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KaHOnas t1_j1iesrx wrote

Reply to comment by Bleedthebeat in Where history has been fought by RedTomatoSauce

It's weird describing combat to someone who hasn't been there. I don't need comforting, I just get strange looks when I describe things I've done or what I was thinking of doing.

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P4_Brotagonist t1_j1j76hz wrote

It's weird because many people have this "idea" in their head of what combat or fighting is, but in reality it's basically nothing like that. Try describing being stuck up halfway up on a massive hillside in a valley taking shots from enemy like 400 meters away on the opposite hill trying to hit you with their irons while you move around and also return fire in the slowest process known to man. People think of combat as some sort of "yeah you see the guy and then you shoot him and then it's over and you win!" They don't realize it's like a half an hour process that feels like 5 hours while you awkwardly maneuver around what somehow always seems to be the most cluttered area of your life and then suddenly it's "over."

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8ad8andit t1_j1ihq33 wrote

It seems like it's pretty common for people that do horrible things when they're in wartime conditions for a long time.

I suspect that a lot of police officers in the United States have a similar thing going on; a kind of PTSD from dealing with violent people regularly.

Do you have any thoughts about that? I'd be curious for your opinion since you have actual experience of this and I don't.

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Bleedthebeat t1_j1ijhpa wrote

I don’t think you can compare police officers in the us to soldiers in war. The media and our society in general makes being a police officer seem like a much more dangerous job than it actually is. Sure the threat is there and that is worthy of respect for their willingness to take that risk but in nyc at least something like 95% of officers will go their entire career without ever having to fire a shot. Part of why officers are rarely punished for shooting someone is precisely because it happens so rarely that they’re not expected to really know how to handle the situation. No amount of training is going to adequately prepare you for how you’ll react to a threat on your life when adrenaline takes over

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8ad8andit t1_j1irrog wrote

Well I think it varies in different locations. Areas with deep poverty have a lot more violence than other places.

But otherwise PTSD doesn't come from drawing your gun out of its holster.

It doesn't even come necessarily from violence happening to you.

It comes from being in situations where you fear for your life.

Cops who work very poor and violent neighborhoods are experiencing that everyday.

Trust me, I've lived in neighborhoods where gunshots were a daily occurrence, and even automatic rifles could be heard occasionally. It scared me just to hear it, and I'm not even the one getting the phone call to go check it out every time it happens. That's what cops have to do.

As usual I'm going to get downvoted for daring to suggest that maybe cops could use some empathy.

Unfortunately, the only way to improve human beings is to first empathize and understand what's actually on their plate.

The idea that cops are just this special breed of bad human beings, is stupid. And as long as that is the predominant belief system, nothing will ever change. There will just be this feud that never ends and hurts all of us.

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Bleedthebeat t1_j1j36l7 wrote

I never said or even implied that they are bad people. Sure I know that sentiment is popular on reddit but that’s not at all the point I was trying to make.

And your points above about the inner city officers. That’s because their departments have failed them by never rotating them out of that environment. Those officers need to spend time in an area with less criminal activity to avoid the problem of seeing all citizens as criminals.

All of our problems with the police could be solved internally but the problem is both sides see themselves as being attacked. In some circumstances that seems justified but we seem to have gone away from the days where officers of the law were tasked with serving the commmunity and are now in the mindset of its us against them.

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Fishamble t1_j1izpls wrote

I am not from the US, but from the outside the population have a terrible relationship with the police. Going by reddit it appears they recieve no respect, which is nescessary for them to be an affective force.

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