About the Police
Jul. 11th, 2014 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddywolfOne of the recent flaps that has gone back and forth between real life and online has tangentially brought up attitudes toward the police. One of the important things about modern civic police forces is that they gain their legitimacy through fair, nondiscriminatory and effective police work. So, I wanted to ask people at large.
You can make comments below. People can comment anonymously here. And for anybody who is coming here for the first time and is worried, I have never worked for or with any law enforcement agency and do not currently work for or with one.
[Poll #1974926]
You can make comments below. People can comment anonymously here. And for anybody who is coming here for the first time and is worried, I have never worked for or with any law enforcement agency and do not currently work for or with one.
[Poll #1974926]
posting anonymously because I trust you
Date: 2014-07-11 07:49 pm (UTC)When I was small, I was *explicitly* taught that police were unreservedly good - authority figures I should always obey and trust. But implicitly I learned they were figures I should fear - such as when they were used as threats to keep unruly children in line.
In my early adulthood I viewed police as unreservedly evil. At this time I and my friends were basically part of a criminal gang, for lack of a better phrase. Police were our enemy - hated and feared. But that was far from the only reason to hate them. Police brutality in the city where I lived only sometimes made the media - it was more prevalent than anyone nationally will ever know, and more horrible.
Times seem to have changed since then, or maybe I have. I have had some decent dealings with police since I cleaned up my act. I see *some* of the fears and hate of police my friends have as an outgrowth of their criminal activity (more than one person has indirectly threatened to kill me if I ever call the police about crimes I witness or am victimized by). But the issues of police brutality are still a hidden corruption that only sometimes come to light. Has it really lessened, or do I just hear less about it now? I don't know.
Re: posting anonymously because I trust you
Date: 2014-07-17 09:53 pm (UTC)It would be very hard to know for sure. At the least, you're getting older, and older people are involved in much less violence (in all ways) -- which also means that the cops are less likely to assume you're violent. But there has been a substantial drop in violence in the US over the past two or three decades; it would be surprising if it did not affect situations involving the police.