Quote:
Originally Posted by corporatejay
Here's the thing.
Would anyone voluntary walk up to a police officer and have a conversation? Do they come across as friendly, or do you think they'd tell you to move along and #### off?
I don't understand why we live in a society where me, a law abiding citizen, loathes interacting with the police. It just doesn't make sense. They should be there to help. They should be part of the community and someone you trust. I struggle with this. If it's like that for me, a white, upper middle class, male, what is is it like for a poor indigenous person?
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I am not making excuses for cops. But we have put them in a tough spot. Their jobs are garbage. They are asked to be law enforcement, social workers, community outreach and protection.
How can we not see that we have given them an impossible task. The worst job imaginable, to deal with the worst we have to throw at them, every single day. They are often given little support, other than being told "This is the job you chose" and then asked to act like paragons, when they are treated like devils.
Their jobs beat them down day in and day out. To the point that they are constantly burnt out, run down, and wary of every single encounter they have in the community because they know everyone hates them just on site. And yet, they still have to do their jobs, as currently defined, because there is no one else to do it.
I do not excuse any cops actions. They are responsible for the good or ill they do. I do think that we as a society need to better define their roll, give support where it's needed, and start developing new roles and better fund those new roles and put people into those roles that are SUITED for them.
I know a lot of cops. They are frigging amazing people. They didn't become cops to power trip on people. They did it because they want to make a change. And they are browbeaten and #### on every day of their careers.
I wanted to be a cop when I was younger. I taught Taekwondo to about 8 cops as I grew up from 14-18. In those 4 years, the gross stories and complete despondence I sensed from those cops from the absolute garbage #### they see on a day to day basis, showed me that is not a career for the faint of heart and that it probably wasn't going to be for me.
There is no excuse for a cop to kill anyone unless there is absolutely no other single way to stop them from doing harm to others, even at the expense of the officers life. But maybe we need to change our own perceptions as well, and wonder why we as a community treat our law enforcement poorly for just doing their day to day jobs. Which we ourselves would never want to do.