August 14, 2014 by David K. Sutton
Dehumanizing The Citizens Of Ferguson
When a St. Louis County police officer can be heard on camera calling protestors “animals,” that is a police officer who has stepped outside his professional training. He has now ventured into the dangerous territory of dehumanizing members of the community. And regardless of what those protestors were saying or doing, if they weren’t breaking the law (or even if they were), the police can never do their job correctly if they are equating human beings to animals. You cannot possibly see the point-of-view of another human being if you have extracted their humanity from your mental assessment of the situation.
