Which of the following best describes your position on American police?

[BG-NY (permanently retired)]

Where do you fall?

[Suburbia]

Option #3, but as far as I am concerned, I don't care anymore. Cops should step down in a lot of these big cities, if there is a severe rift. A lot of cities should not have police protection.

[BG-NY (permanently retired)]

Option #3, but as far as I am concerned, I don't care anymore. Cops should step down in a lot of these big cities, if there is a severe rift. A lot of cities should not have police protection.

What about in a city like Detroit?

[Trump Is A Maoist]

Option #3, but as far as I am concerned, I don't care anymore. Cops should step down in a lot of these big cities, if there is a severe rift. A lot of cities should not have police protection.

What about in a city like Detroit?

Google the racial makeup of the city and you can predict how Bronz might respond.

[Hermit For Peace]

As a white person speaking, I have no problem with police. In fact, I appreciate the work they do to help society. Yes there are bad cops and there probably needs to be different types of training to match modern times. Yes there are horrific murders taking place against some citizens who are of color. But we need cops. I used to be a corrections officer at a men's prison, and there were some bad officers there, too. But overall, for the most part, we need police protection against all the crazies out there. The cops have a tough job.

[BG-NY (permanently retired)]

Option #3, but as far as I am concerned, I don't care anymore. Cops should step down in a lot of these big cities, if there is a severe rift. A lot of cities should not have police protection.

What about in a city like Detroit?

Google the racial makeup of the city and you can predict how Bronz might respond.

I vacillate between options 1 and 4 often.

[Suburbia]

As a white person speaking, I have no problem with police. In fact, I appreciate the work they do to help society. Yes there are bad cops and there probably needs to be different types of training to match modern times. Yes there are horrific murders taking place against some citizens who are of color. But we need cops. I used to be a corrections officer at a men's prison, and there were some bad officers there, too. But overall, for the most part, we need police protection against all the crazies out there. The cops have a tough job.

Minorities, Blacks and Latinos, and Native American men specifically commit a large percentage of the crime in this country, this is factual, but it does not warrant the abuse and the overzealous stop and frisk that police departments have done over the past 40 years...

[Hermit For Peace]

As a white person speaking, I have no problem with police. In fact, I appreciate the work they do to help society. Yes there are bad cops and there probably needs to be different types of training to match modern times. Yes there are horrific murders taking place against some citizens who are of color. But we need cops. I used to be a corrections officer at a men's prison, and there were some bad officers there, too. But overall, for the most part, we need police protection against all the crazies out there. The cops have a tough job.

Minorities, Blacks and Latinos, and Native American men specifically commit a large percentage of the crime in this country, this is factual, but it does not warrant the abuse and the overzealous stop and frisk that police departments have done over the past 40 years...

I think we all agree with that. But I'm not going to apologize for being white. I used to intensely dislike cops when I was younger but as you age you come to appreciate their help when needed. It's a damn hard job they do.

[Darthpi - Crush the Oligarchy]

I do think a lot of cops - not all, but potentially a majority - get into the job genuinely wanting to help the communities they serve, but a combination of overly aggressive training and the corrupting influence of a deeply rotten internal police culture ends up bringing out the worst in officers when doing their duties.

That being said, police departments when viewed as whole institutions are mostly in the range of mediocre to atrocious.

[Meclazine for Israel]

US Police do an amazing job. 1 US Policeman loses their life every week in the line of duty through criminal enterprise.

In most situations, the people they deal with are batsh**t crazy, and with the high levels of chemical dependency and gun ownership in the US, their task is amazingly difficult. Not many people here would be able to do it.

When Police use deadly force, it's all recorded now, and overwhelmingly, they are then in a huge national media spotlight. On some occasions, Police use too much force, but those moments are fortunately very rare and dealt with swiftly as evidenced during the last two years.

The body worn camera's on Police now illustrate with great transparency the job at hand.

To make the Police more effective, I think they should be paid more money to attract better quality candidates and offer better training. I have seen some video's where the Police have not arrested a suspect correctly leading to bad outcomes.

Returning serviceman would make great Police for example.

[jaichind]

Cops and leadership are both fine

[インターネット掲示板ユーザー Punxsutawney Phil]

Cops are good enough to not really be considered a "mixed bag", the leadership is in the same boat, and police unions are good on balance. So the last option, though it does not describe my position very well at all.

[Mercenary]

Most are good. Stupid laws, inadequate training and bad leadership though do a lot to ruin things. But lack of cops and lack of enforcement of laws is far worse and just turns cities into zombie wastelands.

[Hermit For Peace]

It takes a certain personality to become a cop. You can't have timid people on the job. Conversely, you can't have overly aggressive people on the job. How do you strike a productive middle ground? I'm sure training would go a long way toward improving our police force, but who trains the trainer?

If you had to go out every day on the job and deal with the low-life of society, drug addicts, criminals, stupid people who like to hurt others, rapists, murderers....how do you think that would affect you? I mean we are talking daily. Daily cops deal with elements of society that nobody else wants to deal with.

I'm usually always rooting for the police. Of course, not in blatantly egregious cases when they act like criminals themselves, no. I think it's too bad that the media sensationalizes the few cases of bad cop gone wrong, to the extent that it overshadows the good work that most cops do every day. It skews public opinion adversely.

I was sitting in my car one day writing something and I must have looked slumped over in the driver's seat. A cop stopped and came over to me and asked if I was okay. I'm sure that happens a lot everywhere. Maybe not if you are "of color" I don't know. My coloring is white.

I was also sitting in my car writing something one day and two cops came over to me and asked what I was doing. It seems that I was parked near an elementary school and they were wondering if I was a pervert or something, waiting for the kids to come out from school. No, I was just writing a letter and I showed them the letter. They couldn't know what I was doing but they cautiously came up to me to find out. I could have had a gun or something for all they knew. They were just doing their jobs.

[SWE]

Option 1

[Utilitarian Governance]

Option 3 but we shouldn't abolish their unions, just make sure that any cases of misconduct are dealt with.

[Ferguson97]

we shouldn't abolish their unions, just make sure that any cases of misconduct are dealt with.

Pick one.

[TDAS04]

I’d say a solid majority are okay.  There are still more bad cops than there should be, though. While there are bad apples in any profession, it’s probably a bigger problem in the police force than in many others.

[Utilitarian Governance]

we shouldn't abolish their unions, just make sure that any cases of misconduct are dealt with.

Pick one.

One cannot be pro-union and then want to abolish certain ones but there also needs to be a difference between those who are only in the force to bully or intimidate others and those who legitimately want to protect their communities.  

[Mr. Smith]

Opt. 2, but I don't object to the unions when considering the circumstances.

Like almost any position of consequence, to be a cop is to die a hero or live to become the villain. This is because such positions mean dealing with the worst of the worst and failing to save everyone on the way, which means you either get burned by the system or you become hardened and cutthroat to stay above.  Eventually, you're going to jade over those your tasked with helping anyway.

The only difference is is cops are given deadly weapons, and therefore considerably more power compared to other life-altering positions, but also undergo far fewer intellectual hoops to jump through to get to that point.

This will attract the ignorant with very few other places they can go for a living, the power-hungry, and those with both attributes.


If educators were suddenly allowed firearms as some politicians advocate, I suspect similar attitudes would start to apply here too.