The Love/Hate relationship with America's Police

I have been employed within a law enforcement agency in the U.S.A for 4 years now. During my short 4 years, I have seen plenty of horrible things and plenty of amazing things. The public has always been skeptical of how well police officers do their jobs and if they are abusing their power or not. The public should be skeptical about police and always keep an eye on them. Law enforcement in America has always been a little weirder than in other countries for various reasons. They have always been a little more forceful and prone to use force faster than other countries outside of the select few like Mexico, Brazil Etc.

What caused the American policing system to fall into this? Why did cops feel it was not just their job to catch the bad guys but to also punish the bad guys. I was not alive back when police brutality was just considered the police doing their job. I was not alive when it was normal to punch the drug dealer a few times after arresting them because they were “resisting” being placed in the back of the patrol vehicle. However, I am alive now, and I am directly involved with law enforcement daily, and I feel that more people who are directly involved need to speak out.

This is not going to be a one-and-done type thing and, time permitting, I plan on typing up more of these as time goes on to give people an inside look into law enforcement to, not necessarily change anyone’s opinions, but to at least educate people. This initial, writing I will call it, will be just a general overview of what I believe is going on in the U.S.A and the rest of the world at this time.

Appreciation and acceptance of law enforcement in America specifically have always come and gone in waves depending on the time and the incidents taking place around that time. For example, in 1991 the Rodney King incident occurred. If you are unfamiliar with this incident I recommend going and researching, it yourself and watching the footage for yourself. A very brief recap of the incident is that Rodney King, an intoxicated African American male, fled from police in a vehicle causing LAPD officers to initiate a pursuit to catch him. LAPD did eventually catch Rodney and placed him under arrest. While/after being placed under arrest most of the LAPD officers that were placing him under arrest struck him with their fists, kicked him, and hit him with batons in what can only be described as a fit of rage and anger.

These officers showed no self-control and allowed their emotions to get the better of them causing them to severely harm someone. While I and all of the other law enforcement supporters will be quick to point out that Rodney fled from the police and placed innocent lives at risk, I will also point out that once the pursuit is stopped and the suspect has ceased being uncompliant, any force needs to cease as well. Just because a person suspected of a crime resists arrest, flees, or does not comply in any way does not mean that police officers get to physically hurt them unless it is necessary to save their own life, the life of an innocent person, or to place the suspect into custody.

Back to the incident, it was recorded by a bystander and broadcast nationwide mere days later. The LAPD was the most hated police department in the world at that time. It was assumed that they were all corrupt and horrible people who beat people of color up for fun. America, at this time, had an almost mutual distrust and dislike for police and LAPD.

Fast forward 6 years to 1997 and the North Hollywood shootout takes place in LA. Again, if you are not familiar with this, I would highly recommend researching this as it was an extremely complicated situation. Two younger males wearing bullet-resistant body armor go into a bank in North Hollywood and demand all the cash in the bank. The two men are armed with rifles and threatening to shoot anyone who doesn’t comply. A bank teller hits the silent alarm alerting the LAPD to the situation. Fast forward to the end of this situation and several innocent bystanders and several officers have been killed, both gunmen eventually die as well.

The issue with this shootout was that normal LAPD officers had revolvers on them and a few extra rounds and no bulletproof vests. The perpetrators had rifles, body armor and so much ammo it appeared they were going to war. No matter how many LAPD officers showed up they couldn’t even harm the bad guys. It took the LAPD swat team to show up and chase the gunmen down before the situation was handled.

After this event, it again seemed the world had banded together again, except this time it was all in favor of outfitting LAPD with better gear and equipment that way if anything like this ever happened again it could be stopped faster with less life lost.

This is just one of the few “waves” that went through America. I firmly believe that these waves will always be present in America, changing tides based on the most recent tragedy or outrage.