Any Thoughts On the Police Condition in the USA?

[Wolfeye]

Just wondering what everyone thinks about how the police situation is in this country? I mean with it turning more into a police state, people getting "swatted," them acting in contrast to the situation (like arresting someone for assault with a deadly weapon when that's not what happened)- all of it. Any places that are very much not like that or are especially resistant to it?

I remember hearing about some ball-busting bill in Spain that they were at least trying to pass recently that more or less criminalized public activity. Didn't seem to go through, though. I noticed that in a lot of other places, they protest shit like that & will outright fight it in whatever sense of the word. Not saying it's all positive in South America, but at least they fight shit- there seems to be a revolution every twenty or thirty years! Yet, there isn't much of that in America- despite all the talk about being better than everywhere else. Maybe that's part of the problem? Thinking that "the check's in the mail." I know I always presumed there'd be a war if half the shit that goes on today were to happen & now it's hard to narrow down what you actually mean when you say "the things that go on today." What do you guys mention when someone ask what you're referencing?

[zboy1]

Police in most White countries I've been/lived in act like complete as*holes. Why is that? Winston said something funny to me: in China, the cops are nicer and less belligerent than Western cops. He said that surprised him. Hahaha...

[Yohan]

Police in USA has a very bad reputation, also often considered as racist. In Europe it's not like that. Many policemen are very honest people.

About Asian countries and police, they often have the reputation to be very corrupt - ordinary policemen are low paid and accepting bribes and tips for all and everything.

[Rock]

Police in USA has a very bad reputation, also often considered as racist. In Europe it's not like that. Many policemen are very honest people.

About Asian countries and police, they often have the reputation to be very corrupt - ordinary policemen are low paid and accepting bribes and tips for all and everything.

Police in Taipei have always seemed very polite and soft based on my observations there. They tend to do their best to calm things down while being polite and even tolerating verbal abuse rather than pulling rank on civilians, so different than US cops. Aren't Japanese police nice too. I remember how they politely they behaved in "Babel" and how different it was to the police they showed in Morocco. I know it's just a movie but the former reminded me somewhat if Taipei police.

[Yohan]

Police in Taipei have always seemed very polite and soft based on my observations there. They tend to do their best to calm things down while being polite and even tolerating verbal abuse rather than pulling rank on civilians, so different than US cops. Aren't Japanese police nice too.

I was more thinking about police in Thailand, in Cambodia, in Philippines etc. and not about police in Japan or Taiwan.

South Korean police, while not corrupt, can be rather harsh - but South Korean people in general are known to become easily angry and fighting it out often violently at home within their family but also with police during demonstrations etc.

As said, US police has a bad reputation, almost same as police in some Latin American or African country.

[HenryGeorge]

You know the law-enforcement system in America is pretty bad when even The Economist criticized it in a recent article...

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... lice-trial

[Cornfed]

South Korean police, while not corrupt, can be rather harsh

Eh, when I was there certain squads in the SK police were feared but the rest were complete pantywaists. Perhaps it is swinging back the other way now.

[Ghost]

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[Wolfeye]

Another problem that I get to thinking about is how people sometimes have problems mounting a counteraction to something when they can exactly articulate the problem. Like if someone couldn't quite put words to "Iatrogenic assault" (a "medical attack," as another term that doesn't tend to get thought of). One doesn't necessarily NEED to be able to put words to a situation in order to grasp what's going on, but it can make things harder.

There's also the concept of incongruent impressions. Like how someone might not think of a doctor as a murderer, but they might run into that as a situation. With cops, there's plenty of times where they instigate, escalate the situation, and blame the victim. This doesn't always match up with the "Webster's Definition" of things. There was a good example of this in the movie Predators, if any of you see it.

One more thing is that people seem to have some degree of presumption of competance from other people. So someone saying something to the effect of "Not it" when they do something causes a "WTF? moment." If someone were to actually say that "What happens is not what occurs," they would be seen to be saying something that isn't true. Yet, there are so many situations where the situational composition is basically disregarded- as if aspects of a situation are not a factor in the assessment of it.

[Teal Lantern]

Just wondering what everyone thinks about how the police situation is in this country? I mean with it turning more into a police state, people getting "swatted," them acting in contrast to the situation (like arresting someone for assault with a deadly weapon when that's not what happened)- all of it.

The tactic seems to be to highlight enough abuses by cops (problem) to get ordinary citizens to demand (reaction) a federal takeover (solution) as a fix. That will make things worse, but that can't been seen by most.

[Wolfeye]

Teal Lantern: That's a possibilty. I definitely think they do shit to get on TV & such. Maybe it's capitalizing on them pulling shit like that? Like the idea of them not being directed & just doing what occurs to them, but that works out in a favorable way for people that want to play dictator?