference.

-Joe-