My stepfather was a paramedic for 25 years. Because police would routinely respond to calls with medics, over his career he had several hundred, if not thousands, of instances where he was a 3rd party observer of interactions between law enforcement and civilians.
I asked him the other day what he estimated the percentage of cops to be w…
My stepfather was a paramedic for 25 years. Because police would routinely respond to calls with medics, over his career he had several hundred, if not thousands, of instances where he was a 3rd party observer of interactions between law enforcement and civilians.
I asked him the other day what he estimated the percentage of cops to be who, while technically not breaking the law, would routinely do everything possible to escalate interactions with citizens to try and trigger bad behavior (and mistakes) on the side of the citizen. The cops that jump at the opportunity to 'flex' so to speak and become extremely aggressive at any perceived slight. The ones that maybe shouldn't be in that line of work. Keep in mind that my stepfather has a black sticker with a thin blue line on the back of his truck.
Needless to say I was very surprised to hear him say 60%+ fell into that category. 3 out of 5. A guy that has multiple blue lives matter t-shirts and is very, very, pro-cop, admitted that over half of the police he interacted with during his 25 year career probably shouldn't be on the force. To be clear, this is not a commentary on those that resist arrest. Rather, I found it illuminating that someone who 'backs the blue' admit that, anecdotally, more often than not he saw police treat the public like shit.
I would have gone with 50%+ myself. Having a few in the family. I'm sure your stepfather saw more than I did. I'm very much not anti-cop, but trying to attract better people to the police force is not what is going on right now.
My stepfather was a paramedic for 25 years. Because police would routinely respond to calls with medics, over his career he had several hundred, if not thousands, of instances where he was a 3rd party observer of interactions between law enforcement and civilians.
I asked him the other day what he estimated the percentage of cops to be who, while technically not breaking the law, would routinely do everything possible to escalate interactions with citizens to try and trigger bad behavior (and mistakes) on the side of the citizen. The cops that jump at the opportunity to 'flex' so to speak and become extremely aggressive at any perceived slight. The ones that maybe shouldn't be in that line of work. Keep in mind that my stepfather has a black sticker with a thin blue line on the back of his truck.
Needless to say I was very surprised to hear him say 60%+ fell into that category. 3 out of 5. A guy that has multiple blue lives matter t-shirts and is very, very, pro-cop, admitted that over half of the police he interacted with during his 25 year career probably shouldn't be on the force. To be clear, this is not a commentary on those that resist arrest. Rather, I found it illuminating that someone who 'backs the blue' admit that, anecdotally, more often than not he saw police treat the public like shit.
Disappointing to hear this. Thank you for sharing.
I would have gone with 50%+ myself. Having a few in the family. I'm sure your stepfather saw more than I did. I'm very much not anti-cop, but trying to attract better people to the police force is not what is going on right now.