• tygerprints@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    You could indeed say such things all you want, but all of it would be incredibly biased and non-factual. I do not doubt for a second you really see the world through such a hateful lens, but police aren’t scum. It really does take a lot of growing up to see that. The truth is, what I’m saying in supporting the work of police is always lost on people like you. You don’t WANT to hear anything good about them, so all you see is exaggerated degradation and corruption everywhere you look.

    • PugJesus@kbin.socialOP
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      10 months ago

      You don’t WANT to hear anything good about them, so all you see is exaggerated degradation and corruption everywhere you look.

      Jesus.

      It is amusing how I’m probably one of the more pro-policing people around on Lemmy, because I have a deep understanding of the history of police and policing, its alternatives, its strengths, its weaknesses, its functions, and its development.

      I understand how policing in America has twisted roots in the 19th century that have worsened connections to local powers, decreased accountability to the general population, and increased resilience against regulations; along with cultural developments from the 50s and 60s that have created a hagiography that has rendered them all but immune to electoral consequences; and legal developments from the 80s onward which have rendered what ‘responsibilities’ they previously had moot, changing the behavior of police from what they’re theoretically supposed to do, and into just ‘whatever they feel like doing at the moment’, putting innocents and criminals into the dubious mercy of people hired with no fucking oversight and a culture of perpetuating that.

      I’m critical of police because I want police departments to be better. I’m critical of police because Robert Peel had a great idea, and America has fucked it worse than nearly any other developed country on earth. I’m critical of police because I want to be able to respect police - and right now, I fucking can’t.

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        along with cultural developments from the 50s and 60s that have created a hagiography that has rendered them all but immune to electoral consequences

        Man I’m glad somebody else is aware of this. I feel less alone.

        And don’t forget the lionizing of first responders after 9/11 that turned the effect of the Hays Code up to 11.

      • tygerprints@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        Everyone wants police departments to be better, but not all police departments are corrupt. Everyone wants schools, churches, political organizations, and every other institution to be better and less corrupt, nobody is arguing against that idea.

        There are bad apples in every situation. As a social worker with local police departments, I see the good that police do every day. You think that police are the source of America’s problems, I say they are about the only thing standing between us and total annihilation.

        When people here in Utah began publically protesting after George Floyd’s death, what did they do - did they peacefully gather and demonstrate? No, they attacked public buildings and destroyed property, they dumped red paint all over public spaces and smashed bus windows and set fire to people’s cars and houses and looted businesses.

        If that’s the world you want then that’s the world you shall have. Me, I’d rather live in a well-policed state with some modicum of sensible law abiding-ness going on.