Is this guy skilled at public relations or what?…huh?…huh…h’kay…
Seriously, I’m trying to sort out the varied reasons police by and large are carrying this “us against them” (“them” being everyone who isn’t a cop, but most especially minorities) as a chip on their shoulder.
Is it because they are so plugged into “the national security structure” post 9-11 that the power is going to their heads? Honestly, it’s hardly beyond the realm of possibility that a cop can park at the end of your block, bring up every cell phone call in the area, tap into every WiFi network, or dispatch a drone to video your daughter sun-bathing in the back yard, all while their car cameras and dashboard laptops run automatic background checks on every license plate that passes by.
Is it because of the internet, cellphone use and social media that we’re just more aware of what has been going on for a long time, most especially in black communities?
Are police departments nationwide distributing steroids at roll call?
Are they reflecting this unspoken sense of racism among conservative-leaning whites – the alarming racist reaction since Obama’s election, what many of us hoped was finally past but was only enflamed? So many of the “scandals” of this administration have simply been ways for Talk Radio and other enclaves of white privilege to say “We don’t like him because he’s black” without saying “We don’t like him because he’s black”. Cops tend to be white, they tend to live in white enclaves and, like the listeners of Talk Radio, tend to be authoritarian submissives – provided the authority is white, has a buzz haircut and a flag pin in their lapel.
It’s reached the point for me, even before the Brown shooting, where I’d hesitate to call the police if I saw a burglary in progress across the street, just for fear that they’d shoot my poodle if it dashed out the door barking at the responding officer, as dogs might do. They seem that trigger happy and out of control, and I’m saying this as a middle-aged white guy.
This sense of pending “show me your papers” police statehood – you must obey us without question, you work for us, you answer to us, we run the show – should be alien to the American mind. It’s very much what we fought against in 1776. Yes that’s pompous to say so, but really, what’s behind this trend of cops being judge, jury and executioner in too many encounters? What the f*ck has happened to the country I grew up in?
