re: #361 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

A grain of truth to to what he says: we subject our cops to a great deal of unnecessary stress, expecting them to maintain order when people have easy access to deadly weapons, when a large number of mentally unstable persons are not properly treated or institutionalized and in a society which there are great economic and racial tensions.

It goes a way to explaining a lot of their behavior, but does not justify abuse.

The problem is not just the abuse. It’s the ‘circle the wagons’, ‘You can’t judge unless you’ve been a cop’, ‘Sure it’s inexcusable, but…’ attitude.

We give them guns and the authority to deal out violence and death against our own citizens in our name. There are few responsibilities as great as that. And now we’re finding that a significant number of them have been abusing that authority, and that if it weren’t for the omnipresence of cameras, we’d have shaken our heads sadly and talked about another person who foolishly tried to fight when they should have complied.

Respect for police is not unconditional. If the police want to keep what is left, and rebuild where it’s gone, they need to burn the bad cops. Openly, proactively, and without excuse. They need to be their own harshest critic. The ‘You can’t judge me’ attitude will totally fuck that up.