We usually don’t like to do these around here, but I thought I would tell a personal story as a way of getting around to my thoughts on the Minnesota police shooting. So, please bare with me as I try to be as brief as possible.

One night in January I went to pick up my daughter from the skating rink. It was the weekend right before the freeze, so I was dressed in sweat pants and a hoodie. The officer on duty asked me whether I saw anyone looking inside of cars and attempting to open them. I told him I didn’t and proceeded to go inside to pick her up.

I walked to back of the rink looking for her and did not see her. When I turned around there was the officer. He asked me why I was looking in the back of cars. I told him I was there to pick up my daughter and had not looked in the back of cars. He then grabbed me by the arm and forced me outside. On the way out I saw her and identified her. He collected my license and made me wait outside.

As we were walking out he pulled me to back of my car and gave me a field sobriety test. It was cold and windy and he had me do the rapid eye test and walk heel/toe for several feet. Needless to say I didn’t pass his little test. I offered to take a breathalyzer as I don’t drink. He couldn’t accommodate that. So, my wife had to come up and drive my daughter home. He finally returned my license and let me go.

So, what’s the point of this story? As I told the officer’s supervisor the next week, as a teacher I have gone through extensive training on student restraint. I have never had to restrain a student in 24 years of teaching. Why? I interact with them in such a way where it hasn’t become necessary to do it. The officer never had to restrain me. I posed no threat and never refused to follow any commands or evaded any questions. The situation obviously didn’t call for that and everyone would have been better off without him being heavy handed.

We can talk about qualified immunity, choke holds, and military style weapons in the hands of police. Those are all worthwhile topics, but the question here is a more basic one. Why was it necessary to taser him in the first place? That was her goal was it not? Why? Many of these instances happen because of racism and there is no denying that. They also happen because officers often have a superiority complex that causes them to escalate situations that don’t need to be escalated. Those two explanations are also not mutually exclusive.

Police reform is obviously going to be harder than passing a few laws. Yes, we should ban choke holds. Yes, we should ban no knock warrants. Yes, we should scale back qualified immunity. Yes, police shouldn’t be outfitted as if they are taking out an Afghan terror cell. More important than all of those things we have to rethink what the goal of policing is and who should be fulfilling that goal.

The blue lives matter crowd will pounce on this victim because he had a bench warrant for a misdemeanor gun charge. It’s as if the value of life is somehow altered by the presence of a criminal record. Did he have a gun in sight in the vehicle? Was he threatening the officer in any way? Is there a way this officer could have approached the situation that would have guaranteed her safety and the safety of the victim? In most cases the answer is yes.

I was a lot happier as a teacher when I discovered that I could exercise more control over my classes when I made the educational experience more collaborative. My students trust that I won’t hurt them. So, they don’t threaten to hurt me. It’s amazing how much a little cooperation helps. As long as police hope to keep a stronghold over us they will continue to get the same results as they have been getting.