While I discuss this topic with my friends, it’s something that I’ve been hesitant to post about but horrible stories about police brutality that are coming out every few weeks is really too much.  I read this article in the CBC about the Baltimore riots and totally agree with the author.

If just a fraction of those fatalities were criminal, then the inescapable conclusion is that more people have been murdered by police in America in the last 10 years than by terrorists.

As an outside observer, there strongly appears to be a systemic problem with law enforcement in the United States when dealing with black people.  I want very much to believe in the bad apple theory and hope that most police officers are good but there are simply too many killings over trivial matters.  Freddie Gray is just the latest case of “WTF”, I don’t care what Mr. Gray was alleged to have done but dying in the hands of authorities (not to mention how he died) is wrong.

I don’t want to call this a race issue as it seems to affect black cops too but policing down south needs reform.  I know that they have a tough and difficult job but the quick use of deadly force is an issue, maybe they need to more training on how to deescalate situations I don’t know.  I certainly empathize with the black community as its members are the ones most affected (if not mainly) by all this violence.

Hopefully all the public spotlight forces the hands of the political leaders and I hope that good cops no longer put up with the antics of bad cops because the public needs trust in its law enforcement officers.