California police more than twice as likely to use force against Black people – report [theguardian.com]

As much as we need law-enforcers — be they private-property security, community police, prison guards, heavily-armed rapid-response police units or DEA — to have a reasonable idea of how police will generally behave towards the public they are meant to serve, one must understand what underlying nature/desire motivated them to their profession to start with (e.g. for ‘power’ reasons, maybe), though perhaps subconsciously.

It is, after all, a profession in which, besides the basic tackle and/or restraints, an adrenalin-pumped police official or soldier might storm into suspects’ homes, screaming, with fully-automatic machineguns or handguns drawn, at the homes’ occupants, all of whom, including infants, can be permanently traumatized from the experience. Occasionally the police/soldier will force their way into the wrong home, altogether; that is when open-fire can and does occur, followed by wrongful deaths to be ‘impartially’ investigated.  

Admittedly, many, if not most, of us as children have fantasized about, and even planned for, a future working in some capacity with the police or military. But almost all of us, probably sooner than later, grew out of that dream, as it wasn’t reflective of our true nature.