Do police have an “us” and “them” mentality? I only know a few and they do seem a little standoffish and uncomfortable around civilians. One I know was reluctant to tell me that he was in law enforcement (although I already knew).
It occurs to me that the police are more likely to be impartial if they aren’t friends with the people they deal with, and also that civilians don’t really understand the stresses that they have to deal with. That said, there is a difference between differentiating between police and civilians and viewing civilians in an adversarial way.
I would also like to know if things are any worse or better than they have been historically.
I would like to hear from the LEOs among us on this.
Not a LEO but an in-group/out-group dichotomy is fairly common amongst us all. One of my favorite professors at UCLA specialized in studying it. Here is a random study he published on it.
I don’t think you can get a one size fits all answer here. Generalizing that all law enforcement officers behave the same way is the same as saying that all posters on the Dope are arrogant self entitled assholes that can’t see reality for what it is. While that may be true for a number of posters on the Dope, it is in no way accurate for all.
Are there police that have a “us” vs. “them” mentality? Sure, I’d bet there are lots. But there are also lots that truly want to serve and protect, and treat all citizens equally.
Recently, when I’ve encountered police officers in a social capacity, they’ve been somewhat reserved and have steered conversation away from their occupation. I interpreted this as due to the general groundswell of dissatisfaction with the police, and how divisive the issue of police conduct is right now.
Most people encounter the police when they are being punished for something, or have recently been the victims of a crime. In either case, the interaction is not likely to engender warm fuzzies.
Add on the fact that we now get national news coverage of every asshole with a badge and gun who does something bad, and they don’t really want to trumpet their work since so many people have negative associations with them.
Yes, LEO’s do. It used to be "Us (LEO and Law abiding citizens) vs Them (criminals, scum, undesirables, gangsters) but now, unfortunately it is : “Us (LEOs) vs Them (everybody else)”.
What the real issue here is the few bad cops now rarely get reported by the majority of good cops. This worked for a decade or so, but it’s coming around to bite them on the ass, with much more public pressure and videos of encounters.
The vast majority of Good cops need to rethink the “thin blue line” and report the ones who abuse the badge. Otherwise they will all be tarred with the same brush.
Are all families of gang members who know the crimes their family members commit but dont report them also equally guilty?
Not to equate gang members with police. But accusing groups of being guilty of the crimes of its individual members is not only dumb but dangerous…as history teaches.
I’m in sales. I sell tech stuff that gets installed into squad vehicles and talk to cops up and down the line almost every day. Everything gets done differently in every department and every law enforcement officer is different.
Almost every day, I talk to Patrol Officers who want to be called Officer Jones and Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains and Chiefs of Police who want to be called Jake. Or just Chief or Captain or Lieutenant or L-T or Sergeant. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of Patrol Officers are cool with first name, too. Preferences are diverse, to say the least.
I also sell a lot of electronics that have nothing to do with law enforcement. Most of them don’t want to be called Mr. Jones or Director Jones, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot. Rank in Police Departments is not the same as title at a corporation. There are asshole cops, asshole IT Directors and asshole purchasing agents everywhere. The world has no shortage of assholes.
Demonstrations of power are not unique to law enforcement. “Us vs. them” perception of law enforcement is mostly because that’s the position we put them in. Their metrics are citations and arrests. Not writing tickets or arresting people for crimes? Obviously not doing your job. In my opinion, performance metrics are useful with entry-level employees to weed out the worst of the worst. At higher lever jobs (which I would hope we count Police Officers in) metrics are mostly useless. Performance or lack thereof is self-evident to competent, experienced managers in business or law enforcement.
This is a pretty eye-opening video from Slate a couple months ago. It’s 13 minutes long, but if you’re really interested in the topic, I think you will find it 13 minutes well spent.
In summary, I don’t think the police are the problem. Some police are a problem, but we, as a society, need to do a better job in deciding and articulating in words the job we want them to do, and codifying those requirements.
Remember all those cops who, en masse, turned there backs on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio last year? At the very least, they all showed an “us vs. HIM” attitude. There were visiting cops from all over the country there too, who also joined in.
When it gets down to it, what group doesnt have an us vs them attitude?
I mean many groups feel like they are on one side, the customers, are on the other. So say for example in a college, the professors are all in one group, the students in another.
Or take performers for example. They are their own seperate group and sometimes they help each other out, sometimes they dont. But its them and then their is the audience. Us vs. them.
I think there’s an inevitable reserve about police officers in social contexts, until they get to know people better, if only to avoid the doctor’s problem of people wanting to talk shop, or making predictable (and predictably daft) jokes. Plus, of course, they need to be cautious in case they might be thought to be associating with the wrong people.
Likewise, the circumstances of policing - being available as the last resort to deal with unpredictable, dangerous or distressing situations - must inevitably encourage a defensive group mentality. In this country it’s referred to as the “canteen culture”, which almost by definition has historically a great potential to be exclusionary (e.g., of women and ethnic minorities). But a lot of work has gone into (or at least plenty of hot air expended on) trying to reverse those patterns of “institutional” racism and sexism (= not necessarily personal animosity, just inherited groupthink assumptions that lead to worse service for those not assumed to be included as “us”).
