By all accounts a sweet kid. Elijah only showed kindness & compassion towards every one & every being he came across - including his attackers.

This one cut me deeply. Set aside your politics and have your child or sibling read his last words to you. Do you feel anything? https://twitter.com/TraderPamplona/status/1276361037030338566

OK, I am about to go on a rant so if you don't need another hot take just block or mute me now as I am bound to offend some with my uninformed view... 1/n

Firstly, I want to say I support good cops.  These are brave men and women who have the unenviable job of having to put their lives on the line, day in and day out.  The vast majority of their encounters are negative.  You only call in the cops when there is a problem... 2/n

Having lived in Baltimore for five years, I understand why they have been hardened by their experiences and those of their brothers and sisters before them. Right or wrong, our men and women in blue must rely on heuristics and quick judgment for survival... 3/n

There are good cops who make the right decisions under these stressful circumstances and we need to recognize them for their good judgement. There are, however, bad cops who often take things too far... 4/n

How do we change police culture so that we have more good cops and less of these bad cops? Abolishing or defunding the police is not the answer. In fact, I would propose more funding... 5/n

Funding is needed to recruit the right people and to ensure they receive the proper training and support they need to do their job and do it well... 6/n

There needs to be more focus on de-escalation and non-lethal restraining tactics. Resistance shouldn't be an excuse to neutralize a subject with lethal tactics. If an cop's life is not being threatened, the first tool out of the bag should not be gun or deadly chokehold... 7/n

In the case of Elijah McClain, granted they had no idea what they were getting into, the cops should have immediately de-escalated once they felt their safety and well-being were not at risk... 8/n

3 cops pinned this 140lbs kid to the ground. He had no weapons and pleaded for his life, telling them that he was sorry and that he loved them. Something should've gone off in their collective heads - that this is as far as it needed to go and that force was not necessary...9/n

But if vast majority of police encounters are violent and negative, it's tough to switch from head-breaker mode to civil-servant mode. Maybe if cops had more positive encounters with civilians, they would have seen Elijah for what he is... 10/n

Here is my solution:  How about incorporating community/civil service into the evaluation process?  It need not be required, but officers who show a commitment to community and civil service should be promoted up the ranks... 11/n

These are the leaders who the young cadets should look up to - cops who volunteer on their off time; cops who shoot hoops and run routes with the neighborhood kids, etc... 12/n

I think this will go a long way towards changing the police culture from within while also helping to repair trust and mutual respect between cops and civilians... 13/n

Maybe if they had spent time with the neighborhood kids, one of these cops would have heard Elijah's pleas and thought about the good kids they played ball with the other day and things would have de-escalated? .. 14/n

What's clear is that things need to change.  One Elijah is one too many... end rant 15/15