I have been working quite a bit this week and one of the students in a seminar I was doing made a comment that has been on my mind all day.
From time to time I consult on various things including bar management, this week I was doing a seminar for the bouncers in some local clubs. Without going into a lot of detail I suggest a very common sense approach with prevention being at the top of the list, as a bouncer it is important that you be very aware of your surroundings so that if something starts to get out of hand you can recognize it and deal with it before it gets out of hand. It starts with simply being seen, but being seen is also how the customer perceives you when you are seen. One of the guys in the class made the comment that the police should be as well trained as they are and it struck a chord with everyone in the seminar. Consider this…
I would NEVER allow my bouncers to come to work in Jack Boots, with helmets and mirrored sunglasses, it sends absolutely the wrong message. I want my customers to feel like the bouncers are there to protect them and militarizing their clothing certainly doesn’t send that message.
So why has this become so common in police departments, it sets up an us against them mentality from the get go. Getting physical in any way should be the LAST resort for bouncers, it should also be the last resort for police, all too often it is the first response these days. Now I understand that the police deserve to be protected but when doing so makes them look like a paramilitary unit it sends the message that they expect violence and that expectation and image begets violence the same as it does in a nightclub.
Police as well as bouncers should be friendly, courteous and helpful, you shouldn’t be afraid to approach them.
And another thing that gets me is this whole Black Lives Matter movement, whomever is behind that name is defeating the entire purpose. Black Lives Matter implies that if you aren’t black your life doesn’t matter and it promotes the very divisiveness that they want to wipe out. Why would you use a name that excludes people instead of including them? Do you think that only black people fear the police? Believe me there are plenty of white, brown, red, yellow, gay, trans and straight people who feel the same way you do, why not be inclusive and call it Our Lives Matter, you would get a lot more accomplished that way and you wouldn’t set yourself up as being against the police AND all these other people.
If these problems are ever going to end it will be because we all joined together to end it, setting yourself up this way simply reinforces the idea that you are different and thus NOT equal. I have long had a problem with people excluding themselves from being American, be it European American, African American, Asian American or whatever, if we are going to go that route we need to be American FIRST, American European, American African, American Asian, fine it puts it in the proper perspective and emphasizes what we have in common NOT what makes us different.
Politicians count on us dividing ourselves like this because it allows them to pander to blocks of people who see themselves as not equal and further divides us when in reality we all pretty much want the same thing, that being to be left alone and allowed to live our lives as we see fit without encroaching on anyone else’s life, liberty or pursuit of happiness.
I don’t care what color you are, or what gender or what sexual persuasion I want you to be healthy and happy, your life matters because when we all act that way we all benefit.
Maybe my view is too utopian but it seems to me we have regressed when we should have progressed and the root of it all is the criminalization of more and more of the population and the militarization of our government.
6 Responses
I hate the term “Black Lives Matter”. It should be “All Lives Matter”. Since I was young my Mom taught my brothers, sister and I “You treat people the way you want to be treated”. Follow that rule in your life and you don’t have to sweat the bullshit we have now with all these groups all wanting special attention to their group.
It should be all lives matter but the sad truth is most dont give a crap if it doesnt affect them. So you dont see a huge protest multicultural for a loved cafeteria worker, who has a licensed gun holder because there is a feeling he probably deserved it. The Gov of Minn even said if it was a white couple and child in the car I dont think the officer would have reacted the same way and he is white.
These are my thoughts exactly, it isn’t just blak people who feel this way, the movement should tap into that and society in general needs to shit can the race card all together, it’s old and counter productive.
I’m so with you on this, Mike (and Karmafan). People got appalled because blacks were killed. People got appalled because policemen were killed. Nobody seems to get much appalled because PEOPLE got killed. In fact, 45 people get murdered in the US alone every freaking single day and nobody gives a flying damn, unless a certain racial, religious, class, sexual classification is attached to them. Ask yourself who benefits from this. And no, your view is not too utopian: the majority of people think and act like you; but there is no return of investment from common sense. A word to the wise.
Attitudes can change(and they have) but human behavior will never change. Whites will live with whites. Blacks will live with blacks, Hispanics will live with hispanics.
To think its not race , is just silly. Think about it ,a licensed gun owner shot down by the police, where is the NRA screaming to holy heaven? Whats different than the others they stood up for ? hmmmmmm what could it be.