The police and the citizen
I grew up in an area of New York that wasn’t especially high-crime, and my dealings with police tended to be limited to traffic stops.
And yet I feared them because they had the power and I did not. And that was long, long before the current “militarization” of the police began.
In general, I was taught that police were—and personally experienced them as—fair and polite (remember, this was a long long time ago). But that didn’t change my feeling of apprehension, because I knew that if push came to shove they would win and I would lose. That was, and is, a given.
So one of the things I was told, or somehow gleaned, was this: you don’t mouth off to police. You don’t defy them. You don’t even giggle in their presence, as I once did when a highway patrolman in Arizona stopped my then-husband for wobbling outside the lanes on a highway and my husband’s excuse was that he’d been eating potato chips, and the cop said “Don’t eat potato chips and drive.” I thought that was funny, but the officer didn’t.
Of course, I’m not a man. I don’t have to prove I’m not a wimp; in some ways I am a wimp. But it was simply understood when I was growing up that, whether you were a man or a woman, picking a fight with a policeman was asking for trouble because it would be your word against his and that he (it was always a “he” in those days) held almost all the cards.
I also grew up knowing and having sympathy with the fact that police ran great risks, or at least faced the potential of great risks, every day. My father, who was a lawyer, told me when I was very young that police considered domestic calls one of their most dangerous tasks because they were most likely to be assaulted or even killed when answering them. That made a deep impression on me because it was to my mind so unexpected; once I was grown up I found it made sense.
So I always saw the whole thing as a balancing act where the citizen had to be wary of police and the police were understandably wary of citizens. However, in a pinch you could usually call on the police to help you. But still, when a police officer stops me, even though I’m a white woman of a certain age and don’t look like a threat to anyone, I’m very nervous, and I’m careful to remain scrupulously polite and to keep my hands in the officer’s sight and not make any sudden movements.
So this problem is not new, although things have only escalated as the public has become more defiant and violent and the police have militarized. I’m not sure how it could be corrected except for the recording of every encounter with police, which could act as a check on both sides.
I had much the same experience growing up in the same time period. I too was told to always be respectful both as a pragmatic matter and because the profession was deserving of respect given its dangers and societal function.
In a law abiding society, that function is ideally to serve and protect. The more lawless the society or area the more the police’s function is to control and apprehend.
It is a fact that black and to a somewhat lesser degree Hispanic sections of society are high crime areas and since police cannot know who is and who isn’t a threat, they have to assume that someone is guilty until proven innocent. As to do otherwise is suicidal.
It is a fact that statistically, young black men are much more likely to be a lawbreaker than are whites. Police act accordingly and any policeman patrolling through a high crime area will have a tense, defensive mind-set.
“There is nothing more painful to me… than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
— Jesse Jackson
My home town was about like Mayberry. We had one cop. He was a big Swede and he was a physically imposing man. His main job was taking local drunks home to sober up. The one time we did have a dust up involving guns, he had to go to the police station to get his gun so he could confront the robber who was holed up in the back of a warehouse. He talked the man into surrendering and giving up his gun. Everybody loved the man and knew we could call on him for help.
Imagine my surprise when I was stopped for speeding in a small southern town and found a snarling, imperious man reading me the riot act for going 5 miles over the speed limit before he handed me my ticket. This was in Milton, FL a small town next to a Naval Air training base, NAS Whiting Field. Because most of us in training were Yankees, the local police liked to lord it over us. They knew we were under the gun. A beef with the police, other than a minor speeding ticket, could get you bounced out of the program. So, they dared us to react to their imperious dressing downs. What was worse, a new Legal Officer on the base, who happened to originally be from the area, tried to use speeding stops to bring students up on UCMJ charges. That lasted about two weeks before the CO put a screeching halt to that program. Anyhow, most of us drove very carefully in town, but there was a lot of anger about the local “Bull Connor type cops” that we had to endure if we ever got stopped.
So, police do abuse their authority. If you’re not a full time resident, there isn’t a lot you can do to change the situation. If the police in Ferguson, MO were abusive, maybe there will be some reform to come out of the rioting. But it’s a heckuva price to pay. The best way is through peaceful protest, reporting abuse to the mayor or city council, or even complaining to the DOJ.
I’ve had very little contact with the police in an official capacity. I have worked with several dozen corrections officers however. The vast majority were very good and conscientious people attempting to do a difficult job. Some few of them however obviously enjoyed the power, control, and authority given to them a little too much and could be too stringent and at times abusive. Unfortunately the few bad apples get a majority of negative attention and discredit the profession.
It can’t be easy to be a policeman in today’s environment and I certainly wouldn’t want the job.
Its a bit curious that concern with ‘militarized police’ has suddenly become the topic du jour amongst lefties. Nary a peep was uttered on the left about the Waco massacre or the senseless slaughter of a mother holding a baby and a young teenage white boy at Ruby Ridge. Its only when the gop holds the oval office or a special victim group is involved do we hear the left express worries about a police state.
I too find police in armored vehicles toting full auto weapons disconcerting and dangerous, but the current brouhaha on the left side is Johnny come lately and suspect IMO.
“So this problem is not new”
I’m sorry- What is “this problem”?
I was raised to be appropriate. Responding to Authority with deference is appropriate because Authority is Authority.
I was raised to be civil and polite, not just to Authority but to all. To the powerless as well as the powerful.
The recording of every encounter with cops will lead to the same in dealing with other Authority figures. The replacement of social decency with gigaGB of digital data is not the answer. We need to live by something more than “All power corrupts….”
Obey Authority… or else.
When push comes to shove, most people will fold and obey authority. It’s not like they will defy the Power.
Oh, of course they talk big, but that’s just getting into the mood from before. They give up because they believe it is hopeless. And in some sense, it is hopeless, because for them, they hit their limit.
Limits vary over a human curve. Most humans belong to the 68%. Few belong to the 3%.
The police unions know that video tapes can mitigate issue by providing an objective reference point. That’s why they train their dogs to crack down on civilians recording things, and to say that it’s a crime and confiscate the recording.
Parker, they are playing both sides as puppets. Just as Hussein is with ISIL and Iraq. They’re on both sides. They armed both sides.
a person can be harsh and be a good policeman. they can be funny and good. they can be formal and good, casual and good. why? they are people. that also means they have fear, pain, and hate. ups and downs. good days and bad. they spend more time with people doing bad things than the rest of us. that impacts them. they see more rape, beatings, and drunkenness than we do. tough job. now throw in people at their worst – criminals – and it makes for many a tough day/night.
I have mixed feelings about the situation. I do not like the race baiters on the left, however, it is still possible that the policeman was in the wrong. Police abuse happens frequently and could be a factor here.
We have a family friend who had a bipolar break when he was in his early twenties. When he was having a manic episode, he was still a good gentle person but one who was confused and looked different. While he was walking on the streets of a California city, possibly LA, a policeman got in his face for no reason and taunted our friend. He actually stuck his face into our friends face and asked our friend to hit him. When our friend refused the policeman arrested our friend anyway possibly thinking he was intoxicated. The police department refused to let our friend have his medications.
Incidentally, our friend was white. The best I could infer is that some policemen are like wolves looking over a herd of elk seeking out the sick or injured so that they can take them down. This type of policeman gives the good policemen a bad reputation.
We also have a family friend who is black who has had interesting experiences (in a bad way)with California police. This friend is black and has a neurological condition which perhaps makes him look slightly intoxicated since he occasionally stumbles. This friend’s disability and skin color together bring out the worst in the bad predator cops.
Anecdotes, anecdotes. Good news never gets reported; bad news always does.
Here’s one: a 23-year old recently diagnosed Type 1 diabetic on insulin felt his blood sugar crash and tried to cross the street to a convenience store for sugar. He was off-campus, but a campus (State univ.) cop saw him, decided him drunk and cuffed him. His speech at this point was slurred, he was staggering, He was very close to losing consciousness and having a hypoglycemic seizure. A city cop passed by, stopped, got a Coke from the convenience store, ran back, got it into the diabetic just in the nick, and berated the campus cop.
The police are a subset of the general community whose reflections against central authority have immured.
If the population, which produces police, have no will to resist unlawful police, well, hello to the totalitarian state.
We are seeing the natural result of a community demanding totalitarian results (Agenda 21) rebelling against what they didn’t know. And they are helpless except for media and outrage expressed. We are divided in that we respect the rule of law but not that they deserve it.
Y,
BHO is the puppet, the pundit left and their true believers are lackeys and cannon fodder. The messiah is a tool, a crude tool at that.
Cops: Cops are just people, some are good, most are mediocre, and some are bad seeds. A more sane society would encourage individuals to be prepared to defend themselves. Where I live the only law enforcement is the county sheriff’s department. They are basically okay, with 1 or 2 not so trustworthy or competent. I live in a 1950s America and I am pleased to be here.
Don Carlos,
Power does corrupt. DC is the epicenter of corruption. It is the largest criminal enterprise in all human history bleeding 3 trillion a year from the peasents and borrowing trillions more from our great grandchildren.
The Officer caught on Video (and fired) for telling the truth had it right: Obama is lawless. Most of our so-called leaders are lawless. Bureaucrats are lawless.
The President doesn’t have to follow the Constitution; therefore the Police don’t either. That’s the subliminal message that isn’t subliminal anymore. It’s overt and at worst half-conscious and soon to be fully conscious.
The Law is whatever the thug, cop, pol, or bureaucrat says it is on that day at that time. Period. I.e. There is no law; or might makes right is the only law.
Amazingly, all that is left is what the diabolically driven Left has been telling us for 50 years is not real: Natural Law.
There is a Law. Natural Law. There are Rights. Natural Rights.
The President and the Cops don’t follow the Law anymore – and so we are under no moral obligation to obey or cooperate with their lawlessness. We, each of us, are the Law, and they are not.
Period. End of Story.
Of course there is prudence. Part of the Natural Law is the responsibility to protect the life of yourself and your family. If that means “pretending” that you respect presidents and cops and bureaucrats, then so be.
But that is only until the New Day comes again when Right makes Right; and not Might makes Right.
The end.
We’ve seen facets of this coming for 25 years. I remember when cop cars were the bottom of the line Ford Fairlanes painted black and white with no hubcaps or air conditioning. Now they look like $50,000 luxury sports cars with another $50,000 worth of accessories attached. All for public safety and our own good of course.
If you would like a laugh on this subject, this is hilarious. Chris Rock’s “How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked by the Po-Lice”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igQDvYOt_iA
[er, language warning!]
I’m not scared of the cops, but I am aware that in NYC some of them are Humor-Deprived. But that, unfortunately, goes with being in constant contact with the Worst Elements of Humanity.
I did have an unpleasant encounter with a cop guarding the St. Paddy’s Day parade route; as Mayor Guiliani came down 82nd St., I was trying to cross before he got there, to make it to my doctor’s appointment. You know, middle-aged white lady with a slight Southern accent? not a Terrorist? but he saw me hesitate, and his attitude hardened in an instant. It was a bit unnerving.
On the positive side, I’ve had very pleasant encounters with them the rest of the time. And I was childishly delighted when a pair of NYC detectives showed up at my door one day to investigate a break-in upstairs, and they were dressed in trenchcoats and one was carrying a fedora like Sam Spade. They had the ‘tude down pat, too. Classic!
Beverly, Chris Rock. Priceless! Should be required viewing for all drivers. 🙂
So, today the New York Times headlines with the name of the policeman who shot the saintly perp.
However, if you read past the headline, and into the actual body of the story, it also features security camera footage, apparently of our saintly Mr. Brown– huge at 300 lbs.–manhandling the much smaller clerk during a robbery at a convenience store that took place shortly before Brown was shot (see http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/us/darren-wilson-identified-as-officer-in-fatal-shooting-in-ferguson-missouri.html? )
People over at Gateway Pundit also have a story up about the pictures found on the Internet of Mr. Brown posing and flashing gang signs and giving the world at large the double finger (http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/breaking-michael-brown-was-a-local-gangster-seen-flashing-gang-signs/).
Correction: The gentlemen who was sitting next to Mr. Brown in a screen capture in the Gateway Pundit story was the one giving the world the one fingered salute.
My mistake, but given the pictures of Brown that I had seen in the Media up to that point, I had thought that Brown was the much smaller man to the left, not the really big guy on the right. Now, in view of the surveillance tapes, it appears that the really big guy on the right was Brown.
Here is a link (http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/breaking-photos-released-of-suspect-michael-brown-robbing-store-before-shooting/) to a story reproducing Ferguson police paperwork alleging Brown to be the person seen in the convenience story security camera footage of the strong arm robbery, and the police paperwork about the convenience store strong arm robbery naming Brown as a suspect. And here is a link to a Fox News story that features some of the actual security tape, not just stills (http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/08/15/what-we-learned-and-what-we-didnt-learn-from-todays-disclosures-in-ferguson/) .
there are now images of the MO boy shot who didnt have a weapon… ie. stealing cigars to make blunts and using his size to abuse a patron
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-15/ferguson-police-chief-announce-officers-name-who-shot-mark-brown-live-feed
such an angel..
but note..
the looters aer not going to say sorry and bring the stuff back.
in fact..
they are going ot complain that people dont want to open stores in their neighboroods.
left out link to twitter feed images of the angel
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvFZ9xgIIAAgCZW.jpg:small
These people’s politicians were the same ones that complained of looting in Baghdad to make BUsh II look bad. Now they are instigating their loot and runs in our cities. Coincidence?