"We're looking for the person who called '911'."
It appears the bullshit of the "Thin Blue Line" is what killed Justine Diamond.
I had two uncles who were in law enforcement. If they ever drew their weapons (both retired long ago; one has since passed on) in the line of duty, I never heard about it. If they ever considered themselves part of the "thin blue line," or the guards atop the wall keeping the barbarians from us civilized Romans, I never heard about that, either. Knowing both men as I did, I can't believe they ever thought that way. Nobody did, back in the day.
Now we all know how "dangerous" a cop's job is, and how much we must excuse them when they shoot someone in the back, or a child with a toy, or a woman who approaches a police car she summoned with a phone call.
No, we haven't reached the point of excusing the officer yet, but why do I feel we will? I mean, why should it be safe to approach a police car in the dark of night in your pajamas? Police work is dangerous. They have to shoot first and take risks later. Isn't that what everybody says now? So who are the police on this "thin blue line" protecting, exactly. Seems to me they are standing on the wall and shooting in, at us. And all of us are guilty of being scary to the cops.
Somehow, much as I despise what Trump's appointees like Jeff Sessions are doing, I'm a little less worried about that Trump is doing to the country. He'll be gone in four years. This bullshit about police shooting first and justifying it later has been with us far too long, and yet I see no sign of it going away anytime soon. It is a matter of Black Lives Matter; but it's also a matter of letting any damned fool with a gun use it with impunity.
This has got to stop.
A while back I read an article about some guy who goes around giving workshops to police encouraging them to shoot practically at random, as I recall it said his "tough" approach is very popular with many chiefs-of-police but some others think the guy is a dangerous meance.
ReplyDeleteI would really love to know what TV shows these cops watch because I have a very strong suspicion that a lot could be learned about the influence of make believe policing and "reality" C.O.P.S. BS in having produced this. It is an outgrowth of the fascist chic of the Reagan period and letting Murdoch into the country.
I have had relatives who were police, too and, somehow, I don't think they would have done this because they hadn't, yet, been encouraged to imagine that as their role.
I also think the police unions which function as protection rackets for killers have a large role in this, too. I'm beginning to think maybe the police shouldn't be allowed to unionize if their unions are going to act like the Boston Patrolmans Association.
It certainly has an effect on juries who regularly acquit officers who shoot people. "The job is dangerous," they have to "make split second decisions," "It's a dangerous world." And besides, cops always shoot bad guys. In the movies.
ReplyDeleteAnd in media (movies, TV) the world is a much more dangerous place than reality. I remember watching a show about organized crime putting pressure on business men, when I was very young. I was afraid for my father, that he would have to deal with such people. I mean, they were on TV, so it must be true, right?
I learned better later, but how many people today think the world is dangerous, that the "thin blue line" protects them from "savages," and that cops have to shoot people on the streets because otherwise we'd all die?
And yeah, when police unions function as arms of the NRA, maybe we don't need them anymore.
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