Lessons learned!

                As some of you know as of late, I recently dipped my toes into doing a Podcast Via Insta with a friend of mine. The initial idea was for us to do a video a week and respectfully chat about some things that we, as a society, and the conversation is between people who respect each other but have opposing views. Initially we were planning on talking about “Soft ball” things and the conversations were set up to be easy and light. That is not what happened. We soon started having hot topic conversations and I started seeing trends in the conversations that were not what I signed on for. This got me to thinking about the lessons I learned about in the Dojo and what the Dojo Kun says about interactions with people.

                After my venture with vlogging I started watching YouTube and news media outlets with a bit more of a focus on how they are presenting opposing views.  I started watching main stream media with a more critical eye as well and realized that when I started in on this social media based Vlog I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Now to be fair, I don’t blame my friend for my ignorance at all and I should have been very clear with her right off the bat that I did not want to present an opposition to her if I actually did not oppose her views! The blow back from our vlog also shuttered it for a bit.

                My feed back from friends was actually very supportive and sort of keyed in on the issues with my friends presentation not on mine. That aside my friend got some very harsh feed back and some violent and threatening feed back as well! There is never a time that you should threated or attack someone on social media that you simply don’t agree with!..EVER!  But this feed back she got really got me thinking about my Dojo point of view and how people behave now adays.

                My life is modeled after the Dojo Kun and being a good person with compassion and respect as primary character traits I want to show and develop in myself.  One of the biggest issues that modern Social media lacks is a real understanding of respect! People on social media want to be respected, but often fail to give respect, which insights them and causes them to be even more disrespectful! This leads to a second thing that is lacking completely when it comes to modern social media “influencers”…..Self Control! I have recently seen people go off the deep end when faced with people of opposing views, both right and left! If you don’t agree with someone apparently losing your SH*T is acceptable and expected. You have to not only advocate for your point and your position but you have to be militant in your attacking others! Screw freedom of speech…if they don’t agree with the stance you take…belittle, attack and don’t listen…God don’t listen!

There is a modern-day regime of conformity and intimidation against those that oppose a given point of view. This is the current cancel culture that is plaguing people today. People who do share their ideas on various ideas end up losing their jobs, losing friends and when they share their opinion they are shut down and shot down. This is silly to me. Often in Karate you run into people who move different, have different ideas and who think differently. The response is not/or should never be to off handily discount the idea they present. Instead you listen/watch, try and reproduce it and test it. If it has merit then you use it…if not you discard it and move on.

When you lose or you are wrong in some way in Karate you also tend to try and learn from it and better yourself. You push to understand how you lost and you build yourself up by that.  And if you win you do so with a humble heart knowing that the next time…you may not win the match. In todays world of Social Justice Warriors, right wing conservatives, ANTIFA lefties and the general idea of cancel culture and attacking when you clearly have lost…well you don’t get that honesty! People in general, me as well, hate to lose…and love to win. Its how you handle both of these situations that make you a better or worse person.

                Some ideological conformity does exist in Karate however…and its sanctioned by and for the same type of people and for the same reasons. People are influence and sometimes forced to not think for themselves. Essentially in Karate and especially on the modern social media people the norm is that you select an ideology and or idea and you stick to it, damn logic and facts. You tend to jump in with both feet. However, Karate has the advantage of the great equalizer…if your ideas work in real life (Kumite) then you are right…if not you can not really argue that it did not work for a (add excuse her) kind of reason. In Karate feelings of being right don’t matter….facts and proof matter. This is why Bunkai testing exists in Karate.

                The other REAL thing you learn from Karate is that in real life…real fights hurt! You get hit…it hurts. People tend to think that getting your feelings hurt is the same thing. People will get upset that you don’t agree with them and they attack you, go after your family or your job simply because you said something counter to their thinking. That is weak!!!! Real fights hurt, I would suggest to anyone that says that their ego/feelings were hurt should let me punch them in the face and see which they want to happen again. Someone not agreeing with you is not the end of the world, use the disagreement to foster an education from the situation. Don’t be ignorant and closed minded, seek out those that don’t agree with you and grow.

                After my experience with the Vlog responses and watching social media and the mainstream media I can, with out hesitation, say that both the right and the left…are stupid and closed minded…and looking to be correct! They don’t want to listen, they want to talk, they have no interest in learning, they want to tell others how to think and why!  They are vulgar and childish! When my friend tried to give her view of a very “Hot button” topic she was attacked by some troll on line and it actually got to the point that the vulgar little beast threatened her and started being very crude.

                Now I have to say that facts matter and reality is real. This is true in Karate and in life. Its specifically true in conversing with people who have opposing views.  If your argument is just to throw vulgarity or emotional backed arguments you lost before you started!

                So, what can we all take away from my experiences dipping my toes into social media?  Well, a few things. People need to learn about respect!  You also need to know people’s motives and tactics when you start debating with them. If you are wrong, or lose an argument you need to do two things, show courtesy and learn. If you win an argument you need to also be courteous and focus on being humble.  The other thing I took away from monitoring all this social media stuff, YouTube and the mainstream media…some people really need adult supervision!

Modified policing vs dismantling/Defund the police forces

                In Minneapolis, three city councilors are looking at defunding and dismantling then dismissing the police force in their state!  The idea sounds like an obvious jump after all the violence that the police have been charged with and have put against the people they are sworn to protect. There is a problem, however…your jump to getting rid of those that should be protecting you will open the door to greater crime, chaos, and violence that is unchecked! The idea of abolishing the police is…. stupid! I will say it, anyone that is in favor of just getting rid of them without having a plan in place to “police” your urban centers…may as well just toss a match on that chaotic dumpster fire that is going to blow up!

                The key is not dismantling, defunding or abolishing the police force…the key is training, removing the corrupt police unions and pushing for police review boards that can dismiss corrupt, racist or violent police officers. The other MAJOR shift that you need to have is the shift in the states from police = military or paramilitary to a protector or guardian mentality! The current funding goes towards things like “less than lethal” weapons, tanks, military clothing and training cops like they are going into a war! This all adds to the mentality of police being warriors and not protectors.

                My favorite thing to do is to review facts and research, mainly because I am open to changing my mind on things and learning is a key to growth…..so I googled “countries without police” and found something interesting…NONE of the real countries (meaning I am not counting areas like Antarctica) are with out some form of police. Now when I pull up a list of countries without a military, I found a few. The point is that EVERY country has those that they entrust their safety to.

                Now, that is not to say that all policing is done the same way. In the UK you need to have a special level of training to be what we would call an armed officer; most do their job with only a baton and what they call incapacitant spray or what we would call pepper spray. Firearms and even Tasers are restricted to specially trained members only. In the UK the average time that away more training in things like ensuring public safety, protecting vulnerable people supporting victims than we do across the pond. In the UK, lately, the police also must have a degree in policing so they are already ahead in learning about laws, police policy, and other core learning components. That is a two-year degree! Much of this is funded by the public!

                They also learn things like Leadership and strategic command, Prevention and reducing crime, Conducting inspections, professionalism training, Command, Forensics, Intelligence, Leadership Development, and various other policing items. They do learn use of force, protective tactics ext but much of their training is in-laws, law enforcement, rights of the people, and how to prevent crime and protect others…and the firearms training is reserved to the special officers, who undergo more firearms training and use of force training just to carry a gun…than most US special forces members do. This is why the modern British police are less likely to kill a suspect than a rookie cop in the US.

                In Canada, most police have 37 weeks of training. 18 weeks in the academy learning laws and procedures, firearms use, police vehicle operations, and use of force training.  As all cops carry a firearm the focus is on use of force and how to deescalate situations. Next is 16 weeks of field training…then back to the academy for additional training prior to graduation. Now its not what the UK have, but its much better than the US. Despite what others think, Canadian policing tends to trend more towards guardianship and less towards violent enforcement. The federal police force or the RCMP receive similar training, however, they are a 24/7 training program with more training time during the day and they do so at the Depo or the training center in Regina.

               

                The US training averages 12 weeks of training only! The training in most states includes “Officer safety and SURVIVAL”, Communication and interviewing Constitutional and federal law (1 week), Criminal law (1 week), Arrest techniques, defensive tactics, drugs of abuse, terrorism, VIP protection, Physical security, firearms, tactics for flying armed and driver training. You will note that there is little about personal policing, de-escalation, protecting others…other than VIP’s and the training on laws and rights are very slim. 

                Now having said this there is a huge turn over of police in North America (Specifically the US) and most police departments have a total of zero required continuation of education or training regarding de-escalation, social policing or training in community policing and tactics in that regard. Some police chiefs actually consider this. In some places like Canada and the UK you must update your training fairly regularly and the departments encourage a lot of self-driven training as well. In the US they tend to avoid this and they don’t ask their members to update training regarding social policing.

                The key to fixing our police issue in my opinion is to reformat the whole thing, not toss out the baby with the bathwater! The focus should be on shifting the Police mentality from military warrior who is enforcing laws to the guardian mentality of someone protecting the individuals. The shift would have to include defunding things like tanks or armored vehicles and creating uniforms that reflect the “Superman” mentality of protecting and guard over the Punisher mentality of punishing and enforce! Also the training needs to focus less on how aggressive tactics, use of weapons and upgraded arsenals and more in the verbal skills, de-escalation, laws and rights and how to community police over being a paramilitary group.

                While some people/politicians are now touting how they want to toss the whole system and create something new, my question is how and what. Most of the people calling for the removal of the police like Ilhan Omar tend to be anarchists and want to just toss all mainstream ideals out the window with no plan as to what to replace it with. The worst part is that they take a solid and accepted truth, like a need for change, and roll their ideals of drama and rebellion with out a strategy out…and now that they have the power to affect change…we can look forwards to a city with no protection, no police and honestly….knowing humanity the way that my 46 years on this planet has given me access to…well that town is going to BURN!

                The level of absolute stupidity that it takes to suggest this should eliminate someone from public service the second, they make this suggestion of doing away with police when the only plan they have and the only one they are voting on…is doing away with the police. Before you give such a crazy suggestion, you may want to have the “To replace it with this” kind of plan…but that is obviously to much to ask. In short…this is solidly placed in the “Top ten stupidest thing a politician has ever suggested”.