[DanaC]

It is possible to police in a less violent and militaristic way.




I think the wider culture plays a huge role though, in terms of what people expect and accept. There is an element of American culture that wants its cops to be warriors. The tonal difference between the television portrayal of police work in America versus the portrayal in Britain is stark. You can see it in the reality tv shows that follow police about.

This is a clip from a show that follows CO19 - the armed response unit of the London Met.





I should clarify, I am not holding up the British police as paragons of virtue. We have many similar issues here of institutional racism, little hitlers using their uniform to justify overbearing behaviour, a 'them and us' attitude between police and community in some inner city areas, and cases of police brutality. There are occasional police shootings - and there have been shootings of unarmed black suspects (just much fewer). And there are downsides to not having them routinely armed and waiting on armed response, for instance, in the US the gun-wielding gang member would not still be at large this long after firing his weapon.