Rut Roh - How Many Cops Are Criminals With Insane Superiority Complex Issues

[DanieRains]

Who are cops to abuse others for pleasure.

I know many join to actually serve and protect their communities but how many enjoy abusing others and getting paid to do it.

This is a whole herd of elephants in all rooms.

Amazing no one has asked this question so far.

[The Magistrate]

1. I Am Inclined To Agree, Ma'am

It is clear many police see violence not as one tool among many available to them for coping with the situations they encounter, but rather view violence as a perk of their job, as something they get to do when there is opportunity, to let off steam and relieve their own feelings of anger and disgust and fear. Even police with this view differ in their ability to judge if a situation is one in which it is appropriate to 'let go' in this manner, with some managing to refrain from committing outrages, while others frequently brutalize people who are not and never were any threat to them.

Persons of color, owing to cultural prejudices native to the social strata from which police are typically recruited, tend to excite both fear and contempt in many police, with the result that persons of color are frequently the object of indulgence in such 'self-medicating' violence by police. The lack of criminal consequences for such behavior greatly exacerbates the problem, because it is very easy to give way to violent feelings when it is safe to do so. People who face some actual danger in consequence of their actions tend to exhibit great control over what they do.

Protesters in the streets against police brutality anger police, and frequently disgust them, owing again to cultural prejudices native to the social strata from which police are typically recruited, and for a good many police, these are feelings they are used to discharging with violence. The result has been on display for many days nationwide.

[True Blue American]

3. Quite frankly

Many of them treat all people that way. Look at Trump telling Police not to be so nice.

I bet he would be a blubbering mess if he were arrested and he could be.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. K and R

[samnsara]

4. when i was a Psych Grad student in the 80s we administered MMPI's...

......Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory....to all those applying for police officer jobs. We basically instructed the applicant how to do the test and left them on their own until they finished. We didnt score them or interpret them..that was left up to the PhDs..so I don't know what the results were, how many, if any were rejected because of the scores. But this morning I heard someone discussing personality tests for cops. Is this testing still going on? I don't know if its going on in my city anymore but wow it would sure identify any underlying troubling traits.

When I was in high school one of my neighbors was a few years older than i was and became a cop so he (in his words) could 'beat up mexicans'...

[Ilsa]

5. I've wondered if that was legal.

It's possible the law views the science as too flimsy, although I think the MMPI was used on some airlines' pilot hires. I wonder if test takers can learn to cheat the exam?

IIRC, the MMPI can report a current of buried anger, among other things.

[Brainstormy]

7. Psychological testing MUST become part

of the hiring process for police. Nothing is going to change until we stop self-selecting for the authoritarian, super-macho types who get off on violence.

[Ohiogal]

8. ...

[milestogo]

9. Probably you had to have antisocial personality disorder to get the job.

[handmade34]

6. I have shared this story

a few times... years ago I worked as a Correctional Officer... one day, one of the more interesting fellow officers stated in conversation... "the difference between them and us is they got caught!"