Police have an attitude problem

A microcosm of US foreign policy



I also like some of the comments on the Reddit where this video was posted thread, as the commentors so succinctly explains what is wrong with Police forces in the US and around the world. 

its a culture of corruption & protectionism that has been in place for decades (even longer). The police unions are incredibly powerful and negotiate contracts that are ridiculously in the favor of cops (these contracts make it hard for cops to be fired & disciplined... at least in any meaningful way). The District attorneys (those in local government who decide to prosecute lawbreakers) are often beholden to cops because they rely upon police cooperation in their cases on a daily basis .... so they are hesitant to file charges against a cop. Fellow cops & their superiors also do what they can to protect cops who get in trouble. Even the good cops who out the corruption & protectionism of their fellow cops are eventually drummed out of the force because they are looked at as traitors to the brotherhood. Being a cop is really like being in a gang.

And then of course there are the citizens who are ignorant of how cops REALLY operate. People who rarely get in trouble with the law and will defend cops. Cops have a fantastic propaganda machine. There are even plenty of people who actually think that if someone doesnt kiss a cop's ass... that they somehow deserve to be treated unfairly, tased, beaten, falsely charged, etc etc.. An attitude that is also very prevalent among police officers. Police even have a saying about it. They call it "flunking the attitude test"... meaning if you annoy a cop or dont give them the respect they think they deserve... they are going to make you pay.

[...]

I forgot to add that cops in the US deal with a lot more armed criminals because of the prevalence of firearms compared to a lot of other countries. So their heavy handedness is more likely to be excused. Also... cops have it pounded into their heads that they could die at any minute & the most important thing is that a cop goes home alive at the end of their shift, so cops tend to be a helluva lot more aggressive & justify it because of what could happen. As a result a lot of innocent people are treated badly.

[...]

There's also our drug war which creates a violent criminal black market and gives law enforcement enormous powers.

[...]

and that feeds into the private, "for-profit" prison systems that promise capacity quotas and do nothing towards any sort of true rehabilitation. In fact, the inhumane way that many inmates are treated usually results in increased tendencies to commit crime and a large percentage of former inmates will return to incarceration a short time following their release. (if they're lucky enough to be released in the first place)

I guess I have an attitude problem.