Solution: legalize drugs and pay the reparations we originally promised for work provided.
Very naive because if it ever happens the Democratic Party will never win another election and that's the cold hard truth. You're saying things that make you feel better about yourself but is political suicide to even say out loud.
A better more practical idea that will actually work and be politically viable is to first teach kids in every public school in America what they are required to do by law when approached and questioned by the police. Black people in particular in most of the horrific confrontations I've seen believe that if they didn't commit a crime or do anything wrong then the police have no right to question or detain them which is simply not true. From there and from those initial mistakes everything else spirals out of control:
1) If a police officer approaches you and wants to ask you questions but you do not want to talk to them then ask them if you are being detained. If they say "yes" then say "OK, but I do not talk to the police without a lawyer present, am I free to go?" Then repeat that until they say you can go.
2) Any deviation from the above or the police do or say something they shouldn't, go to the police station with a witness and file a complaint formally. It might not do anything about your individual situation, but if enough people do this then it will force things to change. Understand the change will be slow but be patient and above all else, persistent.
3) Your community is your own and it will be more safe if you have a spirit of cooperating with the police. The next two steps will improve that community cooperation.
4) Staff police with people from or near the community with an understanding of that community. No more dropping white midwestern kids fresh out of the military off into urban minority communities as that is a disastrous thing to do. We don't take urban black kids and drop them off in Appalachia and expect them to be successful so why think the reverse will be?
5) Minority communities are over-policed. Way too many traffic stops. Way too much police interaction. Let the people breath. If I couldn't go down to the store without getting stopped 50% of the time and if I got a ticket coming home from work 3 or 4 times a year I would get fed up pretty quickly with that. I realize traffic stops solve a lot of crime, but the primary focus of policing minority communities must focus on gang activity. Until we get a handle on the gangs and establish community where it is safe to report a crime, then all our other efforts will be wasted.
6) Demilitarize the police. Too many police now look like soldiers. There is a military look and feel to many police departments that makes communities look and feel like occupied territories. The fundamental role of a police force is to protect and serve a community and they need to look and act like it. Make the community safer. Make it possible for good people to thrive. Nothing is possible in any community that is controlled by gang activity.
How many times have "black leaders" even tried to come on television after some awful tragedy and talk to young black men about what they are required to do when confronted by a police officer? You see this continuing tragedy of people mistakenly believing that if they didn't do anything wrong then they can confront, walk away from (or run), or even much, much worse, physically attack a police officer. We strap a gun on these people and we tell them to go out there and wade into danger to protect us all. There is a bargain that must be made with them to do that. To accept that just for a job they might not go home to their families again. Warts and all we give them the benefit of the doubt because we have to.
