re: #176 Lidane

There also are people who are disaffected with the police because their only interactions with them are negative. The stop and frisk law here in New York, which is hugely targeted against young black men, may be successful in finding drugs and guns, but the vast majority of the stops produce nothing— except, of course, a moment of humiliation and shame for a young black man. Doing shit like that, doing the ‘infiltration’ of the mosques, all these things break the bond of trust between police and citizens.

I am not blaming the police as a whole for these tactics, and most of them are understandable if ill-advised. It is the political level that decides tactics like this, and it really is important to remember the average officer, detective, lieutenant has no influence on this shit and so criticizing them for it next to useless.

But things like this hurt the trust of the police— as does unloading on two pickups that bore a passing resemblance to Dorner’s, as does changing the story rapidly about what happened during one of those incidents. I don’t think it’s fair or right for people to stop trusting the police due to things like this, but it is going to happen. The relationship between police and citizens is a consensual one; police cannot police without the willing acceptance of the policed, and when that breaks down, it’s bad for everyone.