Police Department Culture and Equality

Do you see any connection between cops and equality? In today’s society, I don’t. For far too long, cops have been made to feel above all others, similar to sports stars or rock musicians, but Brett Favre and Billy Joel do it with games and concerts. Cops do it with force and intimidation. Somebody screwed up somewhere.

Who’s Equal?

The short answer is “We all are”, but……

·         The rich have a bigger bank account. 

·         Mensa members have a higher IQ

·         Artists have a greater imagination

·         Movie stars are better looking

·         Add more of your own

At what point do cops enter this list? Well, they don’t. They are of a personality type that cries out for the equality they don’t realize they already have, that of being human. Absolutely no self-actualization, no self esteem. So, what do they think makes them superior to me, to you, or to your family?

It’s Police Culture!

Force, that’s what. Maturity doesn’t improve with age, it improves with intellect, and cop culture short-circuits intellect and opts for an attitude of blind obedience to their rules and zero tolerance to everything else, aka no thinking, no growth.

“Might Equals Right”. “All for One and One For All”. “If You Are Not With Me, You Are Against Me”, “Kill or Be Killed”.

There are children who gravitate to this non-thinking viewpoint early on. Some do it because they find thinking tiresome and filled with responsibility, two things in which they have no interest. This sad intellectual detour is the very seed the police academy seeks to nurture. Once there, the cop is lured into a life of tunnel-visioned, deaf-eared, repetition-laden patterns of perception and reaction, all geared toward one, academy defined requirement: “winning”. Equality simply does not exist.

Look at the uniform. Military in design, some look downright Nazi. The haircut supports the military theme. And what’s with the mirrored glasses when a cop makes a traffic stop? Officer safety? No, it is combined intimidation and avoidance of responsibility. Once again, equality is not in the vocabulary.

Uniformity point out the “us versus them” thinking cops thrive on. It is supposed to show citizens that cops are on their side. Instead, cops utilize it to set up a superior/subordinate relationship with everybody. Why is a cop so adverse to equality? Because they CAN’T operate on a level playing field. Too much restraint in following the laws of the land as stated for the rest of us. A cop says he only wants to go home safely at the end of his shift, but he is taught he can’t go home without being “right”, a goal he will reach at any cost. Sad on the surface, sick on the inside. And we pay them!

Personal Identification

Have you ever noticed that cops don’t have first names? No, excuse me, they all have the same first name, “Officer”. Sometimes the badge is covered to obscure the last name. When asked, some cops flatly refuse to ID themselves. It is helpful for them to operate without ID if they all dress alike. When beating on the door of a residence, it is even better if their only spoken identity is “the police”. What are they hiding, and why? Avoiding responsibility is a focal point for cops. Be in charge of everything, but be responsible for nothing.

Cop-Speak

Have you ever noticed that cops never leave the house? Instead, they “exit the domicile”. More cop culture. Just watch them in TV interviews if you don’t believe me. Who in their right mind speaks that way? Realistic people who have a grip? I’d say not. Children playing a fantasy game? Could be. And we all pay for their Academy training followed by their daily living. What’s wrong here?

Cop-speak goes far beyond this, however. When a person is cuffed and transported to the station with no charge, they are a “person of interest”, or put into “protective custody”. Well, no, absolutely not. Those people are being held against their will until a cop can come up with something to justify it. It is not just the words they use, it is how it affects us all, and it will continue until the citizens stand up and stop it. You will be next if you wait. Cop culture encourages twisting the language to favor cop culture, and not to protect and serve the citizen. They only take care of themselves. I once read a report of a deadly police shooting where the cop’s actions were described thusly: “the officer carefully placed one round in the suspect’s torso”. Oh, please. He shot the guy and killed him. If a cop is going to operate on Planet Earth, he should relate to it better than that.

Automatic Bias

Cops believe anything that supports the motives that brought them to the force in the first place, and disbelieve all else. In other words, they self-insulate. Remember, they can’t cope with a life of equality. If they can’t cheat, they won’t play, and when they don’t play, they don’t find too many paying career opportunities. If they flourish only as the superior actor, where can they work? As a mail boy at some corporation that might or might not promote them after of years of waiting? MacDonald’s? Or, should they join a police force after a few weeks of basic Academy training and be given a gun with authorization to kill with it, and protection from any non-cop who doesn’t like it? The cop job is the ultimate in instantaneous irresponsibility, plus a paycheck, plus praise and compliments from wannabes and acolytes alike. The perfect career goal for the deceitful.

We Have Had Enough

Let’s end this situation now and forever, shall we? With a CRB owned and operated by the citizens, it would take the length of one session of the board members to eliminate cop culture. Let’s turn this around, back to the citizen’s favor where it used to be.