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Guy Who Shadowed A Cop For A Night Tells How It Completely Changed His Opinion On Police In This Viral Twitter Thread
Interview
In the midst of the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement, more and more people are speaking out against injustice. And Sean Trainor, a writing professor at the University Of Florida, had a lot to say about this matter.
When Sean was “younger and dumber,” he spent a night shadowing a police officer classmate in what he called “one of the most chilling and radicalizing nights of my life.” He detailed everything that happened during the distressing ride-along in this now-viral Twitter thread. “His entire shift had been devoted to profiling, harassing, and intimidating people,” concluded Sean in a series of tweets that ripped many people’s hearts out of their chests.
RELATED:
Sean recalled his distressing ride-along with a police officer friend in this viral Twitter thread
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
In an interview with Bored Panda, Sean said that the whole experience of that ride-along shaped his personal belief that the problem of policing is systematic and institutional. “I haven’t talked to the person I did the ride-along with in years, but, at that time, we were close, and I remember him during those years as an incredibly kind person and caring friend.”
Unfortunately, according to Sean, his former friend “was embedded in this system that trained him and incentivized him to do harmful stuff.” It suggests that “even if police forces were staffed entirely with people like my classmate, they’d still be destructive because,” continued Sean, “cruelty is baked into their metrics, their goals, their history and institutional purpose.”
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Sean said that when he did the ride-along, he was a pretty ignorant kid. “If I had written up the experience the night after it happened, my report would have looked different than what I posted last Sunday.” But in the years that followed, the things he saw kept resonating with “scenes described by both scholars of racism and policing, especially people of color.” These perspectives have changed his understanding of the night’s events forever.
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Sean concluded that “I genuinely believe that policing in the US is a dangerous, dysfunctional institution; that it provides critical support to white supremacy and class domination; and that it needs to be radically reconceived.”
But it’s not only the police system that’s inherently flawed. Sean argues that “every institution in the US is intertwined with both white supremacy and class domination—including my own institution of academia. “If we’re serious about building a better world, we need to change a lot more than policing.” It comes down to changing both institutions and individual attitudes.
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Image credits: ess_trainor
Sean Trainor is a writer and historian currently teaching undergraduate and graduate classes on professional writing at the University of Florida’s Management Communication Center. As a writer and historian, Sean “uses the communication skills to teach students to translate historical scholarship into public insights.”
He also hosts the podcast Impolitic, which is dedicated to “friendly arguments between a libertarian and a socialist on politics, culture, and history.” Together with co-host Paul Matzko, Sean discusses hot social and political topics like the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement.
In a recent episode titled “No Justice, No Peace,” Sean discussed the protests and urban rebellions sweeping the US after George Floyd’s murder, with detours on ’60s radicalism and reaction, social movement theory, and the rise of the Soviet bureaucracy.
A lot of people joined the thread to comment
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What do you think ?
littlesaresare 5 years ago
Meanwhile, police have never showed up to any of my or my mother's emergency calls. Maybe there'd be less dead people of police stopped picking fights on the streets and actually responded to the people screaming for actual help.
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Yes. I tried to call for help once. Eventually the cop showed up, told me to stop calling about an argument with my lover, and generally told me that the guy breaking into my house at midnight was somehow MY fault/problem/etc. When I told the cop, "I'm married, I don't have a boyfriend!" he just leered like, "Sure, yeah, uh-huh, whatever". And those are the cops who trained the cops we have NOW.... It's been over 20 years and I still remember how the cop left me more scared than the guy breaking into my home did.
Load More Replies...
Hans 5 years ago
A few weeks of education as typical for a cop in the US may be enough to learn to fire a gun but undoubtedly not to de-escalate a situation under stress. I prefer the years of training police officers get over here. It stops them from destroying lifes (including their own) and rather, well, to serve and protect.
Catlady6000 5 years ago
There is now a push to defund police depts here. You'd think there would be a push for funding for more and better police education.some countries, cop school is 2-3 years. In some areas of the U.S., training is on the job. At least one of the cops with George Floyd was actually being trained by the idiot on his neck. No wonder we have problems
Load More Replies...
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
We fear even off-duty cops in my area, and even if we're not POC. One was so whacked out on power/PTSD/whatever (he'd done a stint in Afghanistan, came home uber-conservative and angry)... he threatened to use hsi badge against someone if they didn't cut down a perfectly health tree b/c, no joke, "it obscures my line of fire from my front door". Down came the tree. Did he need help? Yes. Did he become a cop to cope with his issues? Apparently, yes. Did he eventually move away? Yes. And another cop lives down the road now. And we all have to be careful of not offending him, his wife, his kid, his dog... *sigh*
Amy Batchelor 5 years ago
I've had quite the opposite experience. I've been helped by the police and was shown kindness. I've seen police help people of different skin colour. I've even heard police defend people of other skin colours. I don't think ALL police are bad at all. I think bad people are bad peoples whatever their colour or job. Please don't generalise about people, that's what people who are racist do and look where that gets people...
Geth 5 years ago (edited)
The problem is that the "good" cops will never, ever, report the bad cops, or even intervene to stop them (and on the occasions that they do, they get fired.) That's the "blue wall of silence." So if the "good" cops won't take action to stop the "bad" cops, are the "good" cops actually good?
Load More Replies...
Cori 5 years ago
When I worked with people with disabilities we had what we called 'behavior houses' where the residents were combative or otherwise agressive. As staff, we were very limited in what we could do, physically, to neutralize a situation. While they might have been agressive, or even dangerous, we recognized that the people we cared for had rights that must be respected. So we had specialized training that focused on empathetic methods of verbal deescalazation. Why the hell aren't cops trained the same way? Seriously. It's one of the very first lessons we learn as children. 'Use your WORDS and not your HANDS.' And the words they use need to be focused on keeping the energy level as low as possible. Instead I keep seeing examples of police culture that likes to poke the wasp nest with a stick just to have an excuse to mace it.
troufaki13 5 years ago
This just makes me to my stomach. These people are supposed to protect us and make us feel safe. Resolve any dispute we have with each other. Be strict but just. Exactly like a parent. But this... this is beyond sickening. Harassing people for no reason, killing people for no reason, destroying lives for no reason. It has to stop. Now.
Steve 5 years ago
Nobody was killed or harassed in this example, and it sounds like you're saying this example is proof of both of those things.
Load More Replies...
mph seti 5 years ago
Police should be trained, screened and hired like public servants, social workers, and hospital staff. Police should also lose immunity to prosecution, and when they do commit a crime on duty, and get convicted, they should get the maximum sentence. There should be zero tolerance for bigotry and harassment, like any other job. Fire them; no excuses. When the very job changes to one of protecting and serving instead of bullying and militarized "use vs. them" BS, you'll also see less authoritarian fascist types even apply.
Blackheart 5 years ago
I understand your point and it is valid. The guy driving around with no license would have been a problem if he had been involved in an accident with no license and no insurance. But police are trained to look for beat up or out or place cars. I had an encounter with a policeman on my way home from work at 2 am. Stopping me because "people out at that time of night are up to no good." I pointed out that he was out at that time of night. Some are very over zealous and judgemental.
Pamela24 5 years ago
This sounds terrible, completely unnecessary and I can't even imagine (don't want to but I should) how different and worse it must be when the "suspect" is a person of colour. Especially if they just got out of prison and that's the reason they haven't renewed their license yet.
Monika Soffronow 5 years ago
The movement to defund the police seems like something worth supporting. Defunding the police means funding other departments to function better, not simply to cut down on police funding but to replace the cop with someone who is trained to respond to a mental health emergency, for example. I find the follow article downright excellent: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/10/be-the-change-20-positive-ways-to-fight-for-a-fairer-world
littlesaresare 5 years ago
Meanwhile, police have never showed up to any of my or my mother's emergency calls. Maybe there'd be less dead people of police stopped picking fights on the streets and actually responded to the people screaming for actual help.
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Yes. I tried to call for help once. Eventually the cop showed up, told me to stop calling about an argument with my lover, and generally told me that the guy breaking into my house at midnight was somehow MY fault/problem/etc. When I told the cop, "I'm married, I don't have a boyfriend!" he just leered like, "Sure, yeah, uh-huh, whatever". And those are the cops who trained the cops we have NOW.... It's been over 20 years and I still remember how the cop left me more scared than the guy breaking into my home did.
Load More Replies... Hans 5 years ago
A few weeks of education as typical for a cop in the US may be enough to learn to fire a gun but undoubtedly not to de-escalate a situation under stress. I prefer the years of training police officers get over here. It stops them from destroying lifes (including their own) and rather, well, to serve and protect.
Catlady6000 5 years ago
There is now a push to defund police depts here. You'd think there would be a push for funding for more and better police education.some countries, cop school is 2-3 years. In some areas of the U.S., training is on the job. At least one of the cops with George Floyd was actually being trained by the idiot on his neck. No wonder we have problems
Load More Replies... Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
We fear even off-duty cops in my area, and even if we're not POC. One was so whacked out on power/PTSD/whatever (he'd done a stint in Afghanistan, came home uber-conservative and angry)... he threatened to use hsi badge against someone if they didn't cut down a perfectly health tree b/c, no joke, "it obscures my line of fire from my front door". Down came the tree. Did he need help? Yes. Did he become a cop to cope with his issues? Apparently, yes. Did he eventually move away? Yes. And another cop lives down the road now. And we all have to be careful of not offending him, his wife, his kid, his dog... *sigh*
Amy Batchelor 5 years ago
I've had quite the opposite experience. I've been helped by the police and was shown kindness. I've seen police help people of different skin colour. I've even heard police defend people of other skin colours. I don't think ALL police are bad at all. I think bad people are bad peoples whatever their colour or job. Please don't generalise about people, that's what people who are racist do and look where that gets people...
Geth 5 years ago (edited)
The problem is that the "good" cops will never, ever, report the bad cops, or even intervene to stop them (and on the occasions that they do, they get fired.) That's the "blue wall of silence." So if the "good" cops won't take action to stop the "bad" cops, are the "good" cops actually good?
Load More Replies... Cori 5 years ago
When I worked with people with disabilities we had what we called 'behavior houses' where the residents were combative or otherwise agressive. As staff, we were very limited in what we could do, physically, to neutralize a situation. While they might have been agressive, or even dangerous, we recognized that the people we cared for had rights that must be respected. So we had specialized training that focused on empathetic methods of verbal deescalazation. Why the hell aren't cops trained the same way? Seriously. It's one of the very first lessons we learn as children. 'Use your WORDS and not your HANDS.' And the words they use need to be focused on keeping the energy level as low as possible. Instead I keep seeing examples of police culture that likes to poke the wasp nest with a stick just to have an excuse to mace it.
troufaki13 5 years ago
This just makes me to my stomach. These people are supposed to protect us and make us feel safe. Resolve any dispute we have with each other. Be strict but just. Exactly like a parent. But this... this is beyond sickening. Harassing people for no reason, killing people for no reason, destroying lives for no reason. It has to stop. Now.
Steve 5 years ago
Nobody was killed or harassed in this example, and it sounds like you're saying this example is proof of both of those things.
Load More Replies... mph seti 5 years ago
Police should be trained, screened and hired like public servants, social workers, and hospital staff. Police should also lose immunity to prosecution, and when they do commit a crime on duty, and get convicted, they should get the maximum sentence. There should be zero tolerance for bigotry and harassment, like any other job. Fire them; no excuses. When the very job changes to one of protecting and serving instead of bullying and militarized "use vs. them" BS, you'll also see less authoritarian fascist types even apply.
Blackheart 5 years ago
I understand your point and it is valid. The guy driving around with no license would have been a problem if he had been involved in an accident with no license and no insurance. But police are trained to look for beat up or out or place cars. I had an encounter with a policeman on my way home from work at 2 am. Stopping me because "people out at that time of night are up to no good." I pointed out that he was out at that time of night. Some are very over zealous and judgemental.
Pamela24 5 years ago
This sounds terrible, completely unnecessary and I can't even imagine (don't want to but I should) how different and worse it must be when the "suspect" is a person of colour. Especially if they just got out of prison and that's the reason they haven't renewed their license yet.
Monika Soffronow 5 years ago
The movement to defund the police seems like something worth supporting. Defunding the police means funding other departments to function better, not simply to cut down on police funding but to replace the cop with someone who is trained to respond to a mental health emergency, for example. I find the follow article downright excellent: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/10/be-the-change-20-positive-ways-to-fight-for-a-fairer-world
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