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If an organization has bad morale then it needs to change. It doesn't matter if the bad morale had some initial justification -- bad morale tends to be self-rei

If an organization has bad morale then it needs to change. It doesn't matter if the bad morale had some initial justification -- bad morale tends to be self-reinforcing. Even if the public now said very nice things about the police, it is unlikely that would improve the morale of the police. It's a bit like trying to pull a friend out of depression by saying nice things about them -- it doesn't work. A prolonged episode of bad morale also indicts the leadership -- such episodes are impossible without some official support. In the USA the model for turning things around is what the USA military managed to do in the ate 1970s, after the defeat in Vietnam. New leadership needs to be promoted, and the old leadership needs to be forced out. Then the rank-and-file must be given the choice, they can get their head in the game, or they can leave. That spirit of feeling sorry for oneself needs to are broken, and it can only be broken when top leadership is committed to breaking it. And at this point, police forces in the USA generally need the same kind of reforms that the USA military needed in the late 1970s. In particular, it was generally understood that the officer corp had been openly racist during the years of the Vietnam War, and after 1975 there was a growing commitment to transform the military into one of the most anti-racist organizations in the USA. This was achieved by the late 1980s, when the military transformed into an organization that then became the model for other Federal organizations that wanted to transform their internal cultures. That movement reached its apex General Colin Powell became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1989 -- a moment which symbolized how much the military had transformed its culture. And now the USA police will need to under go the same transformation. To the extent that the police currently feel sorry for themselves, the current mood is entirely unsustainable.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago
It is just not a good time to be a cop. The right says you aren't doing enough, the left says you are doing too much. It is demoralizing and the pay just isn't there while the job market for doing other things is really hot. Cities, their governments, and the people who live in them (who elect the people who run the cities) will have to figure out how to re-build their police departments, but don't expect the police officers themselves to come up with their own solutions. The USA lost in Vietnam, went on to have a very mixed record in the 1980s, got their confidence back in the early 90s, lost some of it in the mid to late 90s...and...well, the 00s taught the USA military again to be humble. Not a good template for municipal police departments.
- lkrubner 5y ago
  Poll after poll shows that the military is the most respected institution in American life. Crucially for this conversation, it has an excellent esprit de corp. The kind of self-pity that we now see among the police is something that would not be tolerated for even 5 minutes in the military. So it is an excellent model when we consider how to reform the police.
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    > Crucially for this conversation, it has an excellent esprit de corp. There have been plenty of scandals in the USA military that have sullied its reputation. "Poll after poll" is just anecdotal, and not born out in practice. > So it is an excellent model when we consider how to reform the police. Militarizing the police is not the answer. Imagine if the police acted like those MPs at Abu Ghraib.
    - biztos 5y ago
      I don't think the parent is suggesting the police be militarized; rather that they could look to the US military's experience in combatting organizational racism and improving both professionalism and cohesion. The US military has had its share of scandals but I have yet to see that degrade the normative US opinion of our "soldiers," namely that they do a hard job on our behalf and deserve respect and gratitude for that.
      - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
        I don’t think soldiers have any kind of special reputation, at least among non southern urbanites. They do a job that they get paid for, some of them are good, a few are bad, etc… there is a swath of the country that holds that in high regard, especially in the south and in rural areas, but that isn’t normative in all areas.
        lkrubner 5y ago
        While the numbers might bounce around from year to year, we should look at the long-term trend, which is that the military has been the most trusted institution in the USA at least since 1992: https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/06/29/the-institutions-americans-trust-most-and-least-in-2018-infographic/?sh=1c237d592fc8 https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/06/29/the-in... Soldiers have a special reputation.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

It is just not a good time to be a cop. The right says you aren't doing enough, the left says you are doing too much. It is demoralizing and the pay just isn't there while the job market for doing other things is really hot. Cities, their governments, and the people who live in them (who elect the people who run the cities) will have to figure out how to re-build their police departments, but don't expect the police officers themselves to come up with their own solutions. The USA lost in Vietnam, went on to have a very mixed record in the 1980s, got their confidence back in the early 90s, lost some of it in the mid to late 90s...and...well, the 00s taught the USA military again to be humble. Not a good template for municipal police departments.

lkrubner 5y ago
Poll after poll shows that the military is the most respected institution in American life. Crucially for this conversation, it has an excellent esprit de corp. The kind of self-pity that we now see among the police is something that would not be tolerated for even 5 minutes in the military. So it is an excellent model when we consider how to reform the police.
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  > Crucially for this conversation, it has an excellent esprit de corp. There have been plenty of scandals in the USA military that have sullied its reputation. "Poll after poll" is just anecdotal, and not born out in practice. > So it is an excellent model when we consider how to reform the police. Militarizing the police is not the answer. Imagine if the police acted like those MPs at Abu Ghraib.
  - biztos 5y ago
    I don't think the parent is suggesting the police be militarized; rather that they could look to the US military's experience in combatting organizational racism and improving both professionalism and cohesion. The US military has had its share of scandals but I have yet to see that degrade the normative US opinion of our "soldiers," namely that they do a hard job on our behalf and deserve respect and gratitude for that.
    - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
      I don’t think soldiers have any kind of special reputation, at least among non southern urbanites. They do a job that they get paid for, some of them are good, a few are bad, etc… there is a swath of the country that holds that in high regard, especially in the south and in rural areas, but that isn’t normative in all areas.
      - lkrubner 5y ago
        While the numbers might bounce around from year to year, we should look at the long-term trend, which is that the military has been the most trusted institution in the USA at least since 1992: https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/06/29/the-institutions-americans-trust-most-and-least-in-2018-infographic/?sh=1c237d592fc8 https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/06/29/the-in... Soldiers have a special reputation.