Police/"civilian" relations have been on my mind for a long time; certainly before the Katrina-sparked events in New Orleans, with law enforcement officers going AWOL, being filmed looting, beating up old ladies, and stealing firearms, and stealing cars.
Let's try a little thought experiment, in two parts.
Cops like to make a big deal about how dangerous their jobs are (even though they don't even make the top ten). And these days, traffic accidents are the real killers.
So, first for the "civilians": Please recall your last encounter with a cop. How did it go? Now imagine this scenario: It's late some dark night as you drive down an otherwise totally empty road. Suddenly you see something ahead, on the side of the road. You slow down and see that it is the blood-soaked, unconscious body of the cop from your last LEO encounter. No one knows you have seen this.
Do you stop to help, or do you drive on?
Now for the cops; same scenario, but you are the dying LEO. The driver of the approaching vehicle is the last "civilian" you dealt with professionally.
Will he stop and help, or drive on when he recognizes you?
Or will it even matter whether the "civilian" recognizes the cop? The vast majority of my LEO encounters as a "civilian" have done little to endear cops to me. My last meeting occurred when a town cop pulled me over. He told me he pulled me over just because he wanted to know who I was, and to see if I had any "weapons."
I was hardly a suspicious person. I was driving down a moderately busy road on my way to work, as I do five or six times a week. I was well-groomed, and in a uniform of my own. My vehicle was properly registered and in good repair. I was not speeding. The cop did not even write a warning citation. He was just curious, and knew he had the power to amuse himself this way.
I am unsure how I would react in this scenario. If it was a state cop, I might still pull over and help. But if that body were wearing the uniform a certain small town police force, I think there is a fair chance I did not see a thing.
Just a little something for the kevlar cowboys in law enforcement to think about.
The Good Samaritan and the Cop
Sunni says:
Very thought-provoking, Bear ... I can't help but wonder, though, how many LEOs even care any more about the way the civilians "under" their jurisdiction view them. After all, with so much money coming from Sugar Daddy feds, the "I pay your salary" line is probably fairly diluted in their minds. And certainly, with all the military equipment the feds are tossing around, local LEOs may be thinking they don't need to give a shit about us.
Billy Beck says:
It was just yesterday that I saw a NY State Police roadblock on a major road around where I live. Stopping traffic in both directions, and checking papers, just like Nazis.
I took a turn and went around them -- just because I could and I can't stand those bastards -- and let's just say that I found the tactical lay of the land curious, as I did so.
Tinker says:
I used to tell my children, if they were lost, or in trouble, to find a cop- and the cops would help them on their way.
Now I am not nearly so naive.
I'd drive RIGHT PAST, in spite of working (data processing) for a statewide police organization for the last four years.
jomama says:
Authority figures get no help from me unless it's obvious to me that they're protecting the innocent from harm and ask for help.
I would do that for anyone.
Authority has nothing special for me.
Endervidual says:
I don't recall ever having a very positive feeling about cops. (Maybe when I was a very young child I did.) However, it wasn't always as negative as it is these days.
On the other hand, consider that in many rural locations cops (even state troopers) may still be better than federal troops. Posse Comitatus is severely eroded and "they" want to get rid of it.
Herself says:
Y'know, despite being a devout atheist, I cannot help but remember why the preacher wouldn't shoot to kill: "A dead man can never repent of his sins."
C'mon, it's an injured person left alone at the side of the road. A person about whom you have very little information -- he or she may have been something of a jerk at your last encounter and that's probably all you've got. Better give yourself a chance to find out just who this person is!
Then, if it turns out to be someone who needs to be dead, you can do the job later, neatly and cleanly and not leave the poor slob bleeding out, in agony and alone, as the State has left so many of his victims. (You'd do as much for a deer, wouldn't you?) It's simply a version of nursing an accused but not certain killer back to health in order to have an investigation and perfectly fair trial before hanging him if he is found guilty.
We claim to value the individual. Do we do so only when it is convenient for us? Would any of us "take out the oppressor" based solely on his uniform and a first impression, and only when we can do so by refraining from acting? If so, how are we that much different to, let alone better than, that which we oppose?
--Herself
Sunni says:
Herself, I do value the individual. That is, I value those individuals who I can be reasonably certain would respect my life, body, and property. Others have tentative value until they reveal themselves to be worthy or unworthy of it.
An LEO, like anyone else, may or may not respect my life, body, and property. The last encounter I had with an LEO was one full of his bluster and swagger, stealing some of my life simply because he could. Which is better: for me to give him future opportunities to do more of that to other individuals (in the hopes I can "do the job later", as you put it), or to give someone who's already demonstrated to me he loves exercising power over others what he deserves for his barbarism?
Herself says:
...Injured cop, laying at the side of the road, so say he is a rotter; now what happens to you if he survives? Even if he didn't plate you, all he has to do is keep stopping cars that match the descrption of yours....
No, it's lose-lose if you don't stop: if he's a good guy (or will someday become one), we lose one good one among the thugs; if he's a thug, you've just made an enemy without making sure he's dead! Bad plan.
It's not all-out war yet. If it ever is, shoot 'em! Don't toy with them. That's what they do. If you do it, you will become what they are.
Most misery in this world is brought about by half-measures and sins of omission; by just letting things happen.
What's better for you? I don't know. But only a fool leaves an enemy alive; only a fool never looks to see if an enemy can become a friend. Kill 'em or lend a hand. Just driving by leaves too much to chance. The Gods don't care! Don't leave it up to them, for they are capricious and cruel -- despite not existing.
...See, this is why I don't have any friends....
--Herself
Bear says:
I value individualism over collectivism. Individuals I take on a case-by-case basis. In my personal example, the cop was a person who abused his authority in an effort to endanger my life by confiscating any weapons I might have; this is not an individual I value highly.
In fact, I have to go back over five years before I find a case in which I had a "positive" experience with a LEO; in that case, the individual who proclaimed he was there to help me actually scared me because he couldn't keep his hand away from his gun. I'd feel safer if he were no longer in the world.
Sorry, Herself, but I find it difficult to see a friend in someone who has explicitly or implicitly threatened me.
Sunni says:
Herself, thanks for the further explanation. You nailed it, IMO, with this: "Just driving by leaves too much to chance."