Reality bites: Police officers upset over summer reading list

[SummerMadness]

Wando High School summer reading list causing controversy

Two books causing controversy in Charleston County are All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. They are on the summer reading list for Wando High School's English I class.

In The Hate U Give, the main character's best friend is unarmed, and shot and killed by police. In All American Boys, one of the main characters is brutalized by a police officer after a misunderstanding when the character is falsely accused of stealing. Both books address racism and police brutality which is making some local law enforcement officers upset.

Aw, they're upset because it addresses police brutality, they should be more concerned with the kids having to live with police brutality. I guess we should pretend police brutality isn't real so kids can learn it firsthand when they picked on in their communities.

 

[SkyWriting]

Wando High School summer reading list causing controversy


Aw, they're upset because it addresses police brutality, they should be more concerned with the kids having to live with police brutality. I guess we should pretend police brutality isn't real so kids can learn it firsthand when they picked on in their communities.

I suppose we should consider groups of people
to be innocent until proven to be guilty. That
sounds fair.

 

[com7fy8]

I do not know how those books address the problem, but why not also have literature about the drama of police officers who are first responders to people in very needy and personal situations, and how trusted an officer is to handle such situations, including getting people out of burning cars? And how about how many officers would risk their lives to help your mother or father or brother or sister or children? And how about statistics about how often there is brutality, compared with how often officers have risked their lives and the financial well-being of their own families, in the same amount of time that there were cases of brutality?

Why not publicize the amount of trust an officer often gets and how they would risk their lives and their family's security in order to protect or help your father or mother or brother or sister or children? Bringing this out might help to recruit more people who want to do this, so this could reduce brutality, for all I know. What do you think?

And, by the way . . . are you an officer who is being an example of how it needs to be done? Anyone can criticize a problem, but how about if we become officers and do it right?

And what do you understand is the realistic solution to the problem? You can point the finger, and then something else will come up in the news. But if you become a for-real officer who does it right . . . your example can do more than just telling people there is a problem. And, like I say, how about some literature about how officers risk their lives to help various people and how they are so trusted, fairly often, by various needy people in very personal situations where people have no one else to help them? How about giving statistics of such actions, in comparison with acts of brutality, so that this can give people realization of where they can go, with police work?

Or, are you already doing this but I just have not seen it?

 

[bhsmte]

I suppose we should consider groups of people
to be innocent until proven to be guilty. That
sounds fair.

Where is the fun in that, when one has an ideology to protect?

With some, certain groups of people are guilty automatically, while other groups of people, are innocent, until proven guilty.

 

[SkyWriting]

Where is the fun in that, when one has an ideology to protect?

With some, certain groups of people are guilty automatically, while other groups of people, are innocent, until proven guilty.

I had heard that a few people make assumptions. We should jail them all.

 

[com7fy8]

Aw, they're upset because it addresses police brutality

But each case of interracial interaction between officers and people is different.

One TV news video showed how white officers were run into by a black driver and they caught the man and did not kill him. But I notice how the interracial details of that were not brought out in the newscast. That was in Texas, by the way. They easily could have shot the guy and claimed he was trying to kill them with his car, but those officers did not. So, why are they hiding, possibly, good example, by not bringing out what I could see right in the film?

But when white officers abused a black guy, this was brought out in the media as being interracial.

I suppose if you reported all the times when white officers were good to even blacks who abused the officers or even shot them, this could help be a good example to help other officers not to wimp into unprofessional stuff.

Example can help. Shaming might do something, but I think example can help more because it helps to show the best way to go.

And it looks to me like there are certain people who are willing to get themselves killed in order to make officers look bad . . . like when a guy on purpose walks at a distance in front of white officers, refusing to stand still and submit, then bluffs that he is pulling out a gun to shoot at the officers and only then does he get shot. I saw one news video that looked like this. I don't think this is how it was described, though, in the news cast.

But not every suicide by means of an officer is done with the same motive. But there are people of different colors who are that mean that they are willing to die in order to get back at certain people. A number of officers show them up, by risking their lives to help people in burning cars and other hard situations, while certain mean people risk and waste their lives in gang drug business and other rebellious and anti-social stuff, and don't risk their lives to help anyone.

But yes a number of officers can act like gang members. So, I am always very careful to be respectful and cooperative with any officer, even though I am "white"; still I know I can get in a mess, too, if I push the wrong officer the wrong way. I have been abused, too. It is not just an interracial item.

But the news can put one face on international TV, and ones assume one person represents everyone of a group.

 

[PeachyKeane]

But each case of interracial interaction between officers and people is different.

One TV news video showed how white officers were run into by a black driver and they caught the man and did not kill him. But I notice how the interracial details of that were not brought out in the newscast. That was in Texas, by the way. They easily could have shot the guy and claimed he was trying to kill them with his car, but those officers did not. So, why are they hiding, possibly, good example, by not bringing out what I could see right in the film?

How would that script have gone?

"Police detained the driver without killing him, despite the fact that the driver was black.

"In other news, a McDonald's employee completed a customer's order, and surprisingly did not spit in his Big Mac."

 

[dgiharris]

I do not know how those books address the problem, but why not also have literature about the drama of police officers who are first responders to people in very needy and personal situations, and how trusted an officer is to handle such situations, including getting people out of burning cars? And how about how many officers would risk their lives to help your mother or father or brother or sister or children? And how about statistics about how often there is brutality, compared with how often officers have risked their lives and the financial well-being of their own families, in the same amount of time that there were cases of brutality?

Why not publicize the amount of trust an officer often gets and how they would risk their lives and their family's security in order to protect or help your father or mother or brother or sister or children? Bringing this out might help to recruit more people who want to do this, so this could reduce brutality, for all I know. What do you think?

And, by the way . . . are you an officer who is being an example of how it needs to be done? Anyone can criticize a problem, but how about if we become officers and do it right?

And what do you understand is the realistic solution to the problem? You can point the finger, and then something else will come up in the news. But if you become a for-real officer who does it right . . . your example can do more than just telling people there is a problem. And, like I say, how about some literature about how officers risk their lives to help various people and how they are so trusted, fairly often, by various needy people in very personal situations where people have no one else to help them? How about giving statistics of such actions, in comparison with acts of brutality, so that this can give people realization of where they can go, with police work?

Or, are you already doing this but I just have not seen it?

I agree with what you are saying however there is a glaring hole you are NOT addressing.

All of the above of what you wrote does NOTHING to stop or ever curb those abusive police officers who brutalize citizens and oppress rights...

Pointing at a problem at least leads to a solution.
Pointing at all the good things about a system does nothing to eliminate or correct problems, if anything it allows you to pretend those problems don't exist and sweep the problems under the rug...

Also, the answer to a corrupt system can't be "Well, if it is so corrupt why don't you personally join the police force and fix it yourself by being an awesome cop..." that is shifting the burden of the problem from those responsible for the problems to the actual victim.

We are the citizenry. We pay taxes. We have the right to demand that the State not brutalize us and that the State adhere to the Constitution. Period. The burden should NEVER fall on us to fix problems of the State. The burden is on the State to fix its problems. Or put another way, innocent citizens have every right to complain.

 

[A_Thinker]

But yes a number of officers can act like gang members. So, I am always very careful to be respectful and cooperative with any officer, even though I am "white"; still I know I can get in a mess, too, if I push the wrong officer the wrong way. I have been abused, too. It is not just an interracial item.

I think that there is a lot of marketing out there already on the positive contributions of law enforcement. Think about most police drama available on TV, where the police are, invariably, the good guys.

These book selections highlight a problem which has arisen in our society ... and, as such, are viable candidates for reading in our society.

My suggestion would be ... If you don't want these type of books to be considered to be relevant in our society, then support efforts to eliminate the problem ...

 

[SummerMadness]

I fail to see how a book about police brutality has anything to do with innocent until proven guilty. A story about related to police brutality is a story related to police brutality. It is a reality that some wish to ignore, but as we see in the DOJ reports on police departments across the country, there is certainly a problem. And considering that most police officers (84%) have witnessed colleagues use excessive force on civilians, and most admit (61%) they don't report even serious criminal violations, it would seem that these books are not entirely off base. But again, what does this have to do with innocent until proven guilty?

 

[Phil 1:21]

I suppose we should consider groups of people
to be innocent until proven to be guilty. That
sounds fair.

What, and let all that hateful prejudice go to waste?

 

[keith99]

I'm not familiar with any of the books on the list. That said here is the description from the school's site for one of them.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed

Looking at the school site it looks a lot like the wider story here fits for a lot of the students at the school. Perhaps not quite fancy prep, but trying for it academically and students who in the past have not had access to that kind of education.

That also could explain why in English instead of Civics.

 

[Ana the Ist]

How would that script have gone?

"Police detained the driver without killing him, despite the fact that the driver was black.

"In other news, a McDonald's employee completed a customer's order, and surprisingly did not spit in his Big Mac."

Well either race is relevant in all police interactions...or its relevant in none, right?

Or is it just when you "feel" like it was relevant?

 

[bhsmte]

I had heard that a few people make assumptions. We should jail them all.

Some folks have to make assumptions, to feed their ideology and chip on their shoulder.

 

[PeachyKeane]

Well either race is relevant in all police interactions...or its relevant in none, right?

Or is it just when you "feel" like it was relevant?

Perhaps it's relevant when it's relevant.

 

[SummerMadness]

As I consider the anger by law enforcement over books that speak to a reality some of these kids encounter, I just think:

At least it's just anger they're feeling as opposed to, you know, suffering actual police brutality.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Perhaps it's relevant when it's relevant.

How in the world would you know that?

 

[Ana the Ist]

As I consider the anger by law enforcement over books that speak to a reality some of these kids encounter, I just think:

At least it's just anger they're feeling as opposed to, you know, suffering actual police brutality.

While you're apparently focused on the police reaction...your article mentions that the entire community was upset about the reading choices.

 

[dqhall]

Wando High School summer reading list causing controversy


Aw, they're upset because it addresses police brutality, they should be more concerned with the kids having to live with police brutality. I guess we should pretend police brutality isn't real so kids can learn it firsthand when they picked on in their communities.

From another point of view there is too much brutality the police have to endure. A police officer on night patrol was responding to a domestic abuse complaint in an apartment complex. He did not wait for the back up officer to arrive. He went quickly towards the apartment building. When he opened the building door a sniper standing at the top of the stairs ambushed and killed him. He left behind a wife and children. In such a world, police were quick to draw and sometimes made mistakes. The US lacks good gun control laws that other developed nations have in place. The murder rate is higher because it is too easy for a criminal to get a gun. It is in part because the NRA can give money to politicians favorable to their cause, without regard for public safety.

 

[A_Thinker]

While you're apparently focused on the police reaction...your article mentions that the entire community was upset about the reading choices.

"President of the Fraternal Order of Police Tri-County Lodge #3, John Blackmon, says, "Whether it be through social media, whether it be through text message, whether it be phone calls, we've received an influx of tremendous outrage at the selections by this reading list."

He says in just the past two days, he has received hundreds of messages from police and community members."

Surely the entire community is larger than "hundreds" (actually 85,000) ...