Comment 32235

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted July 01, 2009 at 16:44:56

When it comes to issues of aggression, cops are not "just like regular people" in several important respects:

a) They are armed b) They are capable of making your life VERY difficult, and their word carries more weight in a court of law regardless of what actually happened c) They very rarely recieve much in the way of punishment for offenses - witness Kevin Dhinsa, the guys who arrested Michael Dixon or the guy who shot Dudley George. Suspension with pay? That's what most of us working people can call paid vacation. d) Policing tends to both breed agressive, dominant behavior and attract people with those sorts of tendencies. Not all cops are like this, but any analysis of policing issues will show that this is a very serious problem, and has been for years. e) Police answer to a higher authority, and it isn't you. Even if both you and the officer can plainly see that no harm was done (eg: smoking a joint, or riding a bike without a horn), they are still required to enforce the law (which they may, or may not). f) Nobody forced them to become cops. And in terms of dangerous jobs, it's still far safer than fishing, logging, construction, farming, flying, trucking or steelworking.

Police need to be held to a higher standard of behavior than ordinary people, not the other way 'round. Maybe if they spent a little more time learning to de-escalate confrontations and a little less time practicing with tasers, we'd see less cases of police brutality.

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