My parents grew up in an age in which they were taught that the police were a citizen's best friend. Officer Friendly often was invited to school functions to warn youngster's about "bad people," to know that they could always count on the police to protect them and to teach the little kiddies to respect all the men and women in blue.
I grew up in the 60s -- a time in which we began to have a love-hate relationship with the cops. On the one hand, we still were paid visits in school by Officer Friendly who told us much the same thing he had told our parents. On the other hand, we could watch on TV screens as the police brutalized protesters of all colors and political perspectives. Officer Friendly didn't seem so friendly anymore!
In my young adult years, I worked alongside several different police agencies in my role as a child abuse investigator. These experiences only solidified by own love-hate relationship with the police.
There were several officers I both admired and respected. They were good decent people trying their best to handle a tough job. There were many other officers, unfortunately, who I detested. Their cowboy attitudes were heavy-handed and, at times, made me downright fearful for any unfortunate person who happened to get in their way.
In later years, as I became involved in numerous environmental, peace and human rights protests, my overall view of the police soured. While I still respected and was on good terms with particular officers, the majority of them seemed bent on turning peaceable events into violent confrontations. Too many appeared willing to trample on a person's civil rights, if they felt like it and, even worse, very few of them faced any recriminations from their supervisors, local officials or the courts.
These days Officer Friendly can be downright mean and nasty. While the police are stepping up efforts to film and record anyone they alone deem pertinent for whatever or no particular purpose at all, they are clamping down on the right of citizens to film or record THEM, particularly when they seem to be brutalizing members of the public. As David Sirota has reported, police in Massachusetts have been very aggressive in this area.
I grew up in the 60s -- a time in which we began to have a love-hate relationship with the cops. On the one hand, we still were paid visits in school by Officer Friendly who told us much the same thing he had told our parents. On the other hand, we could watch on TV screens as the police brutalized protesters of all colors and political perspectives. Officer Friendly didn't seem so friendly anymore!
In my young adult years, I worked alongside several different police agencies in my role as a child abuse investigator. These experiences only solidified by own love-hate relationship with the police.
There were several officers I both admired and respected. They were good decent people trying their best to handle a tough job. There were many other officers, unfortunately, who I detested. Their cowboy attitudes were heavy-handed and, at times, made me downright fearful for any unfortunate person who happened to get in their way.
In later years, as I became involved in numerous environmental, peace and human rights protests, my overall view of the police soured. While I still respected and was on good terms with particular officers, the majority of them seemed bent on turning peaceable events into violent confrontations. Too many appeared willing to trample on a person's civil rights, if they felt like it and, even worse, very few of them faced any recriminations from their supervisors, local officials or the courts.
These days Officer Friendly can be downright mean and nasty. While the police are stepping up efforts to film and record anyone they alone deem pertinent for whatever or no particular purpose at all, they are clamping down on the right of citizens to film or record THEM, particularly when they seem to be brutalizing members of the public. As David Sirota has reported, police in Massachusetts have been very aggressive in this area.
There, a man named Simon Glik was arrested for taping police officers who seemed to be beating someone on the street. The Boston Globe reports that "the effort [by] police to intimidate [Glik] was clear: The cops warned Simon that, if convicted, he'd never be able to practice law...he was forced to put his job search on hold and to spend money to hire a lawyer to defend him[self]...and the police erased all but one snippet of [his] recording." Worse, when Glik filed a lawsuit for false arrest, the city -- which has been arresting " others for videotaping as well -- used the case as an opportunity to try to get a federal court to set a national legal precedent officially sanctioning such arrests (the court has not yet ruled).In a "It's hard to believe this could true" story reported by KIRO 7 Eyewitness News,
The Renton [WA] City Prosecutor wants to send a cartoonist to jail for mocking the police department in a series of animated Internet videos.What's next? Will the police start arresting and/or beating people who look cross-eyed at an officer?
The “South-Park”-style animations parody everything from officers having sex on duty to certain personnel getting promoted without necessary qualifications. While the city wants to criminalize the cartoons, First Amendment rights advocates say the move is an “extreme abuse of power.”
I don't trust the police. I felt like a fool for doing so in the past.
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