Send in the social workers.

[Spongebob]

Because cops are human.

They are just as prone to violence, irrationality, prejudice and general assholedness as any other human being.

You are not going to " train that out of them".

If we could - it would make more sense to train the rest of the population into not being cunts - that need policing.

I feel that's a baloney excuse and you know it.  You could use that excuse for just about anyone.  

Teachers are humans, too and sometimes they like to have sex with their students.  Apparently we can't train that out of them, but we can prosecute them and we do.  It is not tolerated and excuses are not made for them.

Another case in point.  Bosses are human and sometimes they like to sexually harass their young female (or male) employees.  I know for a fact that 30 years of training has made a difference from my own experience working with such people.  Every business puts their employees through harassment awareness training and makes it clear that if they do these things, they will pay a price.  And we now see plenty of those who abuse their power get fired and even prosecuted.  It is not tolerated.  And there's no reason we should tolerate police brutality either.  It doesn't matter what color the victim is.

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No, I want them to be better trained in the use of force, and their applicants to be better screened.

You’re continually misrepresenting the role of social workers as an adjunct to law enforcement. The idea is to send social workers on calls that don’t require armed police. No one - and I mean no one - has ever suggested sending social workers to deal with a riot. As for ‘slogans, cheers and kind words’, you obviously still haven’t read the law in question. Instead, you’ve chosen to use an op-ed from a right-wing rag to bolster your position.

When you use one straw man argument to support another straw man argument, you’re going backwards.

Boru

So are you the one with a crystal ball that is going to dispatch who goes on what call?  You just " know" which calls are going to need an armed response?

Fine - send the social worker to the " cat in a tree" calls.

And cops on the scene are the ones that need to make the call of what degree of force is needed - not some empty headed stuffed suit in city hall who is going to make his decisions on use of force based on upcoming election projections.

You seem to intentionally misrepresent the comments of others and willfully distort the topic.  Of course there are cases where an armed police officer is not needed.  There all sorts of calls and all sorts of data available.  This isn't someone just winging it.  You seem to think that no one has been paying attention to these sort of things.  Well they have and I'm pretty sure they know a lot more about the subject than you and I or anyone on this forum.

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No, I want them to be better trained in the use of force, and their applicants to be better screened.

I want to address this post specifically.  In my town, not far from my own home, a few years ago there was a case of police brutality.  A young police officer was sent out to investigate a suspicious person in a nice neighborhood.  This officer was assigned a rookie to tag along and train.  They arrived at the reported address and found an elderly Indian man walking on the sidewalk.  He may have weighed 90 pounds soaking wet.  The lead officer questioned him, but the man did not speak a word of English.  Turns out he was only here visiting his son & family, but decided to go walking in the neighborhood.  Some overzealous Karen called the cops and reported him as suspicious.  The man, not understanding the cop, turned to walk away from him, was grabbed by the cop and flipped onto to ground, breaking his back and severing his spine.  He suffered permanent paralysis and is now a paraplegic.

Now I know at least 3 people personally (one is a cop and another was fire chief) who also knew this cop and all of them have told me the same thing.  He was a hothead and was just showing off for the rookie he was training.  In fact, he was not supposed to be training anyone but the department was short staffed and so he was chosen to do the training.  The cop was eventually let go.  He was charged but of course was found not guilty and spent no time in jail.  He moved to another city in the same state and resumed his career as a police officer.  Every bit of this is fact and a matter of public record.  Do you really want a guy like this wearing a badge and carrying a gun?