Peace Officers have become Crime Warriors

#147 CharlieDontSurf: "What kind of person wants to be a cop?"

Can't say for sure whether things have really changed that much in the last 50 years, but it sure seems like Peace Officers have become Crime Warriors. Here's a revealing money quote from an article about a local harrassed-cop lawsuit: "Thomas alleges in the lawsuit that he was advised by some superiors that the BPD was a 'paramilitary organization' and that because of that he would be subjected to harassment to 'break him down.'" Not exactly the idea of friendly Officer O'Malley I tried to imbue in my kids. (Which innocence ended when an a-hole came to our place of business and "jokingly" cuffed one of my young sons.)

There's good and there's bad, and I sympathize with the dangers they really face in the cracked-out world today, but always keep in mind what the Stanford Prison Experiment revealed about the problem of power. There's no substitute for basic morality (and fealty to the Constitution). Today, it seems a reflection of societal degradation in general that there's just too much permission of "power corrupts," too little training in "great responsibility."

For your edutainment, here's a (typically prolix) webwork about my brief encounter with a cop exceedingly "passionate" about busting potheads.
A run-in with Officer Green

Dash Cam: Canton PD "Notification" Arrest & Officer Goes Berserk / Threatens uploaded by ohioccwdotorg