THE CRUX OF IT: Missed points and wrongfully blaming victims is part of the problem and not the solution.

 

 

 

A new law recently signed by Illinois Gov. Rauner requires teachers of drivers ed students to devote time to the instruction of proper behavior during interactions with police.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Julie Morrison (D. Ill.). She stated that her desire was to uniformly require classes to include “protocols” for what is “expected” when you interact with police.

If you only look at this at face value it may be easy to overlook the wrongness of this effort.

Could these people possibly miss the point more?

 

Behavior is not a definitive determination of outcome.

 

If the desire is to keep innocents safe, it would be incumbent on officials to address the source of harm and not the victims.

It seems as if the legislators consider young drivers to either be criminally bent and dangerously self-destructive or unreasonable beyond comprehension.

Will the classes focus on teaching the students to avoid physically attacking police after they’ve been stopped for failure to signal?

Will the classes instruct young inexperienced students not to pull weapons on police after going through a stop sign?

 

Short of aggressively threatening or assaulting cops, the behavior of drivers after a traffic stop is not the cause of their deaths.

Recent examples have shown that compliance can also end fatally.

With the headlines filled with accounts of the unarmed and innocent being killed by police, where is the urgency in curbing negative behavior needed most?

Are the police professionals that are put through training and conflict resolution or are they not? Are police the mature adults and expected to be able to interact with all people in multiple stressful situations?

Why aren’t legislators investing time and resources in further training those with the backing of the entire legal system. Why aren’t laws being enacted to appropriately address those in possession of lethal weapons and the authority to use them.

The onus is on the more powerful. This is a universally accepted truth in all circles and instances.

Why do we continually insist on making law enforcement the victims and placing them in the weaker position?