[quote]Sloth wrote:
Gregus wrote:
I see. I grew up in the Eastern Block under Communism. Im sensitive to the issue of trigger happy cops and a general attitude of the police just needing that one little bit of an excuse to go all out.
Ahhh, that makes sense. And, I can understand your suspicions. A reasonable person is going to develop a healthy level of distrust coming from such an enviroment.
However, I simply can’t understand the level of distrust and dislike for our police that is expressed on this board. Now, I’m not happy with the Drug War, and the confrontations between the citizenry and police it produces.
Yet, even in the presence of bad policy, there is a level of dislike that makes no sense to me. Supposedly my fellow private citizen is my comrade against the evil jack-booted police officer. Yet, my comrades are much more likely to kill or rob me than a cop. Nor, would I have faith in my fellow citizen-bus passengers to help me if some nutty asian fellow began to stab me to death, ultimately decapitating my body. Or, to help me in a pizza joint, if some big fella attacked me. Or, if I was a woman, while I was getting my head caved in on the sidewalk, in broad daylight.
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Maybe you have no point of reference.
That however can be changed.
Fly to Europe and talk to some cops.
In my city you find them quite easily, you only have to wait until kids go to school, then you will see one on every major crossing without traffic lights that is close to a school.
Or you just go into a police station and say something like “Hi, just wanted to know what an Austrian police station looks like”. Maybe they show you around.
A few weeks ago one black teacher was roughed up because they thought he was a drug dealer. He himself said that he had never seen people get so pale as when they found out who he was, which was 10 min later at their station. That immediately made all the news, there was a public discussion on television and an investigation is taking place right now.
This is the kind of relationship a police can have with the citizens it has sworn to protect and serve.