The grand jury is soon to announce whether there will be any indictment against the Ferguson, MO, police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. Ferguson may erupt into violence if the grand jury finds the cop was justified in the shooting of Brown. The news has been filled on and off the past few months of different kinds police brutality, racial profiling, excessive violence (including deaths), etc. Even this place has had threads about police malfeasance in office.
Given all of this to whet your appetite, a simple poll.
Do your trust your local police? For the sake of this poll, local police is defined as village police, town police, city police, county police or sheriff’s office. It does not include state level law enforcement such as the state patrol, nor any federal law enforcement.
Since this place has an international flavor, there are separate responses for non-USA based Dopers.
My local police station has a big poster of a guy in an electric chair with the words “How do you like your justice? Regular, or extra crispy?”
They are small town cops with self image issues who get off on, for example, calling the whole force in to bust a couple of teenagers having sex in a car in the back of an empty parking lot.
The police chief recently committed suicide after a scandal involving him and a judge at a hunting lodge with lots of cocaine. Same judge who was caught letting his personal drug dealers off with probation while sending other kids to jail for life because their girlfriend ODed at their house.
That’s all before getting into the whole race issue. No I don’t trust my local cops, or any other cops for that matter. I’ve met a few decent ones individually, but collectively, police are the most power tripping, ego inflated, corrupt, incompetent, violent and abusive members of our society.
The last time I needed police intervention for anything they blew me off for about six months and then sent a detective to my door. I explained to her that my parents and teachers and positive role models of every shape and size had spent my entire youth teaching me that violence never solves anything, but the police just demonstrated that they don’t either, and at least violence shows up. She looked stunned and started to formulate a response but I said “good day” rather firmly and slowly closed the door.
In Australia we have state police and then a federal force, they are not elected by popular vote so are able to not react to emotional outbursts and lunatic fringe elements.
I fully trust the police at a state and federal level, what i don’t trust so much is the government and what they ask these cops to carry out including gathering of data on citizens.
I can’t quite make that binary of a choice. Mostly I trust the local police in relation to myself - a generally law-abiding, mild-mannered, middle-class white male. That does not mean I trust the local police in every interaction with every member of my surrounding community.
There are occasionally bad cops that do bad things. There are also very occasionally good cops that screw up and do bad things and shrug that off as the cost of doing business. Often, legality aside, these bad things are minor and inflicted on people who somewhat deserve them in a karmic sense. But occasionally they are major and happen to those who do not deserve them. I have had relatives that have been treated a little poorly and unnecessarily cavalierly by police in cases of temporary mistaken identity.
So I try to be friendly with police when engaging with them, would not hesitate to call them if I had an issue that required law enforcement and have no expectation of a negative encounter. But it is a wary friendliness and I reserve judgement on issues of potential police malfeasance ( they don’t necessarily get the benefit of the doubt ).
The local police are the only security our condo complex has, after two security companies were fired when their employees were discovered goofing off in the property manager’s office.
Out here in my largely white exurb, there haven’t been any problems I know if with our police force. I suspect that if there were any problems, I’d be aware of them a lot sooner if I were nonwhite.
Within the USA, I’d expect white/nonwhite to be a big line of demarcation in terms of trusting the police.
What do you mean by “affiliated with police”? I have an uncle and a cousin who are both cops; does that make me affiliated? Neither of them is in the jurisdiction where I live, for what it’s worth.
Basically. But I’m white, female, middle-aged, middle-class, and live in a low-crime area. The police do things like respond to calls about barking dogs and knocked-over trash cans.
There are 25,000 cities in the U.S. and they all have some form of police protection. Add to that the federal, and state, agencies and the U.S. has more law enforcement officers than many small nations have in their military.
While there are several legitimate cases of documented police over-reactions, and even criminal activity, the overwhelming majority of LEO’s are decent, hard-working, professionals who go to work every day, protect the public, and expect to go home every night.
If you don’t trust the police, the next time you’re in trouble call a hippie. Or if you prefer a more up-to-date version - Don’t Like COPS? Next Time Call A Crackhead!
Like Tamerlane, it’s hard to say definitively yes or no. I live in a medium sized town with a small town mentality. I wouldn’t hesitate to call them…but I would be cautious about them, and if the police came to my door for something I’d call a lawyer before I ever talked to them.
I don’t have any specifis reasons to distrust my town police, but in general I have a visceral reaction to uniforms and think there is always a chance they will be abused. This local story didn’t help:
I’m not naive enough to believe all cops are honest, truthful and/or competent. There are bound to be corrupt, stupid, incompetent and/or violent cops here in Austin and everywhere else.
But in general, I trust the Austin police. I wouldn’t hesitate to call them when needed. And, in the absence of a good reason for doubt, I would trust the testimony of an Austin police officer in court.
I trust them as much as I can, neither more nor less. The notion that all police are incipient fascists slavering for the blood of minorities is just as foolish as the idea that they are all saints. I live in a low-crime neighborhood and I don’t break the law. So the police are on my side just as much as I am on theirs.
In one of my careers I worked closely with various police forces all over the US. These were generally large city or county-level forces. Overall I was favorably impressed with the professionalism of the management, senior officers, and most sergeants I dealt with. The rank and file were always cordial & professional, but it was clear to me they had a strong “us vs. everybody else” mentality and in my role as a vendor to the force I didn’t fit into their neatly compartmentalized stereotypical world view. I wasn’t one of the cops = good guys, but I couldn’t be categorized as a subject = bad guy either.
Reading between the lines, it was clear that in many cases a citizen having an encounter with the rank and file police would initially be characterized as a [troublemaker of mild to severe hostile intent] and would have to earn their way up to [citizen in need of assistance] by their actions.
My even earlier experience as supervisor over black military members has given me plenty of stories about how much harder it is for non-white people to earn their way up.
It’s not a pretty picture. But it’s also not a pretty job. I don’t know that I’d have any different attitude after spending a few years doing their job.
Mostly. But I can understand, in many circumstances, why some people don’t trust their local police departments. Through most of American history, black people (especially in the South) couldn’t trust their police departments. In some towns, they still can’t, unfortunately.
My local police saved my life so I’m a little prejudiced towards liking them. Those ones over in the next county to the south of me I have my reservations about. :eek: No, not really, I’m sure they are OK too.
Those ones over in the next county to the south of me I have my reservations about. :eek: No, not really, I’m sure they are OK too. 