If I may ...
No vrai. I have never been arrested in my life. I am just one of those that hate to see the progression of once what were "peace officers" to a paramilitary police state that we've become. Ignoring the Constitution, and the rights of the individual. While in the past there have always been bad guys to be dealt with, at least regular civilians were treated with respect and police weren't feared or loathed by the populace. But today, they have no redeeming value.
I do not feel that we live in a "paramilitary police state" and I'm certainly not going to change my mind based on a handful of news stories. I don't feel that the "populace" by and large fears and loathes police officers - that's the media brainwashing talking.
I think people who "fear and loathe" cops make that crap up in their head, or else they live in some dystopian metropolis where evil is the norm.
A story:
When Monello and I were in Paterson, NJ (which is just.....yikes...) we went to Great Falls National Park, which is right there in the city. We spoke to a lovely young park ranger, and afterward marveled at the choices people make in life. You can be a park ranger at any number of fantastic American locations...or you can be a park ranger in freaking Paterson, NJ. I actually asked her, "Why Paterson???" (subtext: "What bad thing did you do that this is your punishment?") and she kind of hemmed and hawed, didn't really give me an answer. My impression was that she grew up in that shithole and doesn't know any better.
The point is this:
You want to be a police officer and make that your career. You have a myriad of choices all across these great United States. You can be a small town cop; you can be a cop in a smaller city; you can even be a cop in one of our amazing national parks. OR! You can be a cop in an urban ghetto shithole teeming with scuzzy people and violent criminals where every day your life expectancy is a gift from the gods.
Let's get real: which one are you going to choose?
Because there
are people who choose that ghetto shithole, and one has to then wonder why. Do they enjoy the rush of danger? Do they like having the opportunity to bust heads on a daily basis? Are they on the take and it's easier in an anonymous metropolis? What is the upside of being a law enforcement officer in that terrible place?
Having been around this country's block a time or two, I'm not going to paint all cops with one brush. The cops in Bastrop, TX aren't even the same species as the ones in DC and Baltimore. The cops in Middletown, MD - we all knew them by name and they knew us by name. They weren't these jackbooted thugs dressed out in riot gear - they were the parents of the kids our kids went to school with.
In short, they are the cops you're thinking of when you say "peace officers". They exist. In a large number of communities. But not in Houston, and not in Baltimore, and not in any other urban shithole. And it's unfair and ignorant to paint them all with the same brush because while they hold the same job title, the job itself is different in infinite ways.
