A young, left-leaning law professor from a very liberal family decides to become a cop. Where’s that gonna go? Why, into the 2021 book “Tangled Up In Blue: Policing the American City” by Rosa Brooks.
When her mom learns her daughter is signing up as a reserve police officer with DC Metro, she is horrified: …”her memories of being tear-gassed by police at 1960s anti-war marches remained fresh. ‘The police are the enemy,’ she informed me. “They are not on our side.’”
Following left-wing script, she hates guns but somehow manages to qualify with her issued Glock 17, “But when I got home from each patrol shift, the first thing I’d do was take my gun out of its holster and put it away in its locked metal box. And each time the heavy lid snapped closed, I’d feel a small wave of relief. It was like slamming the lid on a dangerous viper.”
I’ll give her this: she at least tries to understand the Job, and in many ways succeeds. She writes, “Activists critical of policing complain, with some justification, that police effectively become occupying forces in poor urban neighborhoods…But over-policing is driven in part by the law of supply and demand – police go where people ask them to go.”
Toward the end of the book Brooks writes, “…in both older and more recent studies, police officers tend to rate the opportunity to help people as t he single largest factor in choosing their job; pay, power and authority are near the bottom of the list.” She adds, “The vast majority of the police officers I met in my time with MPD were decent, well-intentioned men and women.”
Professor Brooks and I have opposing views on many things related to criminal justice, but we are in agreement on that last quote.
Semi- off topic. I have read and agree with that the mandate for badge cams is the biggest self-own ever by leftists. For every documentation of police misconduct there are about 100,000 documentations of police dealing with belligerent a**holes. The best videos are the subset of “Do you know who I am.” But the Left has seemingly not learned their lesson as the recent demand for ICE badge cams demonstrates.
Sorry; I haven’t a clue what you are talking about.
Are you for, or against, badge cams?
What exactly are they?
If you are, why are you criticising the ‘leftists’ for wanting them?
What does the ‘subset of “Do you know who I am” ‘ refer to?
njk
Most of the officers I know don’t mind the cameras a bit. But the left will never admit this…
Well, yeah, if you’re inclined towards destruction, disorder and disruption, then the police aren’t on your side. But, that’s QED and mom doesn’t seem to grasp the concept.
While rereading a Walter Jon Williams book, one of his characters realizes that the reason a group of …beings, doesn’t recognize an issue is that they don’t have a frame of reference. That is, they live in a mental world of their own and have neither direct experience with or know someone who recognizes reality. This effectively enables them to deny/fail to recognize reality.
This may be the root cause of many of those who are clueless about how the world works. If there’s a difference it also covers those wish to transform society. At least those without a lust for power.
Agreed on the boomerang effect of BWC’s. I’m surprised we’re not seeing more demand for BWC’s in other occupations like teaching and health care. If people can judge my actions based on last night’s “The Rookie”, we should judge health treatment based on “Gray’s Anatomy”.