Let's start this off stating very clearly that we need police. Police serve a very necessary purpose, and are indispensable in human society of any volume larger than a familial village. You need people who will put themselves in harms way, on threat of death and destruction, to protect the innocent from those who would cause harm. Police don't have to be the enemy. At this point, the basic actions of officers following their own policies in the line of duty make people feel like they are.
As a young adult, I learned two very important lessons about police from observation alone:
- Police are people doing specific jobs.
- Police are not there to help you.
Regular, everyday police officers appear to have a long punch list of responsibilities, much of which seams secretarial. They check info, search records, write mandatory invoices (citations), keep up with email, texts, and verbal communications, and generally stay on top of paperwork. All of this is to support their most visible duty of catching bad guys, generating revenue in the form of fines, and keeping things "normal." The best that I can tell, "normal" means non-threatening to conservative middle class citizens who need to get up and go to work in the morning.
Of those three visible duties, only the first two appear to benefit the officers directly. Unless someone complains, you can't reasonably measure peacefulness. You can measure arrests/convictions, you can measure infractions, and you can measure volume of citations. On what do you suppose police officers' performance appraisals are based?
There must be a direct correlation between a cop's approval from his superiors and the number of crappy days he can hand out to individuals in the general public. This means than he is going to sniff out each and every easy collar he can grab. That means you are getting searched via dog, Mr. Pipe With A Mostly Burnt Bowl In The Glove Box, and you are spending some of the night in the drunk tank, Ms. Openly Drinking Your Third Smirnoff Ice On Your Front Porch. If your actions can lead to an easy conviction and make an officer look better, you had better believe you're spending the night or posting bail.
This brings us to the nastier bit. If he can't easily catch you doing something illegal, it makes him look good to incite you into aggravation, then arrest you, or worse. Imagine you're some regular schlubby guy, out for a drive with your girlfriend in a beater of a car, and you pop a flat. Your car sucks, was bought used and was not well maintained, so one or more of the lugs are frozen. You've been fighting the thing for an 30 minutes to get it unstuck and are just starting to make headway. Then two 6 foot tall 20 something's, who obviously spend hours in the gym each day, pull up with lights flashing, including a random strobes. From their, they chuckle about how you aren't strong enough to even change a tire, they proceed to threaten you with a ticket for being stopped on a highway, start staring hard through your windows of your car window, begin actively questioning your girlfriend about you and what your doing, where your going, etc., and start telling you how bad your car sucks, how it shouldn't be on the road, how you are a dumbass for driving such a crappy beat up wreck, and asking why you can't afford something better...Maybe a little autobiographical, but I've seen this happen several times.
These two officers are larger, in better shape, wearing body armor, (harshly) talking to your girl while keeping you separated from her, insulting your vehicle, insulting your intelligence, insulting your strength, and insulting you economic status. Basically, all those things that can be done to make a man feel incompetent and emasculated are being done by these two men. Add disorienting lights flashing and flashlights shining in your eyes every few seconds. You feel angry and hurt, even if you don't give a crap about what they think. This is on a basic animal level, and it is a set up to create a potentially aggressive situation initiated by you, the citizen. Act aggressively to a policeman on a regular traffic stop and see what happens. I'll see you when you get out of county jail, assuming you make it there.
Maybe this is not really the case, but my personal experience and the testimony of a fired NY police officer tell me differently. This process is reportedly supported unofficially, but not supported by the law or official policy, so you probably won't find this information in public records, aside from lawsuits filed by people who refused to take it.
In addition to this set of very specific jobs, police are not there to do anything else. They are not there to be helpful or get you out of a jam, even if you are powerless to fix the problem on your own and are creating a public hazard by letting it continue. A real life example of this is completely autobiographical. I was in college, driving a heap of gold Chevy Cavalier, when my crappy old car died on a hill just past and intersection. I had no chance of fixing it, and had no cash, so I was left to try to push the thing back into a parking lot. As I got the thing rolling, an officer pulled up in my path, then threw up his lights, forcing me to jump into the vehicle to keep from smacking into his bumper. He questioned me, then proceeded to stand there, still slightly blocking the way, and watch me struggle with this vehicle. I asked if he was could give me a hand, and he said he could write me a ticket and have my vehicle impounded, if he was going to do anything. I guess he was being nice. And, while having a crappy attitude as he said it, he was being nice. He stopped traffic so I could fix my problem could and wasn't making my crappy night worse. Helping me was not his job, and he was doing a favor to me (and probably him) by holding back on his job, thus not starting what amounted to a lot of paperwork and hassle for everyone.
Imagine if that guy was having a bad day and wanted to push someone around. I was young and angry enough to have had a really bad last day.
Lets go ever these points one more time: the job of police is to suspect you of everything and to do what they can to catch you doing ANYTHING that will lead to a conviction, even if they have to essentially force your hand. Police are not there to be at the public's disposal, and they are not on your side. They are on their side. You might be on their side today, but that does not make you friends or allies. The Law is generally designed to hurt everyone equally. That it doesn't is often considered an injustice rooted in prejudice, targeted laws, and all sorts of privilege that you can decide about for yourself. I'll scream about that another day, in another way.
Anyone who has regular dealings on the outsider end of the police business are aware of all of these things. Imagine your neighborhood has a constant police presence, so all these behaviors are a daily hassle, and a sense of endangerment is directly attached . How would you think of police? Even if race is/was not a factor (here's hoping), do the protests in Ferguson, MO, make more sense?
How are police or supporters of police officers confused about this? I'll tell you how: there is a sense of community and additional privilege of which they may not really be aware. Think about where you work. You get perks and probably have an understanding with your fellows that you generally look out for each other on some level. If not, try being friendlier to your coworkers.
You probably have the inside track on whatever industry you're in, with some easy access to the cream of the crop or your product/service. Unless you've made enemies, your co-workers will generally hip you to crap coming your way, and you, knowing your business, should have the inside scoop on how to avoid the problem. Now imagine your business is law enforcement and that you consider yourselves "brothers in arms."
"But Crow Drinker," you say, "aren't police officers supposed to be above that kind of nepotism? Isn't that kind of crap illegal?" To this, I chuckle out a resounding "probably," but these are still people. People are deeply flawed, often on a personal power trip, and often break the rules, even if their job is to enforce the rules. It doesn't make it right, but it is so.
How do we fix this mess? There are a number of ideas we can explore but they all boil down to three basic behaviors:
- Police must be accountable for their actions. If you are in the business of being allowed to kill and brutalize, every action taken leading to the those acts must be recorded and be available to the general public, without subpoena. GLOMAR should not ever be allowed in domestic law enforcement.
- Police must respect the rights of citizens with the same respect they wish (not are) to be afforded. This means they must stop trying to dominate every situation and intimidate in the name of "controlling the situation."
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Take this guy, for instance. He is present, he is actively scanning for suspicious activity, but he is calm and he is not attempting to exert himself on everyone. If there is an actual evident reason to be aggressive (like actual, visible probable cause), then they must do what is necessary to complete their job. - Police must actively do some visible, positive good for the general public. Budget some money to HELP people, not just punish them, and make sure they see it. Do it in the neighborhoods that you patrol the most. Give them a reason to trust. Currently, the badge only brings fear. One thing we can learn from nature alone is that scared things fight or run. Isn't that the opposite of what law enforcement wants the public to do?
Maybe these things are not practical, but they make sense to me. Maybe I'm the one who hasn't given this much thought. This glass of Crow is tasty.
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