What the fuck is with the pro-cop rah-rah posts?

[tblue37]

94. In one of those threads I posted a comment that I think

is relevant to the entire issue of brutality and lawlessness in the US police culture. That comment might be of interest to those who click on this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5199367

Many cops do heroic things. But even those who do such things typically participate in the police culture that allows and covers up for police brutality and lawlessness. Even if a cop does nothing brutal or lawless himself, as long as he helps cover up for those who do, or remains silent while watching others do so, he is participating in that lawlessness and brutality.

I actually understand why some otherwise fine police officers remain complicit by silence--or even by active participation in coverups. I once tutored a student in a sociology class that studied such things. Some of the cops interviewed for one article said they had to behave brutality when questioning or apprehending suspects because if they didn't, they would never earn the respect of their fellow police officers. Female and minority police officers especially admitted to behaving with unnecessary brutality in oder to "prove" themselves worthy to their fellow officers.

And several interviewees said that if they in any way rocked the boat about a coverup of another officer's illegal behaviors, they would be left hanging in dangerous situations in a way that could get them killed--and some actually admitted that they feared begin taken out by their fellow officers if they broke ranks about such things.

Thus the culture in many police department, and in US policing generally, doesn't just encourage good cops to participate in coverups or to remain silent about them--it actually forces them to do so, by threatening their livelihoods and even their lives if they do not. No matter how idealistic a person might be when he or she joins the force, he or she will be influenced and coerced by a sufficiently corrupt system.

Furthermore, even a brutal, lawless cop can be capable of heroic actions. In the movie Crash, the racist cop played by Matt Dillon outrageously abuses an affluent professional Black couple during an unjustified (DWB) traffic stop early in the film--and he even sexually molests the wife during an unjustified pat-down--but then later in the film he risks his own life to save the same woman when she is involved in a horrific traffic accident.

In real life people are seldom purely evil or purely good. The problem with our country's police culture is a problem of the culture itself and of its systematic disregard for the law and for the rights of citizens. Even cops with an inherent tendency toward bad behavior could be screened out if the departments cared to screen for such tendencies, and they could be kept in check if those in power considered it truly important to reign them in.

But since TPTB want a police force that has the equipment and the mindset necessary to keep a restive population under control while they loot the economy, I doubt that we will see much change in the way the police in general operate, even though there is no doubt that some police officers mean well and are often downright heroic--and that even some cops who are generally brutal and corrupt probably sometimes (or even often) do good things and brave things as well.