4 ms·

> “ But I'm happy (or privileged?) to live in a place where I do trust my law enforcement to be on the side of our community,” May I ask where that is? Because

by mlthoughts2018 6y ago

> “ But I'm happy (or privileged?) to live in a place where I do trust my law enforcement to be on the side of our community,” May I ask where that is? Because it could not be any location in the US.

ativzzz 6y ago
I would say that the majority of communities in the US side with law enforcement, it's minorities that struggle more with police. The police will uphold the needs of the majority (or the government, which is elected by the majority)
- mlthoughts2018 6y ago
  As a lifelong US resident across about 10 different states, I disagree very strongly. In mid-sized cities and large urban areas, the police are generally extremely corrupt and integrate with high level politicians and corporate interests for bribes, carrying out policing actions to serve cronyism, etc. In small towns, police typically align with small town politics and specific locals with political power, ranging from judges to attorneys to business owners. If they decide you’re on the wrong side, they’ll find reasons to harass you, use speeding tickets, littering, frivolous fines, etc. Of course this often affects underrepresented groups, but can easily affect people in the majority if they just don’t like you. Most communities see the police as a group to strictly stay away from. You hope that in a real emergency they will do their job, but more often they are just authority theater looking for a way to jam you up or exploit you. They absolutely are not good natured community members by default, and even if some specific cop is trying to do right by the community, nobody can assume that is trustworthy and everyone has to just stay away. Policing, especially the procedural mechanics of fining or arresting people, is just fundamentally broken from first principles in the US, and most police systems exploit this for corrupt gains and abuses of power. Exceptions are so rare as to be ignored and assumed irrelevant.

ativzzz 6y ago

I would say that the majority of communities in the US side with law enforcement, it's minorities that struggle more with police. The police will uphold the needs of the majority (or the government, which is elected by the majority)

mlthoughts2018 6y ago
As a lifelong US resident across about 10 different states, I disagree very strongly. In mid-sized cities and large urban areas, the police are generally extremely corrupt and integrate with high level politicians and corporate interests for bribes, carrying out policing actions to serve cronyism, etc. In small towns, police typically align with small town politics and specific locals with political power, ranging from judges to attorneys to business owners. If they decide you’re on the wrong side, they’ll find reasons to harass you, use speeding tickets, littering, frivolous fines, etc. Of course this often affects underrepresented groups, but can easily affect people in the majority if they just don’t like you. Most communities see the police as a group to strictly stay away from. You hope that in a real emergency they will do their job, but more often they are just authority theater looking for a way to jam you up or exploit you. They absolutely are not good natured community members by default, and even if some specific cop is trying to do right by the community, nobody can assume that is trustworthy and everyone has to just stay away. Policing, especially the procedural mechanics of fining or arresting people, is just fundamentally broken from first principles in the US, and most police systems exploit this for corrupt gains and abuses of power. Exceptions are so rare as to be ignored and assumed irrelevant.