Posted by: thefishtailbites
Posted by: GreyHead
Not a comment on the incident in discussion but if I as a 60 something, law abiding, white male, feel intimidated and threatened by the police if I am forced to have an interaction with them, I cannot imagine how marginalised folk feel.
That whole "power intimidation" thing that comes across leads my brain to short circuit and I seriously worry about what would happen if I inadvertently made an unintentional "unacceptable" move.
Maybe if police were less focused on the "power" intimidation moves, they might get more community buy in, and maybe their job would be a little easier, and yes I get that there are situations where force might be needed, but is a show of potential brute force needed in every community interaction?
I think it's actually very normal to feel anxious in those situations. I get similar jitters going through customs (my knees get shaky.) However I'm aware I'm not doing anything wrong so nothings gonna happen.
I fully understand the anxiety that most people feel when having to deal with law enforcement, whether at the airport or in traffic. Most people deal with law enforcement based on their personality, the stories they have heard, and because of the issue that syncro mentioned. To put it very simple, it might have to do with the general feeling of helplessness and of being not in control but at the whim/mercy of a person in power.
Again, as with your above statement on routine checks or arrests, you are assuming that police officers abide by the law or are aware that they are representing law enforcement and thus need restraint themselves. And most police officers or border patrol seem to do so, it is the many rotten apples that are the issue, and your perspective might be a bit naive, I fear.
There have been literally thousands of cases when officers abused their power, and I am not talking about dictatorships, authoritarian states or failed states such as the Philippines, Iran, or Mexico, but about countries like Germany, France, the UK - or the US. Countries where the ordinary citizens think that they have nothing to fear from law enforcement. In many of these cases, the people who were wrongfully mistreated did not do anything wrong either. The usual line of argumentation in such cases is "That is just an exception to the rule, a single case of a misbehvaing officers..., we got nothing to worry about."
But this is simply not true, as soon as a person fits into a certain "box", hairdo, clothes, tattoos, skin color, perceived "attitude", place or time, this person might be in trouble despite their innocence.
Example of one: Check a software called Pallantir and what happened in Los Angeles county. I think we once even talked about it on here.
I could continue with examples from demonstrations here in Germany, where brute force was used by law enforcement on senior citizens and children, or the many cases of different treatment because of skin color or residential status, heck - why are many FN in Canada wary of the RCMP?
Another example, each and every traffic control or routine check I have to face is always the same, I am tattooed and wear dreads, despite not doing any drugs and working as a teacher. The reactions are always the same. Always. And have not really changed in almost 30 years since I was a skateboarding teenager. And I fully understand their perspective - based on statistics, I am the odd one out.
Still, I honestly think that a democratic and civil society should have police officers and law enforcement that can be checked from institutions independent from them. Society should be able to do better.
And how come that the reaction to police officers is the same almost everywhere, universally?
Give a person a uniform and see how they change and transform into something different over time.
