Good cop

[DigitalWarrior]

Most people do not share your views.  I am pretty sure that most moral cops do not view the world in black and white.  Instead, they have judged that they will do far more good than evil as an officer of the law, and that the only way to stay an officer of the law is to enforce it all (I am pretty sure that they cannot choose which laws to enforce).  I am sure that if he woke up and felt like he was doing nothing but evil, he would become a short order cook or something.

I hold the view that police officers have decided to become the enforcement arm of the community under the belief that they will do more good than evil.  Instead it would be more accurate to accuse me of evil, because I believe that government is necessary, I believe a government may make laws within it's own borders according to it's Constitutional authority, and I believe that a law created by a representative body is not, by definition, immoral.  I would like to reform the system of government, making it smaller, more controlled, and more moral. 

[Vitruvian]

Most people do not share your views.

Irrelevant.

I hold the view that police officers have decided to become the enforcement arm of the community under the belief that they will do more good than evil.

The intentions of the police also are irrelevant.  Their actions are at issue.

Instead it would be more accurate to accuse me of evil, because I believe that government is necessary

You said it.

[Giggan]

I've actually got to disagree with your point here. Very few murderers say "It's for your own good" or do what they do out in the open.

That rationale can't be used to describe cops as bad who are honest and admit they are causing harm and claim that they wish they weren't ordered to do as they do. However, that's not to say I disagree with the other reasons posted.

[Free libertarian]

 If you  locked a group of monkeys in a room with a type writer sooner or later they'll write something
you can read. Very low odds and it might take a million years. Good cops may be as rare as monkey poetry, but I still can't say ALL cops are bad. I'd agree that the position of "police officer" is one that
I have a prejudice against and question the motivation of anyone becoming a cop or locking monkeys in a room for that matter.

I have yet to read any good poetry authored by monkeys, nor have I ever heard a monkey say while flinging shit at a zoo "hey I'm just doing my job", but if you give a cop enough bananas they probably will not fling shit at you. Pull you over and harass you, yes. Fling shit? Nope.  See? Cops ARE better than trained monkeys I just proved it.         

[Giggan]

Poo-slinging defense only requires a poo shield. If I built one in my front yard and did something 'they' didn't like, it wouldn't help. Iguess there's downsides to every evil.

[K. Darien Freeheart]

Instead it would be more accurate to accuse me of evil, because I believe that government is necessary,

I'm one of those people with "endgame" in mind all the time. I'm a very keenly aware that, assuming we both meet our mutual goals of increasing liberty to a point of X (lets say a government the size you want) we'll then move from being ideological allies to being ideological opposition. I am a former "liberal" turned voluntaryist because I've found that government people always back up their actions with violence. Be it something like "not killing people" or "don't speed" or "mow your grass" there's always the ever present threat of violence. I consider violence to be disgusting and no amount of pragmatic rhetoric can excuse it - the "small, limited government" arguement makes no sense to me.

Instead, they have judged that they will do far more good than evil as an officer of the law, and that the only way to stay an officer of the law is to enforce it all (I am pretty sure that they cannot choose which laws to enforce).  I am sure that if he woke up and felt like he was doing nothing but evil, he would become a short order cook or something.

In all fairness, even as little as two months ago, I would be right next to you agreeing. It has become more and more clear to me, however, that this isn't the case. In fact, it's more and more becoming clear that this is WHY the police are such a problem.

Someone who commits an act against violence has done something wrong. The only way to be "immoral" in my opinion, is to commit an act of violence against someone KNOWING it is wrong. Police "doing their job" is repeated acts of violence. There is only one thing worse in my mind than someone who repeatedly uses violence against others, and that's someone who repeatedly uses violence against others and KNOWS it as violence.

[Pat K]

From Wendy McElroy comes this gem.

The Thin Blue Lie
I'd rather take my chances with criminals than with the police. For one thing, criminals usually want your property, not control over your life.

Policemen will angrily assure me that they are the barrier between civilians and a world of random violence. This was a common theme in the flood of hate mail I received from policemen who responded to a column I wrote "Prevent Violence: Disarm the Police." (That article is appended to this one. See below in extended text.) Many officers provided the further assurance that - given my bad attitude - I had best not count on their assistance against a rapist. (Rape was the assault consistently mentioned, perhaps because the e-mails were all from men.) Well, years ago, I was raped and the police weren't there. So it will be difficult to tell the difference.

The police e-mails that disturbed me were not the threatening or abusive ones. These merely confirmed my opinion: the police are the enemies of anyone who holds a 'wrong' idea or takes a 'wrong' action, however peaceful that action may be. I was disturbed by the few written by officers who were clearly decent and reflective human beings. Of course, they disagreed with my contention that the current police system is just one more layer of State abuse which must be abolished and rebuilt along entirely different principles. (The first principle being to protect the persons and property of those who are peaceful. The second one being to leave everyone else alone.) These officers believed they could change the system from within.

I don't believe reform is possible. Consider an analogy: A man goes to work in a factory that produces cardboard boxes. Taking his place on the assembly line, he announces an intention to produce envelopes instead. As long as that man uses the factory's materials and complies with its procedures, his intention will be irrelevant. He will produce cardboard boxes because that is what the institution/factory is designed to manufacture.

'The police' is an institution designed to enforce the law, whatever the law may be, and to process those suspected of violating it. Only if the law is just does an individual policeman stand any chance of 'producing' justice. To a large degree, current law is designed to produce morality (e.g. enforcing victimless crimes), social 'ideals' (affirmative action) or the protection of political power (gun control). As long as the well-intentioned policeman uses the institution's materials - the law - and complies with its procedures, he will not produce justice. All he can do is to minimize the viciousness with which unjust laws are enforced.

I do not belittle the importance of reducing police brutality. Yet I believe attempts to reform this aspect of the problem are doomed as well. I do not use 'bad apples' like Officer Justin Volpe, who sodomized suspect Louima with a broom, as a paradigm around which to level criticism. I am willing to believe that Volpe's sort is as unusual as the idealistic policeman who treats suspects with real compassion. The vast majority of people in any profession fall in the middle of the bell curve, not at either end. I think most officers simply wish to process the goods - that is, the suspects - with as little trouble as possible. When the goods resist processing, the police respond with the same frustration anyone would feel. Only police carry guns. They often view suspects as less than human. And, as with domestic violence, their brutality has the protection of occurring behind a closed door.

The example I use to argue that a few well-intention officers will not reduce brutality is Sgt. Michael Bellomo. He is one of the other four defendants in the Louima matter and the only one not charged with some form of assault. Bellomo went on trial for lying to the FBI about Louima. He is, more credibly, the typical policeman. He protected the unbelievable brutality of a fellow-officer rather than tell the truth. I believe Bellomo is the norm that good intentions will not overcome.

Many, if not most policemen lie. They lie all the time. I remember when my husband lost all faith in the average policeman. At meeting him, I was surprised to learn that he, a civil rights zealot, had preserved a positive image of the 'cop on the beat.' About two months later, he contested a rather trivial speeding ticket in court. The officer involved repeatedly lied under oath. "If the police lie about something that matters so little," he asked me, "how can I believe what they say about anything important?" From that moment, he has never accepted a policeman's statement at face value.

I am a peace-loving, middle-class white woman who does not have so much as a traffic violation on my record. My husband and I should be the rock-solid strata of support upon which the police can draw. They can't because we know they don't protect us. We know they do not produce justice. And the best intentions of the most honorable officers will be lost in the willingness of most policemen to lie to protect the abuses of the worst of their kind. I'll take my chances with the criminals.

[Kat Kanning]

Great article!

[Russell Kanning]

I even think that the average cop, is in his mind, "helping to protect innocent people" .... they actually have better intentions than to just process the work with the least effort .... but it still ends up in the same place

I have also noticed that those that enjoy the idea of using force outside the police department ... gang mentality gun cleaners come to mind .... use much the same abusive language to attack those of us that do not want to use force as Wendy experienced in emails from cops.

[grasshopper]

   Man Romak, you opened a can of whoopass against cops here.
  My belief in good over evil tells me we need trained people to stop bad people from hurting the weak.  It bothers me that our system has been taken over by the same people that are trying to destroy our country.  My point.  It isn't the cops but the crooked politicians that we have to worry about, if we do what a lot of you are doing, that is to change this country for the better, we Will be able to hire the police ourselves.  We need them. if we can get them to stop harassing teenagers for a joint, enforcing stupid laws that are there to fill up private prisons, we'll be doing ok.
   Russell, good point, there are people like I was that want to use violence against others because it makes them feel cool.  I got over it, even though in my own mind I thought I was justified.  I also own firearms, i love them for the history of the world.  The world is how it is and I wish there was no violence in this world, but there is.  I would trust each and every one of you first, if I got to know you before I trusted a cop that was a strainer to me.  Those cops who e-mailed her were offended and I am glad they were.  If you look at last years open carry incident, the Manchester Cop showed up and then went into ass covering mode and tried to bust or favorite Porq with putting up girlscout advertisements, they can't help it, most of them like to hurt people if they can't hurt bad guys, they get a high from it.  Not all of them.
  In kalifornia a few years ago there was a family that was attacked by a crazy mad man, http://amarillo.com/stories/090200/usn_testpitchfork.shtml   he used a pitchfork to stab and kill 2 children, the neighbors didn't want to get involved, the young girl was not able to stop the murder of her family members because she was not allowed to "be a gun cleaner".   Her Dad locked the gun up and her Brother and sister died because of it.   She escaped through thewindow and people didn't help her, they cowered in their homes, listening to the horrible screams of the nut case and the victims.  If there was a cop there, maybe there would of been somebody that runs to the violence other than running away.  The cops cleaned up that "mess" also. 

[grasshopper]

umm  stranger