Brooklyn wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 4:28 pmMDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 4:04 pm Geneva's response suffices.
But, heck, I'll say 2% if it makes you happy...but how do they stay on the force and commit abuse after abuse after abuse after abuse after abuse......
Whole bunch of others, (by definition not 'bad apples') who turn a blind eye or otherwise protect them from scrutiny.
Again, my limited experience, a white guy who presumably doesn't look like he poses a particular threat to anyone nor acts like he would, is that in 25+% of my interactions I found myself feeling quite disrespected as a common citizen. I didn't expect any special treatment, but the disrespect, the bossy, puffed up militaristic attitude of the policeman (haven't had it happen with a police woman as yet) was enough to make me really not ok, disconcertingly so.
I recall several years ago my 80 year old, conservative dad telling me that he had come to very much believe the stories blacks were telling of the disrespect and abuse they felt, because he'd recently been treated disrespectfully...just trying to be a helpful, first hand witness to an accident. He was really PO'd, yet he said it had certainly not been the first time he'd felt like a policeman was way too full of himself and his gun and uniform...
Reminds me of law school over 30 years ago. So many of my classmates were from white upper class suburban families who would go into absolute shock and outrage if any minority student would complain about police abuses. They would routinely say, this is America - such things don't happen here. ( ) Some of the professors who had been involved in poverty law tried to set them straight on this but most wouldn't listen. However, a few who did work for the city/county as interns got the rude awakening as their poverty row clients would be dragged into court by cops while white clients would be politely escorted by lawyers and addressed as "sir" or "ma'am". Others had the experience of interviewing people who were slated to be alibi withnesses but who later on refused to appear in court for fear of getting killed by cops. In those days we did not see nightly tv reports of police abuses like we do today. A cop kicking someone in the gut is only what you see on the surface. There's a lot more going on behind closed doors that you never see. Now all know the truth about police crimes and corruption. Because of that, most likely, most of my fellow students from those privileged backgrounds have now changed their views. It's just too bad they couldn't see all this earlier. And it is too bad that certainly delusional right wingers still can't see the light.
My memories are like yours. We were the minority when I got into this fight (civil rights) way back when (late 60s). We are now the overwhelming majority. We are much closer to the end of this battle than the beginning. Hearts and minds, those that can have changed and continue to. A good thing to be certain. Those that can't will sulk in the corner.