More on relief duty for police

Something I have written about in the past (including to MPs) is that, much as soldiers in combat need to rotated between front-line and behind the lines service, so too do police need to be rotated between dealing with the worst of society, and seeing the best of society. 

This applies particularly to groups of people that police encounter, and may form prejudices against - especially people of colour. 

This suggestion does NOT mean going from arresting members of a minority group to “helping” members of that minority group (e.g., youth at risk, etc), which is merely a preventative version of arresting members of that minority group. 

That simply reinforces the prejudices that police are too likely to form regarding that group. 

What police need to do is go in to a situation where they see members of that minority group thriving and flourishing - e.g., helping charities set up by “(socially) successful” members of that group for other minority groups - they need something to actively counter the accumulation of negative evidence. 

This suggestion is also to provide a chance to mitigate the wear and tear that we, as a society, create through our expectations of working conditions (especially worklload - and every person who whinges about the cost of policing is contributing to that), and the inherent demands of being able to, for instance, be restrained in the face of provocation. 

That, in turn, I would hope would ease up the us-and-them thinking of some police that has led to problems such as militarisation (which is also group think, arrogance, and toxic personalities) and police violence.

 

PS - I have found something along a similar vein was used for US airforce personnel during World War (part) Two: rest and recuperation venues, irreverently referred to “flak farms”. From “Masters of the Air: How The Bomber Boys Broke Down the Nazi War Machine” (Ebury Digital, 2020, ISBN 978 1 473583160, Amazon), by Donald L. Miller: 

“The mission of the flak farms, according to a Red Cross manual, was to remind men “of the things which made them choose to fly and fight. The stronger their desire to live for something, the greater their ability to face their jobs.””

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

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