It’s much better to encounter an asshole who’s, say, a bartender, than one who’s got a gun and a badge. The gun and badge should not be awarded lightly. Unfortunately the field may attract a certain kind of asshole.
I’m sure it varies from country to country. The jerk LEO examples that come to my mind were all in U.S. Ignoring corruption organized from the top, my experiences, over 25 years, with cops in Thailand have given me a favorable view of them. (Perhaps “assholes” have more logical career paths here, loanshark enforcer, gangster, etc.)
We (our cops) shoot several orders of magnitude more bullets per capita than, for example, Germany’s cops. I know we have lots more crime than Germany, but the difference is not even close to the size of the disparity in shootings.
Here’s some more data about disparities between the US and other countries in police shootings.
I’m not sure how much “asshole” behavior compares to shootings – I’m not sure how bullying and other jerkish behavior would actually be quantified, but this at least tells us something about different policies and practices with regards to the use of firearms.
I don’t think police shootings are any sort of indicator at all. Besides for differences in crime that you note, there are also many many fewer civilians carrying guns in those other countries, and police rarely feel they need to use deadly force. In America there are far far more civilians and criminals who either are or are suspected of carrying guns so police need to shoot a lot more people.
I’m no good with numbers / percentages; but at a wild guess (and I perhaps have Pollyanna tendencies) I’d speculate that 5% of mankind, max, are naturally jerks / bullies. Police work is one of those professions which, by their nature, attract more than their fair share of bullies – other such envisageably are the armed forces and the prison service; and, in times past, schoolteaching. I would still reckon that the large majority of police officers in First World countries are basically decent people, who behave accordingly.
As a citizen and resident of the UK, I have never in my 66 years of life to date experienced any significantly bad treatment from my own country’s police. This may be connected with my being white, middle-class, and law-abiding; and contemporaries / associates of mine who fit the same description, have told me of having not-very-good experiences at the hands of the British police – though nothing actually horrific, even in circumstances of their being engaged in acts of civil disobedience. (I except one fellow, who I am inclined to think was in general a Walter Mitty.)
I have long heard a good deal of alarming stuff about behaviour of police in the US, including toward random inoffensive persons. Should I ever visit the States, I’d expect to feel rather nervous around police officers there, and would be grovellingly deferential in any interaction with them. These feelings a bit qualified by the awareness that it is nasty stuff that happens, which tends to get reported / talked about / discussed: pleasant / relaxed / co-operative interactions are the norm, and thus not interesting to hear about.
I believe there is a disproportionate number of bullies in LE because 1) bullies enjoy dominating and intimidating others, and 2) policing involves dominating and intimidating others.
To put it another way, people who are wired the following way will likely choose professions other than LE:
People who are nonconformist, “anti-establishment”, and/or hate the thought of wearing a uniform
People who dislike guns or violence in general
People who would rather avoid confrontation than instigate it
People who value personal safety over most other things
People who are very easygoing and not especially concerned about the law-breakers in their midst
People who consider themselves physically weak relative to others
Take out of all these personality traits, and what you have left largely is the opposite: people who don’t mind confrontations, are not easygoing, etc. A large subset of these will be bullies, but it’s hard to come up with percentage for that. I just think it’s silly assume to personality traits distribute the same between cops and the greater population.
Not sure if I buy this breakdown, but if these categories are true, I think there is a lot of overlap between the Supercops and bullies. A lot of bullies act jerkishly in service of their ego. They want to feel superior to others, and being known as a Supercop is a way to get the validation they need. A bully won’t have any qualms with being abusive, because being abusive is what they associate with being a Supercop.
George Zimmerman is a good example of this mentality and it’s no coincidence he’s aspired to be a cop. His desire to be a hero means he looks so hard for trouble that he creates it.
So I would worry about “Supercops” almost as much as I’d worry about bullies.
Based on repeated viewings of “Cops” - strictly in the interest of sociological research, you understand - I’d say that vontsira and you with the face are on the right track: police work is a profession that calls for a certain personality type. Remember, the police’s main mission - at least the beat cop in the cruiser - is to maintain public safety. Officer Joe has to be able to step into a chaotic situation and impose control. That calls for a person who is, well, a controller, a dominating personality. Unfortunately, the Venn diagrams for “dominating personality” and “asshole” have a lot of overlap.
If cops are assholes, a lot of times it’s because the job calls for an asshole.
We’ve all heard this saying before. It’s commonly said to downplay concerns about bullies. But people forget the second part of the original saying. It just takes a few bad apples to spoil the bunch. It doesn’t matter that most of the force is comprised of guys who are “decent” and just want to go home at the end of the day. It doesn’t take that many bad apples, in a few key positions, to influence the culture in a negative way so that suddenly the whole crate is ruined.
I actually think it’s only a small number of people who are angels, and a small number who are demons. Everyone else takes their cues from whomever is winning at any particular moment. They use what “everyone else believes” as their moral compass. I don’t think this is a cop thing, but rather a human thing. The unusual people are those who stand on their principles regardless what the crowd believes. They are either inspiring or frightening.
In terms just of bully; my experience in the general population says under 10% but maybe not by a whole lot. Over 5 easily.
Of cops I know? And I’ve crossed paths with way too many cops in both good and bad ways. Maybe 1% — 2 tops. And one I would call a bully was mostly a bully when the situation was what I consider warranted; coming face to face with a bully in someone else’s face.
