police de-escalation, Five Thirty Eight
Somewhat encouraging to see the topic appear in as mainstream a forum as them.
"When protests take a turn like this we naturally wonder … why? Was this preventable? Does anyone know how to stop it from happening?
Three federal commissions concluded that when police escalate force those efforts can often go wrong, creating the very violence that force was meant to prevent.
Turns out, we do know some of these answers. Researchers have spent 50 years studying the way crowds of protesters and crowds of police behave — and what happens when the two interact. One thing they will tell you is that when the police respond by escalating force — wearing riot gear from the start, or using tear gas on protesters — it doesn’t work. In fact, disproportionate police force is one of the things that can make a peaceful protest not so peaceful. But if we know that (and have known that for decades), why are police still doing it?"
