The police: a cultural perspective

[VegasM4]

One big problem is that most Americans get their information from the media which is generally anti-police.the only thing they know about an incident is what the media decides to tell them.Officers do great things every day from catching bad guys to delivering babies.Very rarely do you hear about those things on the news.But if a cop is arrested for DUI or there is video of any type of excessive force you can guarantee that it will be headline news and the media will already be saying the officer is guilty.
Another thing that is aggravating is whenever an officer is involved in a critical incident,such as a police shooting,everyone likes to comment about what the officer should have done after the fact.No one would ever tell a doctor how to his/her job,but EVERYONE thinks they know the job of a police officer.Unfortunately most people's knowledge of policework is from watching CSI and the Shield.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

SgtMac raises an important point. American culture - broadly speaking - tends to be mistrustful of authority.

We love our rebels. And that's not a new thing - smugglers were idolized during the years before the revolution, outlaws of the old west were the celebrities of the east coast, prohibition turned being a gangster into a glamour career, and every generation that's had film has had its sneering James Dean.

 

[sgtmac_46]

SgtMac raises an important point. American culture - broadly speaking - tends to be mistrustful of authority.

We love our rebels. And that's not a new thing - smugglers were idolized during the years before the revolution, outlaws of the old west were the celebrities of the east coast, prohibition turned being a gangster into a glamour career, and every generation that's had film has had its sneering James Dean.

Absolutely! In fact, the late great Col. Jeff Cooper wrote a treatise along those lines about the inherent character of America called 'The Deadly American' years ago.....it makes some very good points about the American character as it relates to authority and, in particular, violence, compared to other cultures.



And, while I wish folks would have a rational view of police actions, instead of emotional knee-jerk responses........at the same time I would not like to live in a society where folks 'trust' the police, or government in general, too much.

 

[Shotgun Buddha]

I think another element is percecption of how the police force is divided up and how it functions. The media portrayal of American police forces often fails to mark any distinguishing boundaries between a traffic cop, a forensics expert and a SWAT team member. Its all treated as one big glob of badge-wearing gun toting authority. This means its much easier for someone uneducated about the police structure to tar them all with one brush when someone has a bad experience related to law enforcement. Since they all seem like one group to the outsider it makes things like complaint procedures seem redundant. Internal Affairs? They just wear different jackets that's all, I mean a cop is still a cop right.
*Please do not misinterpret that as my actual opinion. I would prefer not to headbutt my desk*

In both Germany and France I've noticed the perception of law enforcement as being slightly more aware of the police force as a more complex entity, even if only by the tiniest amount. In France you have the Gendarmie and the Police National which are both recognised as seperate entities. The Gendarmie more often than not appear as the friendly officer on the street, the approachable face of authority. The Police National on the other hand are viewed as being people you let get their job done and only approach for larger trouble. Now the fact that these seperate groups are recognised I feel helps prevent hostility towards the whole.
I'm not saying that it doesn't happen that people don't just go "Booooo Police!", just that familiarity with the organisational differences helps make that less likely.
And despite the fact that the American police force is just as varied in roles and departments, people fail to recognise that due to media portrayal and lack of education on the subject.

 

[kiai]

Being the strongarm of the Government, which has its own agendas, I'm afraid that I just can't really bring myself to trust the police. I see it as an institution which gives people power over OTHER people, with inadequate vetting - no process currently exists to ensure that people are joining up for the right reasons and have the appropriate mentality, despite whatever training/qualifications are required. I say this in light of today finding out that "Community Support Officers" in the UK now have powers of arrest - this I find scary, they are far less experienced (and thus effectively vetted) than proper police officers.

My main issue with the police, however, is their use of threat and force to control our own personal life choices - namely the "War" on drugs. To think that these people can come home at night, finding satisfaction that they have prevented people from being able to explore their own psyche, have a fun time how they wish (in a victimless manner) or even self-medicate (MANY of the illegal drugs out there, such as MDMA, Cannabis & LSD can have great medical use) frankly sickens me.

But the day when this freak show called Prohibition ends, I think I'll have a good bit more of respect for and credulity in the police.

 

[crushing]

In the US it seems to be the complete opposite. US friends of mine tell their kids not to talk to the police unless they are forced to, tell them not to trust them, and deny them whatever they are asking if they are asking without a warrant. Many Americans here post exactly the same thing. Such a thing would be unheard of over here among the general law abiding citizenry.

What are your thoughts or perspective on this?

One of my favorite memories from my small town USA childhood was when a few of us kids from the neighborhood would ride our bicycles up to the local cop and ask him to use the radar detector to see how fast we could ride our bikes.

I don't recall my parents ever warning me not to talk to the police. I've never warned my children about talking to the police.

A few years ago a local officer was having a garage sale. He was sort of a neighbor. He lived on the same block, but around the corner. I stopped by to check out what he had for sale and he invited me in to his home to show me some of the remodeling he had done on his new house.

I partied a couple times with the Sheriff's son and may have engaged in some under-aged drinking and cruising the town. I wondered at the time if we had done something wrong and got caught if we would be in more or less trouble because of his relationship. lol

If people must continuously tread more and more carefully for fear that some authority figure is going to play some gotcha game and put them away for 15 years for taking a picture, you will see those people withdraw from having a good relationship with law enforcement and instead become more concerned about CYA.

 

[crushing]

One big problem is that most Americans get their information from the media which is generally anti-police.the only thing they know about an incident is what the media decides to tell them.Officers do great things every day from catching bad guys to delivering babies.Very rarely do you hear about those things on the news.But if a cop is arrested for DUI or there is video of any type of excessive force you can guarantee that it will be headline news and the media will already be saying the officer is guilty.
Another thing that is aggravating is whenever an officer is involved in a critical incident,such as a police shooting,everyone likes to comment about what the officer should have done after the fact.No one would ever tell a doctor how to his/her job,but EVERYONE thinks they know the job of a police officer.Unfortunately most people's knowledge of policework is from watching CSI and the Shield.

The media must be very different over in your area. You don't get much more celebrated and portrayed as heroic in the media than simply being a police officer, fireman, or member of the military.

There has been a gradual change in how LEOs are portrayed. Generally, it used to be that the local police were intelligent and knew what was going on, and some arrogant federal officer would be the bumbling idiot. These rolls have reversed in the more recent TV programming with the local good ol' boys being the idiots and the feds have to swoop in to make things right.