We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
- Abraham Lincoln
I have a friend who’s a police officer at the Portland Airport. His take on society’s changing relationship with its police is one I find interesting. He told me that when he was a kid, cops generally walked a beat. They knew the neighborhoods, they knew the people, there was a connection. The police lived among them, and they were seen as real people…because they made an effort to be exactly that.
Then came the ’60s and early ’70s and the attendant strife and violent conflict. Berkeley. Chicago. Kent State. Suddenly, police were in cars and behind windshields and riot helmets, often armed with mace, tear gas, and riot sticks. The connection that had once existed between police and community began to fray and eventually disappeared altogether. Police became caricatures, impenetrable, and self-contained. A perceived need for self-preservation will do that.
Today, police are highly militarized and often extremely paranoid. When you spend your career in an “us vs. them” environment, it hardens you and keeps you on edge. It’s no wonder that police fear for their safety- they are, after all, human beings, and the job they do is exceedingly dangerous. In an era when criminals are more often than not better armed than police, the potential lethality of an encounter with a criminal is an ever present concern.
Along the way, society lost its willingness and ability to trust those who wear a badge. We began to assume the worst of law enforcement, which too often devolved into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because of this, police today are observed, scrutinized, and criticized to a degree that few of us can imagine. That’s not meant to justify cops who go off the reservation, but law enforcement is a damned tough and thankless job. Because of a few bad apples, society has reacted by assuming that all cops are trigger-happy authoritarians who’d just as soon blow you away when the truth is the vast majority are committed and capable public servants who want to do things the right way.
Society has made it almost impossible for cops to do their jobs…yet who do we call when we’re in peril?
I think there’s plenty of blame to go around. No, police shouldn’t be shooting innocent children. We ask them to protect us, and we’re within our rights to expect that of them. Very often, though, police find themselves in situations where a split-second decision can make the difference between life and death- their own. Then those decisions are examined, analyzed, and second-guessed by people who have no idea what it’s like to make them.
Conversely, police should be able to expect to be able to do their job without their every move, word, thought, and deed being parsed under the assumption that they’re bad seeds. Being a cop is tough job and the people who wear badges are human being. Like any other line of work, there are those whose words and/or actions make things worse for everyone.
Until both sides stop assuming the worst of one another, things will only get worse. I shudder to think where that might lead us.
