One night, at an on-base bar at a U.S. Army air installation in South Korea, a soldier drank too much. Not exactly breaking news, but his first sergeant and company commander happened to be at the club, and after realizing the “super-drunk” soldier was no longer capable of behaving himself, they sent him home. The soldier left, but then returned to the club—with a knife. Somebody called the military police. When Brenna Toel arrived, she could tell by the way the intoxicated soldier stood, and later by the way the shank looked after the police took it from him, that he had “been in some fights,” she said. But rather than pull her gun—or a taser or a club—Toel cajoled, reasoned, and pleaded with the soldier to leave the club peacefully, using the de-escalation techniques ingrained in her during her training. For three hours. “I talked him down for three hours instead of having anybody else get hurt,” she said. “It never entered into my head to just pull my weapon and try to get him to go down like that. Never once.” Like much of the United States in the past few months, Toel has watched the explosive news and accusations of improper police response and brutality, specifically against Black Americans—and the loud outcry that has followed. May 25 video footage showed Minneapolis police officers kneeling upon the neck of 46-year-old George Floyd until he died. After the video went viral, protests erupted across the United States. Unrest followed—including peaceful demonstrations, as well as property destruction and looting—as did clashes between protesters and police.  [full article]