One of the major changes in my lifetime is the plunge of public opinion about community police officers. As I a child in the 1950s police officer was one of the big four occupations young boys wanted to do when they grew up: policeman, fireman, military or cowboy.
Today Firemen are still admired as are the military. Cowboys have a much smaller part in people’s awareness, even people who like beef. Then there are the police. Growing up like other young boys at times I wished to one day serve as a police officer.
Andy Griffith was America’s favorite Police Chief and upheld the law with dignity, humor and intelligence. Yes, it was a fictional show. But the role was the way many old-time policemen operated. They were people I knew and respected. They held the line of the law without abusing their power.
Now it seems most law-abiding citizens fear the police because of the news stories of the police abusing their authority. Or they themselves have been abused. Clement Freud observed, “I think our police are excellent, probably because I have not done anything that has occasioned being beaten up by these good men.” But many Americans are injured or killed by the police without good reason.
An elderly Atlanta women had her hearing-aid off when a no-knock police swat team burst in looking for a drug seller, but they had the wrong house. She died in a hail of bullets. This happens way too often. Then there is the incredible story from Deming about a search for drugs that ended up costing taxpayers $1.6 million dollars in compensation, and, to the best of my knowledge, the perpetrators still serve in that police department.
Richard J. Daley quipped, “The police are not here to create disorder, they’re here to preserve disorder.” Some citizens feel that disorder results in too many shootings of innocent citizens. Not being on the street in the middle of the night it is hard for me to know the truth. But the number of deaths from no-knock swat teams invading homes for drug offenses is a disgrace.
More so, many Americans, myself included identify with Alfred Hitchcock, “I’m not against the police; I’m just afraid of them.” It has only been in the last couple of decades that I have had these feelings. It happened over time that I lost my respect for most police departments.
But both in dealings with officers who treated me poorly when I had not done anything wrong and at times they treated me like jackbooted thugs treat people under their control. I am an American citizen without criminal tendencies yet I have been treated like a convict in prison who needs to be intimidated.
Again, this has not happened many times but it is not something I forgive or forget when I am not treated properly. It is very common for law-abiding citizens like myself to see the police lose all of their charm and abuse their power while suffering no consequence for their unprofessional actions.
With YouTube we see it every day. Many Americas agree with Ramsey Clark, “Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?”
The abuse of trust by the police removed me from the rolls of their supporters. I was further removed by something that has happened gradually over the last couple of decades. More and more municipalities are using their police officers as armed tax collectors and generators of extra revenue for said municipalities.
Many municipalities count on tickets to balance their budgets. The tickets are being written not to change citizen behavior; rather, they are just another tax source. And the honorable profession of law enforcement has been damaged, perhaps beyond repair.
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
