Black Lives Matter
When last week, Barack Obama has said the fatal shootings of two black men by police is "not just a black issue - but an American issue", he was right in more ways than he meant. The problem of police brutality in the US is a lot broader than race. It is a problem with a culture that believes the police is above the law and above the citizens it is meant to serve. Actually, the concept that the police is meant to serve seems to be quite absent from this culture.
It seems quite innocuous and irrelevant, but when I lived in the US, I knew a Norwegian female university student who got arrested for "contempt of cop". She was shortly released afterwards (it helps being fair-skinned and blonde), without much more ado than wasting a few days of her life and getting quite a scare. Her story was quite common among European expats in that country and I heard a similar story shortly afterwards that had happened to a visiting scholar (a respected foreign university professor who was a woman in her sixties). What happened to these people? According to their own version, not that of the police, they were minding their own business, or had made a minor mistake (usually a minor traffic one due to their inexperience driving in the US), when they got stopped by the police. The police officer who stopped them proceeded to behave in a completely brutish way, being physically threatening and shouting insults. They responded by scolding him and demanding respect, being totally unaware of the fact that demanding to be treated with respect by a police officer is a misdemeanor (*) in that country.
As I started saying, these cases are completely irrelevant when compared to perfectly innocent people ending up being killed, but they are a symptom of what I think is really wrong with law enforcement in the US: police officers are above other citizens and they are above the law it's their job to defend. Want to drive above the speed limit? You will get arrested, unless you are a police officer. Want to be rude and violent with anyone who crosses your path? You will get arrested, unless you are a police officer. Want to shoot people? You will get arrested, unless you are a police officer. It seems to me this is the reason why the majority of them were attracted to the profession to begin with. It seems to me that precisely because the kind of people who are attracted to the profession for such a reason are in the majority, police officers are generally disliked and have such a bad reputation.
Want to know just how bad their reputation is? Shortly before I moved to the US, I attended a short seminar in the US embassy in my country (note the location), where I received a lot of advice and information on cultural differences that should help me avoid common problems while adapting to the American way of life. An important section of this seminar pertained precisely to how to deal with members of the American police force. The bottom line was avoid contact at all costs, but if you do find yourself in direct contact with one of them, behave as if you've just met a serial killer (**).
(*) according to Wikipedia, contempt of cop is not an actual offence, but charges such as disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assaulting an officer may be cited as official reasons in a contempt of cop arrest.
(**) To be more precise: obey every order you receive, speak quietly even if they shout at you, do not answer back (a police officer is always right), keep your hands visible at all times, inform them beforehand of any movement you intend to do (there had been a recent case of a foreign man being shot after reaching for the driver license he kept in his pocket), etc., etc., etc. Most of the advice was on how to avoid ending up shot dead. And nobody in the audience was black, in case you're wondering.
It seems quite innocuous and irrelevant, but when I lived in the US, I knew a Norwegian female university student who got arrested for "contempt of cop". She was shortly released afterwards (it helps being fair-skinned and blonde), without much more ado than wasting a few days of her life and getting quite a scare. Her story was quite common among European expats in that country and I heard a similar story shortly afterwards that had happened to a visiting scholar (a respected foreign university professor who was a woman in her sixties). What happened to these people? According to their own version, not that of the police, they were minding their own business, or had made a minor mistake (usually a minor traffic one due to their inexperience driving in the US), when they got stopped by the police. The police officer who stopped them proceeded to behave in a completely brutish way, being physically threatening and shouting insults. They responded by scolding him and demanding respect, being totally unaware of the fact that demanding to be treated with respect by a police officer is a misdemeanor (*) in that country.
As I started saying, these cases are completely irrelevant when compared to perfectly innocent people ending up being killed, but they are a symptom of what I think is really wrong with law enforcement in the US: police officers are above other citizens and they are above the law it's their job to defend. Want to drive above the speed limit? You will get arrested, unless you are a police officer. Want to be rude and violent with anyone who crosses your path? You will get arrested, unless you are a police officer. Want to shoot people? You will get arrested, unless you are a police officer. It seems to me this is the reason why the majority of them were attracted to the profession to begin with. It seems to me that precisely because the kind of people who are attracted to the profession for such a reason are in the majority, police officers are generally disliked and have such a bad reputation.
Want to know just how bad their reputation is? Shortly before I moved to the US, I attended a short seminar in the US embassy in my country (note the location), where I received a lot of advice and information on cultural differences that should help me avoid common problems while adapting to the American way of life. An important section of this seminar pertained precisely to how to deal with members of the American police force. The bottom line was avoid contact at all costs, but if you do find yourself in direct contact with one of them, behave as if you've just met a serial killer (**).
(*) according to Wikipedia, contempt of cop is not an actual offence, but charges such as disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assaulting an officer may be cited as official reasons in a contempt of cop arrest.
(**) To be more precise: obey every order you receive, speak quietly even if they shout at you, do not answer back (a police officer is always right), keep your hands visible at all times, inform them beforehand of any movement you intend to do (there had been a recent case of a foreign man being shot after reaching for the driver license he kept in his pocket), etc., etc., etc. Most of the advice was on how to avoid ending up shot dead. And nobody in the audience was black, in case you're wondering.
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