Attitudes towards the police

[Lozzer]

The police are possibility the most resented bunch of public servicemen in modern times. To the press and layman, they seem to be incapable of doing anything right. They're hated when they're doing something right, and then they're despised when they do something wrong. They can't do anything without being criticized.

My friends are always telling me of their encounters with the police, none of them positive experiences. I've been out in town before and I've been taken aside and told not to look at the officers in the eye. I've heard stories of beatings, interferences and other abuses of the law said officials have taken. I'm not sure what to believe, if only because my father is a police officer. I consider them an necessary tool of the state, and vital observers in keeping order. They have a job to do.

And yet, everyone is terrified of them. I'm torn between what I've been told, and what I know. Why is the public perception of police officers so negative? In most instances where someone has complained to me about police corruption, they've proceeded to snort Cocaine or to get rowdy in a pub.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Synchronicity II" was cool.

[Rum]

My dad was in the police too as it happens - in Hong Kong.

I think that there is a real and genuine resentment in all societies for the forces of social control. We need them, certainly in society as it is, and yet a lot of people, especially those testing the boundaries (which people in their teens naturally do) have nothing but fear and resentment of them.

I have been on the professional 'receiving end' of the police a few times and I found it intimidating and frightening. They were being forceful and efficient, though not aggressive, but it is scary.

I have also worked with senior police officers, who sit on groups I sit on, for planning of strategies and such and they are nothing but decent, professional and quite ordinary blokes.

Being a police person *is* different. It isn't a normal job. And they are no doubt as prone to corruption as anyone exercising power. They also spend their days dealing with nothing but shit. Can't be fun. But it isn't as simple as they are wrong and everyone else is right!

[AnInconvenientScotsman]

Uhm...people are idiots? The majority of people seem to think, especially in the West, that they have a right to do whatever they want and have no responsibilities. When the police "oppress" them, they are only stepping in to stop the person in question from causing harm to others.

Having said that, there are always going to be instances when the police abuse their powers (eg. the use of anti-terror legislation to arrest protesters). Additionally, people will be wrongly arrested or charged, through honest mistakes.

As far as drug use or perceived "unjust" laws are concerned, the police shouldn't be demonised for enforcing them; they are the responsibility of the legislators, the police are required to enforce them.

Some people have reason to resent the police; most are just being petty.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Some cops, not so much.

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

[Feck]

I have met some nice police men and women .........some

[Meekychuppet]

I resent the UK police because they are fucking useless. One statistic I was shocked to learn was that there have been 1000 recorded deaths in police custody in the UK. Number of prosecutions? Zero.

The police are as corrupt as it gets.

[Rum]

I resent the UK police because they are fucking useless. One statistic I was shocked to learn was that there have been 1000 recorded deaths in police custody in the UK. Number of prosecutions? Zero.

The police are as corrupt as it gets.

What do you base this rather breathtaking generalisation on?!

[leo-rcc]

[sandinista]

attitudes towards the pigs eh. I have no respect for them really. State tools of repression. If inequality was lessened, and druhs were legalized we could cut the pig staff by probably 3 quarters. It's not done largely due to the fact that the cops are a cog in a whole "legal/justice" system that relies on punishing "criminals" instead of treating the societal causes of the crime. Cops are mostly just a state sponsored street gang. Corrupt as fuck as was pointed out earlier as well. Cops are there to protect the "haves" from the "have nots". Short version of my feelings regarding the fuzz.

[PsychoSerenity]

I was searched by a policeman once, for suspected shoplifting. I'm not sure why he was there really because I hadn't been in the shop very long. It was pretty scary, he took me back into the shop and out the back. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, so I just stayed calm and let him do his job. He asked me a few questions, got me to empty my pockets, and took down my details. When he had come to the conclusion that I hadn't been shoplifting, and the shop security had made a mistake, he sent me on my way and suggested I act less suspiciously in the future.

But I've always stayed out of trouble, so I've never had any problems with the police. As far as I'm concerned, they are the to help me. I understand why people do have problems with them though, but I prefer to direct my anger at the politicians that make the stupid laws in the first place.

[Meekychuppet]

I resent the UK police because they are fucking useless. One statistic I was shocked to learn was that there have been 1000 recorded deaths in police custody in the UK. Number of prosecutions? Zero.

The police are as corrupt as it gets.

What do you base this rather breathtaking generalisation on?!

Aside from my my personal experience.

Stephen Lawrence
Ian Tomlinson
Jean Charles de Menezez
Guildford Four
Birmingham Six
Derek Bentley
Ten Rillington Place
Oluwashijibomi Lapite
Richard O'Brien

Those are just the names I can roll off the top of my head.

[Rum]

I resent the UK police because they are fucking useless. One statistic I was shocked to learn was that there have been 1000 recorded deaths in police custody in the UK. Number of prosecutions? Zero.

The police are as corrupt as it gets.

What do you base this rather breathtaking generalisation on?!

Aside from my my personal experience.

Stephen Lawrence
Ian Tomlinson
Jean Charles de Menezez
Guildford Four
Birmingham Six
Derek Bentley
Ten Rillington Place
Oluwashijibomi Lapite
Richard O'Brien

Those are just the names I can roll off the top of my head.

Your point? The job of the police is to maintain the current definition of whatever law and order happens to be - and sure they are about social control. That social function aside, what they do has a violent element to it. They deal with the worst behaviour in society.

In 2005-6 1,429,800 people were arrested in this country. If you take your list that is 0.000559519%, actually rather fewer than dropped dead waiting for a bus...and yours were over several years and high profile.

I am not defending the police. Far from it. I was interrogated once on suspicion of running an LSD factory (I wasn't by the way) and it scared the shit out of me. My point is that it is easy and a bit lazy to think of them as the 'pigs' and the 'fuzz', as protectors of the property of the rich, which they may be, but they do far more than that. I have experience of a more positive side of them too.


It is too easy and glib to dismiss the police as corrupt and 'bad' and not view them in a functional context.

[sandinista]

Rum

I am not defending the police. Far from it. I was interrogated once on suspicion of running an LSD factory (I wasn't by the way) and it scared the shit out of me. My point is that it is easy and a bit lazy to think of them as the 'pigs' and the 'fuzz', as protectors of the property of the rich, which they may be, but they do far more than that. I have experience of a more positive side of them too.


It is too easy and glib to dismiss the police as corrupt and 'bad' and not view them in a functional context.

Sure sounds like you're defending the pigs. How is it "lazy or easy"? What are you talking about? Sure you may have a positive experience with a cop, that makes no difference to anything. Thats an individual, not an entire organization. I have had positive experiences with religious people as well, in no way does that legitimize religion. From "easy and lazy" to "easy and glib"??? So, enlighten me on the "functional context" you find, what? "hard and energetic"?

[maiforpeace]

As in all professions, there are a few who are assholes, and the police are no exception. It's usually the assholes that get all the attention, while the many heros go unsung. Why dislike police any more than any other person performing a service for you? Doing it under stressful and negative circumstances much of the time...could you do it? Some people couldn't even wait on people in a restaurant for more than an hour...

And, as Sandinista points out, the police are cogs in a big wheel of a system of justice based on punishment rather than being restorative - along with all the lawyers, judges, essentially the whole legal system. If you hate the police, then you should hate all of it.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Polic ... p/17$52096

Whether police officers are homogenous in their pre-employment and off-duty personalities is fairly obvious, and the answer is No. In all the studies conducted to date, there is no definitive police personality profile that has ever been identified, despite the somewhat common belief among many people that one surely exists.