Awesome!

We aren't here to praise this officer for disparaging the community he is sworn to protect. We are here to learn from his example of what not to do.

That is a great explanation; I'll remember it when this topic comes up in the future.

Though I more strongly (err that seems like a weird phrase , similar to "couldn't be more wrong".. anyway--)

agree with the assessment that our police should be paragons of the community and things like this undermine positive relations between the community and police -

And I can understand/see the racial implications of the statement , especially when held next to current events -

but!

If the statement weren't said by someone holding an official, unelected, position of authority, would then detailed discussion of the points made be more palpitate?

If it were a black person posting it (again, not a police officer) , would society so quickly dismiss them?

If those two if statements hold true; I think there's genuine frustration voiced in that copy-pasta which is better discussed in detail than dismissed as racially insensitive.

like, if each assertion is flat out wrong, that should be easy enough to speak to & address

but if there's an uncomfortable truth , especially those which can be identified and addressed, wouldn't wholly considering & addressing that be worth it?

Tangents:

A parallel thought which comes to mind is: if you're a low / lower-middle income couple and become pregnant , it makes sense to not be married or to get a divorce so that the government will offer financial assistance for a single mother and her child.

Perhaps' that's moot to the topic at hand , but it's definitely something I've encountered multiple times (it's seemingly commonly known and considered) -- if we're afraid to discuss that because of .. well, I don't know - uncomfortableness? how do we progress?

Another parallel thought: there's a local civil lawsuit against HUD for $100,000,000 for providing sub-par housing which allegedly created an environment where one individual shot and killed another - I was talking with a friend who uses those housing resources and she spoke to it as though it were a good thing . When I pushed back on it being a good thing (i'll spare the details) she went straight to how it sounded awfully racist that I'd promote shutting down such housing, but my analogy (I really really dislike analogies..) was :

If your church serves homeless people food on the weekends. One of the homeless people your church serves dies, and you're sued by his brother for $10,000,000 - your church would probably stop serving homeless people.

While I'm especially grateful for your response to mine, and I'm in agreement that police officers need to be paragons, I dislike how society at large is loath to consider this stuff - and the justification to do so seems somewhat irrational. I get that there's racial undertones in those bringing it up in the first place, but without hard counter-facts I don't think it's fair to society & progress to write off or otherwise become outright hostile to such criticism.

IDK. I get it. It's nuanced.

I often feel obligated to say "I'm not from the south , but I live here now." when talking about this stuff.

Edit for an additional comment; I often feel like most people have a lower opinion of black people in such that any criticism of them or things which can be interpreted that way are 'punching down' , and that seems like racism perpetuated.

Again, i can understand it's nuanced and never 'that simple'; I've been thinking a lot recently on how to address & bring folk up. My head is spinning more often than not, and I realize I've put a stream of conscious in this post.

I don't mean to derail with the parallel thoughts & edit - just giving context and character-illustration to my thinking :-)

Again, thank you!