Without going through all the statistics and reports I can't take issue with your point. So I have to concede it.
The respect is mutual. And since I can't contest your point I must take it.
I can't disagree. The fact is, well in my experience at least, police can't transgress the law. I was an 18 year old cadet (in full time training - 3 year programme) when sitting in court one day I watched a policeman get prison for assaulting a man in the cells. That was many years ago and I still remember it. He (I was helping out as court orderly) remarked to me in a very bitter manner that "the job doesn't look after you". I suppose it was my naievete and the fact that I hadn't been strongly socialised into the organisation at that point but I remember thinking why he would expect any other treatment other than being pinched and facing court.
Again I won't contest that. But then I tend to regard use as a medical and education issue and the problems caused by prohibition, ie facilitating organised crime, as a political issue which our gutless politicians won't face even though they know the answer is removing prohibition.
The War metaphor can be linked with that other con job "zero tolerance". I'm happy to say that our Commissioner has explicitly rejected the war metaphor and totally trashed the idea of "zero tolerance" and done so publicly.
Because I live and work in a relatively comfortable society which, while it does have its problems, is nowhere near as complex as the US so can't be compared. My experiences can't be used to illuminate the experience of citizen or cop in the US. I can only try and learn from the experiences of others. I'm reminded though of a really interesting article about the two "models" of dealing with (not "fighting") crime in New York and Boston, specifically gang-related crime. In New York the answer was ZTP, crack down on gang members, hammer them every chance they looked sideways, keeping the pressure on. Short term results were pretty good. In Boston the PD took a longer-term view, decided to take a problem-solving approach, worked with members of gangs and ex-members (senior ex-members) of gangs and with community leaders. NYPD trumpeted its results and actively disparaged Boston. But strangely, while NY numbers (people killed in gang-related violence) began to creep up after a few years, in Boston they went down.
I was in Toronto a couple of years ago when the city and Toronto Police Service knew it had to grapple with gang crime that was burgeoning in the city (particularly in the projects areas around Jane and Finch and any Torontonians know what I mean). TPS and the city didn't look to NY for help, they brought up a pastor from Boston who had been involved in the turn-around and he ran workshops and public meetings to address the issues. I'm not saying he had the answers, I'm saying it's a far more constructive response than implementing the war metaphor.
When we stop looking to resolve the problems and simply respond with smackdown then we are in deep and abiding trouble.
Truer words were never spoken then your last sentence my brother.
The good news here is that by ignoring and rejecting the race-baiting smackdown that was intended by this thread, good people used it as an opportunity to engage in serious and thoughtful conversation.
By no means do I dismiss the importance of the job you and fellow officers have to do, nor the fact that you're putting your lives on the line everyday. But justice and equal application of the law and force must be color-blind and must be central to the mission of what police officers do.
Your New York/Boston examples are right on point, but Boston had an awakening years ago when a Boston lawyer, Charles Stuart, killed his pregnant wife, threw her body in the bay, then blamed the murder on a black man. The police stormed through the black community like a vigilante force and abused the rights of innocent citizens at will with aggressive mass sweeps through black neighborhoods. They arrested and charged a black man with the murder .. then the truth came out and Stuart killed himself, but the damage had been done.
New York has its own long and sordid history of polive brutality and murder, not the least of which was the murder of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 23 year-old computer science student who was shot 41 times by four policeman .. all of whom were exonerated of any criminal act. An unarmed man .. shot 41 times .. an act that would never happen to a white man, even an aggressive and out of control white man with a gun in his hand.
America exists in a culture of fear my brother. It is a fear perpetuated those who want to keep this nation divided and it is a fear that is far too often acted upon by police. None of this serves the best interests of the American people. It is counter-productive to society and stands against the ideals of liberty, justice, and freedom this nation is supposed to be about.
In your capacity as a policeman, I hope you not only take these truths to heart, but also speak to other officers about this inescapable truth.
I ever you decide to move to America .. which I'm not recommending .. but if you do, you have my support for police chief of Atlanta.
