Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:12 am
Seriously, Alan, you're weakening your very valid point by flying off the handle. On one hand, cops have an absurdly stressful job to do, deal with the biggest scumbags in our society and don't get paid much to do it. On the other hand, way too many of them are simply the wrong people for this very difficult job.
I should say that on one hand, I was lucky enough to have a friend who's dad was a Chicago cop, and was a calm, cool guy - a great example of what cops can be. On the other hand, I grew up in Chicago, and there are lots of examples of the absolute worst cops - from basic criminal activity like theft and extortion, to normal day-to-day rudeness and disrespect for ordinary citizens, to the '68 DNC police riots, to the police acting as a death squad and murdering several Black Panther leaders. Even today, the Chicago PD is basically governed by it's own Internal Affairs - with no outside overview. So, essentially, it's up to the FBI to police them. (Actually, I think it may be illegal to video or audio record cops without their permission in Illinois unless they are out in public, so that news peice couldn't even exist here!)
There are lots of problems. One is that most cops, like most adults, operate on a black-and-white moral reasoning system, but they are expected to operate within a constitutional legal system that seeks to balance conflicting rights. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg%2 ... _reasoning - Cops, like most adults operate on Kolberg's 4th level, while the US Constitution is essentially operating on level 5, which confuses the hell out of most people, especially cops.)
Another big problem is mutual respect (or the lack thereof). Cops are suppoed to be professionals. As much as we ('civilians') need to do our best to treat them with respect, they're the ones who need to clean up their act. Some cops get that, others don't. Then there's omerta - the idea that 'we' are a threatened group and members of the group must protect each other, almost no matter how bad the situation is. That's part of what's going on in that video. Conciously or not, that cop is going to use intimidation to protect his own - it sucks, and needs to change, but it's there.
None of this is new. There's a latin phrase: qui custodiet ipsos custodes? I think it means 'who watches the watchmen?' Even in ancient Rome, there were exactly these sorts of problems.
We should pay cops better, treat them with more respect and, at the same time, expect a hell of a lot more out of them. It's a bad situation, and I don't know exactly how to improve things, but screaming 'cops are scum' isn't going to help.
I should say that on one hand, I was lucky enough to have a friend who's dad was a Chicago cop, and was a calm, cool guy - a great example of what cops can be. On the other hand, I grew up in Chicago, and there are lots of examples of the absolute worst cops - from basic criminal activity like theft and extortion, to normal day-to-day rudeness and disrespect for ordinary citizens, to the '68 DNC police riots, to the police acting as a death squad and murdering several Black Panther leaders. Even today, the Chicago PD is basically governed by it's own Internal Affairs - with no outside overview. So, essentially, it's up to the FBI to police them. (Actually, I think it may be illegal to video or audio record cops without their permission in Illinois unless they are out in public, so that news peice couldn't even exist here!)
There are lots of problems. One is that most cops, like most adults, operate on a black-and-white moral reasoning system, but they are expected to operate within a constitutional legal system that seeks to balance conflicting rights. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg%2 ... _reasoning - Cops, like most adults operate on Kolberg's 4th level, while the US Constitution is essentially operating on level 5, which confuses the hell out of most people, especially cops.)
Another big problem is mutual respect (or the lack thereof). Cops are suppoed to be professionals. As much as we ('civilians') need to do our best to treat them with respect, they're the ones who need to clean up their act. Some cops get that, others don't. Then there's omerta - the idea that 'we' are a threatened group and members of the group must protect each other, almost no matter how bad the situation is. That's part of what's going on in that video. Conciously or not, that cop is going to use intimidation to protect his own - it sucks, and needs to change, but it's there.
None of this is new. There's a latin phrase: qui custodiet ipsos custodes? I think it means 'who watches the watchmen?' Even in ancient Rome, there were exactly these sorts of problems.
We should pay cops better, treat them with more respect and, at the same time, expect a hell of a lot more out of them. It's a bad situation, and I don't know exactly how to improve things, but screaming 'cops are scum' isn't going to help.
