What happened to communication skills???

Watching the coverage of the interactions between citizens + law enforcement in Los Angeles...
An interviewee made a comment about crowd enforcement + crowd management... which brought
to mind my folks during the time of the Watts "riots" in 1965. It was a tense time growing up in SoCal,
particularly w/ both my folks being in law enforcement.

I was witness to one particular skill developed by my father. He was able to take the temperature
of an unruly, unhappy crowd within minutes. He would talk to them... Civilly... Politely... He was open to
their complaints + taunts + slurs; however, he never dished back. He would work the line, getting folks
to voice their anger, their fears, their concerns + he would find avenues of agreement between folks that
would slowly drop the crowd's temperature + would move conversations in a positive direction. He + his
partner would work this magic group by group, neighborhood by neighborhood. They took names + numbers
+ assessed folks' problems + I know they did follow up weeks + months + years afterward. It seemed like magic
-- I saw the waters part as these officers stood in the gap during violent times.

This seems a much more positive approach than the current direction taken by LA + other law enforcement: disperse
or arrest.