I'm going to apologize for this probable long post in advance- as I want to pick apart one of the defense witness thoughts as a core problem of the police system. And my mind is kind of racing around asking questions, so sorry if this is long or incoherent...
The witness was about use of force, and how it was justified. The main justification that I heard in the small news report is if the person is not calm and complying- which meant that the person is calm and his hands are in the small of his back. Which kind of seems insane on multiple levels.
Lets start with the calm part. In most of these cop situations, the person who is escalating the issue is the cop. They are demanding, almost never explain why they want the person do follow their commands, they always approach a situation assuming that violence will happen (see them approach a car with one hand on a weapon- not sure if that's a gun or taser). And even when the person they are pulling over is calm and asking what is the problem, they consistently raise the bar to massively increase the tension- which is really clear in both recent situations- the person ASKED what was the problem, and the cop escalated their demands.
At some levels, humans are just animals, and will react like animals. Like animals, humans react to threats. So when ANYONE walks up to you and is clearly threatening you, you will react like an animal and recognize the threat and put yourself in a heightened state. IMHO, it was a strong will that kept that Lieutenant calm and rational as the cops raised the threat situation constantly. Especially when our military is VERY attune to threats, as that's their entire survival. But it also may be an illustration how our modern military is trained to assess the situation and try to calm things down when appropriate- pure speculation there- it does fit the situation. The cop in Minnesota did NOT explain why she wanted the person out of the car- instead of explaining the situation, they amplified the demand. That seems to be an assumption on the cops that the person they have is already guilty and a threat, which is hardly right.
For these situations, had the cops been calm explained why they were doing X, it sure seems that they could have gotten a calm response - like- "this is my car, officer" or "I think the warrant is not for me, can you please double check" or at least when George stopped moving, he got off of him and checked instead of keep going.
The other part of being "calm" was putting your hands in the small of your back....
Again, at many levels, humans are just animals. When you can't breathe, you will naturally react to try to breathe. If you feel compression on your back, you will push up to breathe. To not do that, and actually put your hands in the small of your back, you would have to fight the animal reaction to keep you breathing and alive. Put another way- you have to accept that you will pass out and die just to STOP the cops from using force on you. How in the world did the "use of force" somehow get justified to make people consciously prevent an animal reaction to keep you alive?????!??!!!?!? That's completely insane, and not an acceptable reason to use force- people can NOT stop themselves to try to stay alive. Unless the goal is to die.
Going in threatening the accused, and justifying force to the point of their version of calm completely ignores that people are simple animals, and it's impossible to stop those reactions. That is a structural problem with the cops.
There have also been some statements that the people demanding that Chauvin get off of Floyd was a threat. Ok, fine- but explain to me that a "threat" from an outside group justify FURTHER use of force over a person???? IIRC, there were 3 other cops in the area- who should have easily been capable of dealing with the "public threat" so that George could have been let go. The idea that the crowd egged on the cop to further use of force is also quite insane.
This is why cops need to have their complete system redone. Their going in assumption to an encounter is that the person is a threat- which will naturally make the person not calm an natural, and their requirement of calm reaction to the use of force completely ignores basic human reaction to stay alive.
Add this to the very obvious fact that the response is greater for anyone who is black- they are perceived as a greater threat, they are questioned of if they are already breaking the law, they are the ones that the use of force standard is lower for. This is backed by data.
Not only do the whole police system need to back down on the race assumptions they are making, they need to back down the threat level that THEY are bringing into a situation. Let alone are the ones who are raising the threat.
This all ignores the thought of "what is so hard if they run?" Unless they are a real, immediate, threat to other people- get them later. They have phones- get a real warrant, and track them.
