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"To serve and protect." Is that even true anymore? Was it ever? Was just reading about an apparent increase in cop-on-citizen sexual assault among Occupy Wall S

"To serve and protect." Is that even true anymore? Was it ever? Was just reading about an apparent increase in cop-on-citizen sexual assault among Occupy Wall Street protesters: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/david-graeber-new-police-strategy-in-new-york-sexual-assault-against-peaceful-protestors.html http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/david-graeber-new-pol... Why aren't our law enforcement professionals more accountable to us, the citizens they purportedly "serve"? The transaction ought to be that we, the citizenry, grant them privileges - go through red lights, carry firearms, right to detain people - in return for restraint and considered application of those privileges. I no longer believe in the integrity of that transaction. Maybe I'm overreacting to propaganda. But what reassurance does our law enforcement ever offer us that they are not abusing their privileges?

cnbeuiwx 15y ago
Why should they be accountable to you? The law enforcement gives them their salary, it protects them, it puts food on their table. What do ordinary citizens do for them, except create work for them to deal with? Edit: Just so you dont think I am nuts, I realize the insanity of the system, and I wish this was a world where intelligent, compassionate people made the decisions.
- WiseWeasel 15y ago
  Elect their boss?
  - cnbeuiwx 15y ago
    From a pool of candidates being presented to you as choices, preselected to be there because they are all corrupt? If you add a predetermined winner, you have your presidential election system. :)
    - WiseWeasel 15y ago
      I blame old centralized media. That's changing, if more slowly than some of us might like, and disturbingly quickly for others.
meej 15y ago
"To protect and serve" is the motto of the LAPD. Otherwise, it's a TV trope that arose out of the fact that most television in the US comes from southern California; it has never been a generic police slogan. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardPoliceMotto http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardPoliceMot... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoCalization http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoCalization
- nollidge 15y ago
  Your own source says it "has been adopted by many other police departments across the English-speaking world" and has "been adopted by so many police departments, in fact, that it's practically a Stock Phrase in the English-speaking world." And even if that's not true (since I'd hardly call TVTropes an authoritative source), I was using it rhetorically. I should think that regardless of its origin, that motto closely represents the ideal that we want our police agencies to uphold.
cpt1138 15y ago
One of the only things I liked about the transformers, was the police car that said "to pursue and enslave." Seems apropos of pretty much everything these days.
abecedarius 15y ago
Side issue: I assumed cops run red lights, etc., not because it's legal for them outside hot pursuit but because who's going to enforce it? I don't actually know anything about this.

cnbeuiwx 15y ago

Why should they be accountable to you? The law enforcement gives them their salary, it protects them, it puts food on their table. What do ordinary citizens do for them, except create work for them to deal with? Edit: Just so you dont think I am nuts, I realize the insanity of the system, and I wish this was a world where intelligent, compassionate people made the decisions.

WiseWeasel 15y ago
Elect their boss?
- cnbeuiwx 15y ago
  From a pool of candidates being presented to you as choices, preselected to be there because they are all corrupt? If you add a predetermined winner, you have your presidential election system. :)
  - WiseWeasel 15y ago
    I blame old centralized media. That's changing, if more slowly than some of us might like, and disturbingly quickly for others.

meej 15y ago

"To protect and serve" is the motto of the LAPD. Otherwise, it's a TV trope that arose out of the fact that most television in the US comes from southern California; it has never been a generic police slogan. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardPoliceMotto http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardPoliceMot... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoCalization http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoCalization

nollidge 15y ago
Your own source says it "has been adopted by many other police departments across the English-speaking world" and has "been adopted by so many police departments, in fact, that it's practically a Stock Phrase in the English-speaking world." And even if that's not true (since I'd hardly call TVTropes an authoritative source), I was using it rhetorically. I should think that regardless of its origin, that motto closely represents the ideal that we want our police agencies to uphold.

cpt1138 15y ago

One of the only things I liked about the transformers, was the police car that said "to pursue and enslave." Seems apropos of pretty much everything these days.

abecedarius 15y ago

Side issue: I assumed cops run red lights, etc., not because it's legal for them outside hot pursuit but because who's going to enforce it? I don't actually know anything about this.