Why Hate Cops ?

In May 2020, George Floyd, a black man, was apparently murdered, while handcuffed, by police in Minneapolis.  Bystanders caught the killing on videotape, which was then shown, repeatedly, on national television.  Never before had an actual murder been shown to so many people. 

The immediate effect of the media’s decision to shove Mr. Floyd’s murder into our faces for days was a series of protests that may well lead to some long-needed reforms.  And an outpouring of hatred for police. 

Human beings are not angels.  We sometimes do things that require a police force to interfere in our bad conduct.  In heaven, there will be no police force, because those who cannot repent their anti-social inclinations do not get in.  Here on earth we need police. 

Why is it easy to hate the cops? 

A police officer is authorized to order us around, and to use physical and even deadly force if necessary.  He is given power over other citizens.  Such privileges are easy to resent through jealousy, or just because we don’t like to be told what we can and cannot do by an officious stranger.  Anybody who abridges my freedom is likely to be seen as an enemy. 

A person who has authority such as has a police officer should be of perfect character.  Such a person has not been among us for almost 2000 years.  Thus, a police force must recruit people who come as close to that ideal as possible, even though we know that we will not find any perfect candidates.  We all have feet of clay. 

Are you a bully?  Do you love to push people around?  Police officer is the ideal job for you. 

Are you a bully?  Do you love to push people around? 

No police department should ever hire you. 

In recent years, crime has gone up, and police have become more unpopular.  In the general population, morality has decayed as we move toward a society where immorality is more accepted, and even the Ten Commandments are more deprecated.  Due to the problems caused by this deprecation, we need more police, as the percentage of acceptable candidates in the population decreases.  Often it is necessary to relax the standards, which has a negative effect in the long run. 

I often hear that 99 percent of our police are good people, and 1 percent give the 99 a bad reputation.  I don’t know how close those numbers are, but almost all of the cops I have met appear to be clearly in the 99.  It is, however, notable that police are human, and none will be entirely good or entirely bad.  This will make more difficult the problem of “cleaning up the force”. 

As we face a situation where a lot of people want to abuse the police, it is human nature that a hated and abused group learns to hate and despise those who are its enemies.  They even form unions to try to protect themselves from enforcement of rules, and this protection come to mean both unfair and fair enforcement of rules as civilian control comes to be by civilians who do not appreciate the police who often put their lives on the line for us.  Yet if we want to improve the situation, we must oppose the entirely human tendency for the cops to hold together in opposition to those who hate them even for cops who are or are not in the wrong.  We become more loyal to our group as we perceive that our group has hateful enemies. 

Occasionally we see video of clear abuses fed by this natural tendency.  I remember a video where Al Gore was trying to make a speech, but a heckler made it impossible.  “Security” grabbed him, and while six officers held him down, he was hit with a taser.  He was under control, and did not need anything more than maybe handcuffs.  These officers took a device that was designed to get a suspect under control without serious harm, and used it to torture a prisoner.  [I have heard that, at least in some jurisdictions, a taser is considered a deadly weapon. ]  Such abuses make enemies for the cops, especially but not only when they appear on television for all of us to see. 

Machiavelli would point out that a society needs law and order in order to function, whether we like it or not. 

In the ideal situation, which has never existed, but may have been closer to existence in some ideal time in the past, police arrested thieves, burglars, muggers, rapists, and murderers.  The general population was thankful and respectful to the police.  The “bad guys” may have felt that their rights were violated, but they were a small minority and the great majority was happy with the police. 

As time went by, government has put more and more restrictions on our freedom.  “That government is best which governs least.” and “Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.” have been replaced by more and more laws to protect me from my own stupidity, under the assumption that government officials are smart and I, as a private citizen, am stupid and need to be kept on a short leash.  As more laws are passed, the police are told to enforce them, whether such enforcement will make me resent the cops, and whether or not these laws are even enforceable. 

If I am driving down the street and see a policeman, do I immediately think, “Oh goody, I am safe here!”  or do I look at my speedometer and think, “Oh-oh, will that SOB write me a ticket?” 

I can’t speak by personal experience, but I have seen enough TV to know that an officer who decides that I am doing something wrong may pull his gun and order me to “Get down on the ground!”  If I have the idea that I am a free person, will I be happy with this SOB who orders me to grovel? 

Traffic enforcement saves lives, but at what cost and how effectively?  Ticket the guy who went through a stop sign? 

Or stopped, but did not remain motionless for three seconds?  Could we rely more on common sense?  The law may say that the penalty for failing to stop at a stop sign is a $200 fine, but in actuality the maximum penalty for passing a stop sign when there is cross traffic is instant death, without trial, for the culprit and his whole family.  Is a $200 fine then a great deterrent?  Will a $200 fine really fix stupid?  Wouldn’t we be better off in some cases if we depended on personal responsibility rather than the threat of a fine? 

It is no secret that some jurisdictions consider traffic fines to be an important source of revenue rather than a life-saving service. 

Resentment of the enforcers is not a brand-new phenomenon.  Abuses occur, sometimes by “bad” cops, sometimes by mistakes, and sometimes by obeying politicians who give thoughtless orders. 

If a burglar breaks into my house and I shoot him, I will likely be arrested.  In this situation, it is natural that I should resent the cop who arrests me, even though the policy that led to my arrest is the decision of a bureaucrat or politician, and not of the policeman. 

In 1906, an earthquake devastated San Francisco.  The governor called out the National Guard, and gave orders that looters be shot on sight.  These soldiers, acting as police, followed orders, and in many cases shot people who were digging through the rubble of their homes looking for anything they could save. 

In 1920 a constitutional amendment prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages.   The police, at least those who enforced the law, became enemies of all people who wanted a beer after work.  Prohibition finally proved unenforceable and was revoked.  The police cannot enforce a law that people hate, because people will not cooperate, but they can make enemies among the people. 

More than 50 years ago, I attended the University of Wisconsin.  The hippies wanted to exercise their right to smoke pot.  The police were tasked to prevent them.  The hippies wanted to demonstrate their opposition to enforcement of laws against pot.  The police were not then (or now) well prepared to handle demonstrations when the general populace may be in accord with the demonstrators, even if they have other things to do.  I particularly remember a time when a dozen or so hippies were marching up the street, and the police decided to throw a police line across the street at a quarter to two in the afternoon.  At ten minutes to two, classes let out and a myriad of students hurried out because they had ten minutes to get to their next class.  Thanks to the police damming up the foot traffic, the crowd of a dozen hippies quickly swelled to thousands, with a core of hippies chanting, “Cops eat shit!  Cops eat shit! ….” .  (I’m glad I am not a cop.  I would have tempted to shoot those ….)  All the ensuing years showed that the prohibition of pot-smoking is unenforceable.  Today, we continue the “War on Drugs”, in spite of the fact that it is still failing miserably, but makes many people into enemies of the police who try to enforce the drug laws. 

If we went back to the idea that we should only make and enforce laws that almost everybody would agree that should be vigorously enforced, would our police be less unpopular?  If we went back to the idea that the Ten Commandments are enough?  If we remembered the commandment that says “Love they neighbor as thyself.” and refrain from asking our police to enforce our unnecessary wishes on our neighbors?  Honor our police and give them only necessary laws to enforce? 

We also need to solve the hard problem of how to effectively deal with looters, vandals, arsonists, and thugs who use lawful peaceful protesters as human shields.  Easy answers can be hard to come by in this world. 

Do we need to be abusive enough to redefine what constitutes a peaceable assembly?  Do we need the disgusting idea that police can shoot criminals if necessary, and if peaceful protestors get in the way their wounds are justified? 

Would we better off if we asked our police to concentrate on enforcing only necessary laws?  And in recruiting police officers remember that quality is more important than quantity? 

Of course, it would also be highly desirable to have our public schools teach respect for our Constitution and laws.  Liberty may require schools to be free to teach what they wish to, but it should not extend such freedom to schools that are sustained by taxpayers. 

Ideally, our schools, and the rest of our society, should be indoctrinating our children with morality and respect for our culture.  Things will not improve much until they do so, instead of the opposite.