About the Police

[teddywolf]

One 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]

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

My response to that question is odd... I can't quite focus on it. What does it mean to "trust" the police? Certainly, they aren't there to advance my interests specifically. I'd say that they generally do their jobs and not infrequently are more helpful than they are required to be, but many times they're sloppy or lazy about their work. I've never personally run into a situation where the police seem to have had unpleasant intentions toward me (that weren't justified by the situation).

Of course, this is affected by my demographics and history. I'm male (negative), white (positive), middle class (positive), getting well into middle age (positive), I rarely travel outside of areas populated by middle-class people (positive), and not noticeably out of the sexual mainstream (positive). But I never had a hell-raising period; I didn't start drinking until late in my 20s and I don't do drugs. So the biggest reason for negative interaction with the cops (misbehaving drunk guy) I never ran into. And I have a deep belief in the fundamental legitimacy of the police's authority (independent of whether I think it is being abused at a particular moment), which I think shows -- I transmit an atmosphere of submission, which is bound to help greatly. I suspect a considerable fraction of trouble with the police comes from people who get into dominance contests with the police. (Vide the Skip Gates scandal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_Gates#Cambridge_arrest).)