A communication professor asks his class, “Has the nightly news caused so much fear in your mind that when you walk past a group of teenagers, with their hands in their pockets, at night, in downtown Portland, you immediately think the worst will happen?” For me this is not the case, I do not fear for my safety when I walk by a “gang” of kids. However, when I glance into my rear view mirror and see a cop a couple of cars back, my heart starts to race. Why is it that I fear more about what could happen when the people who are meant to protect and serve are around, rather then feel safe? Granted police officers do protect, because without them we would probably have mass chaos and destruction. The “figure” of the law does prevent that. However, sometimes I wonder if the police truly do serve the public?
My skepticism may stem from the fact that I have had my share of clashes with the police. Perhaps it was the drug bust that took place at my house with no sufficient evidence and only an anonymous tip (by the way nothing was found, surprise, surprise). Or perhaps being pulled over for following the pace of traffic and NOT speeding (the sign I was pulled over in front of verified I was traveling the correct speed) or in that same area someone was pulled over for going the speed limit in the left lane which the cop said was too slow for that lane. The question then becomes how fast are we to go? It seems as though if we go too fast we get a ticket and if we go too slow we still get a ticket. Or the more obvious example would be watching cops turn on their lights to run a red light and then immediately turn them back off. Perhaps it is these things that have tainted my trust in the idea that they are here to protect us.
Most people I’ve talked to have stories about a time in which a police officer abused their power and authority to unlawfully harass them either with threats or tickets. Further examples would be the time someone got pulled over, read their rights and placed in handcuffs while being verbally harassed in efforts to gain a confession about his car being stolen based solely on its make and model. Is it just me or does everyone feel this hostility and fear of unfair accusations and repercussions from police interaction?
When did it become police priority to fill a quota rather than make the world safer? When did building a case by finding credible evidence get put on the back burner behind simply making a bust, which in the end never sticks because they did not build the evidence? By blocking out the good things that cops do (saving a old lady from a robber) we focus on the bad things (3 cops shooting a man for pulling out his wallet, slowly).
The problem could be due to a number of things such as personal experience, stories from acquaintances or the media influences in response to their pressures to create hard hitting news stories. But regardless of what is to blame, something has caused our distrust. Now more than ever it has truly come to the point in our society where we would rather fend for ourselves, than turn to the police for help. How can we as a society truly be safe, if we can not trust the people trained to keep us safe?
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