It is incomprehensible that some members of the police force in the United States of America would be devoid of an iota of compassion for human lives when it comes to arresting people of colour.
The recent murder of an unarmed African American man named George Floyd by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin has sparked protests bringing millions of empathetic people on the streets chanting slogans against racism and excessive force used by the police especially while arresting black people.
A number of black people have been either shot dead or killed with deadly chokehold by members of the police force on the excuse that they have been resisting arrest.
To make the situation worse, the justice department has always turned a blind eye to such police officers when brought to the court. Except for a few cases, white officers usually have gotten away even after taking human lives.
The entire world has now joined the unprecedented movement to end racism of all sorts and boost human dignity above all. The series of past police brutality in the US is beginning to come to the fore and the pressure is mounting on the legislators and human rights gurus for effecting reforms to restrict the despicable behavior of the racists in the police force.
It is good news that some states have already banned chokehold practiced by the police. Some other reforms are also being considered.
As cognizant citizens of the world we not only support the movement against racism, discrimination, gender bias and bigotry of every denomination, we would also like to offer some suggestions concerning the reforms in the police force in the US.
Before we do that we would like to mention here that members of the police force in the UK do not carry hand guns while on regular patrol duty. If they are cornered by an armed criminal they call for help and wait till such help arrives.
Let us see what is written by nbcnews.com about policemen without guns in the UK: “More than 90 percent of the capital's police officers carry out their daily duties without a gun.
Most rely on other tools to keep their city safe: canisters of mace, handcuffs, batons and occasionally stun-guns. The Metropolitan Police, which covers most of London, was founded in 1829 on the principle of "policing by consent" rather than by force.
Giving everyday police officers guns sends the wrong message to communities, so this thinking goes, and can actually cause more problems than it solves. In the year up to March 2016, police in England and Wales only fired seven bullets.
In August, when a teenager suffering an episode of paranoid schizophrenia killed an American tourist in a busy London street, armed police rushed to the scene but not a single bullet was fired.
The Metropolitan Police carried out some 3,300 deployments involving firearms in 2016. They didn't fire a single shot at a suspect.
It's a world away from the United States, where cops killed 1,092 people in 2016, according to figures compiled by The Guardian.
Of course it's easier for police to remain unarmed if civilians do the same. Out of every 100 people in Britain, fewer than four of them own a firearm, according to GunPolicy.org, a project run by Australia's University of Sydney. In the U.S. there is more than one gun per person.”
In contrast, in the US, all members in the patrol cars carry a powerful hand gun in their holster and we have seen in police videos that they keep the gun ready to shoot when confronting a suspect who is most often found to be carrying no weapon. The ready-to-shoot gun in the holster provokes the policeman to use it under one pretext or another.
Many innocent persons have been shot dead by an itchy policeman allegedly for “making a wrong move.” Therefore, we feel the members of the police force in the US should not carry lethal weapons like a hand gun, instead, they should carry shotguns that fire pellets.
And if a hardened criminal resists arrest or tries to run away, the policemen can shoot the criminal in the legs to impair him. A living criminal would be better than a dead one in the investigation to know about his godfathers and accomplices.
We also feel that since more than 14 percent of the US population comprise African and Asians, every third cop there should be a man/woman coming from these two continents. This would work as a check and balance.
And if the cops have to go to an area where residents are predominantly non-white, they can take extra men of colour with them. This is being practiced in South Africa where white and black cops in equal number go to apprehend a criminal in crime infested localities.
It is suggested not to recruit in the police force pupils who have been thrown out of school on account of disciplinary issues such as using abusive language or bullying minority children. Mostly such students grow up to be racists who love to use excessive force on black people.
We look forward to desired reforms in the US police force so that no one like George Floyd has to die under the knee of a racist officer.
Shahnoor Wahid is Advisory Editor of Bangladesh Post
