At one time, I had a job that involved giving training classes in a program that had a substantial number of cops. (not police-related classes, just to be clear). I became friendly with some of the students who came back for additional help and . Some of those were police officers who gave me gifts of police benevolent association cards.
Those cards were freaking magic. I had a long commute and a lead foot. Before getting these cards I would always stress over traffic tickets so being ‘immune’ was big deal for me.
When I showed one of the cards, I never got a ticket. My driving did not change and I still got pulled over, but all I got were gentle warnings when the card was discreetly peeking out next to my license. I had not been treated particularly badly before (b/c race, class, privilege…), but now I was treated very nicely indeed.
The cards worked not just for officers on the city force, but with in the suburbs and the next state. There seems to be culture among cops that they won’t bother the families or friends of other cops, at least not for minor infractions. (I’d been warned not to expect the cards to help if I committed a serious crime.)
I have no other relatives or friends who are police, so the pba card thing was a real eye-opener for me. And while I am selfish enough to use the cards when I have them, I truly believe that these sort of privilege should not exist at all.
“Equal under the law” means that no one, not cops themselves nor their families nor their friends should be exempted from the law. Cops have been given a lot of power and a lot of discretion to enforce laws which almost never apply to them.
And I realize that getting a traffic ticket is petty compared to losing your life or liberty, but there is a slippery slope and I think that our society has already rolled down it quite a ways. Police can get away with killing and maiming people without any legitimate provocation, and rarely do they get any serious punishment for this. No wonder they have a sense of entitlement.
Which is to say that IMO, police reform is long overdue.