Pepper Sprayed for giving the finger

[erronis]

33. But I worry that we ask the police to be more than human.

Everyone that has to deal with the public runs into unpleasantness. A cashier being scolded (or worse) by customer. A teacher or coach being berated by a parent. You and I just tooling around town and getting aggravated by another driver, a pedestrian, a stop light.

Rarely do we as normal citizens run into assholes that go out of their way to aggravate just for the sake of a photo-op and a blog post. I'm sure there are many of these situations that arise every day when on the beat and yet the police are supposed to not to take the unpleasantness personally.

I can see myself as some Officer Friendly if I were (can't anymore) to join a force. I can also understand how that rose-colored view of strolling down Main Street, Our Town would probably change quickly.

I don't know if we (police and populace) were ever better than we are now. Media/internet attention has definitely contributed to a negative view. I also don't know how to get us into a place where we can trust one another, at least a bit more. Perhaps it needs to start with trusting all levels of government...