Regarding the title... yeah, it's still 'Merica.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dksuddeth
then you are misreading my posts. I don't hate police in general. I hate police that don't follow the law themselves and think that their badge elevates them above the law.
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Sooooo... what
exactly would lead you to believe that this is any more rampant than "Wolverines!"-screaming nutjobs violating the rights of lawful citizens?
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Hmmm... you should totally read the book I just finished for my silly little capstone program:
POLICE: Streetcorner Politicians by William Ker Muir. ISBN 0-226-54633-0.
It deals with the paradoxes related to the use of coercive power in a the law enforcement institution at both the ground level and the top of the totem pole. Machiavelli'd. It was quite the illuminating read, especially to someone who doesn't really like cops all that much (odd given my future profession). Maybe it'd help you understand that they're not all out to get you because, well... really... they've got better things to do. And they have bosses who don't like to do paperwork anymore than you like getting a free ride in the backseat of a cruiser. I've also heard all of this from a guy who's been a badge-carrying Government Drone for 30+ years. If anybody should be a heartless stormtrooper... it's him. He doesn't have it and I can't figure out why... maybe it's because he's got other hobbies?
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You gotta work with me, bro... I'm pro-gun and anti-The Man as much as the next guy who read
1984 but I just fail to see how a few bad apples mean the end of the orchard. It's easy to take isolated incidents of humans being human and turn it into a conspiracy of ignorance masquerading as common sense. There's a lot of people in the US. It's the most violent country on the planet (thanks, Baraka) and frankly I'm surprised our system is as good as it is given the exceptionally rough nature of the police/citizen contact patch.
So some cops fucked up. Sure, it sucks but until we replace them with Cyberdyne Systems Model 101s... we're stuck with the fallible human operating the fallible system. Lotsa loose tolerances in design (by design, as well) and discretion... and you know what that means: it breaks sometimes.