Homerboy- Don't bother trying to argue; you won't win. Check out some of the other posts by those you are attempting to sway.
You'll find they are quite set in their way and are anti-LEO.
Have I ever suggested that there aren't hundreds of thousands of cops doing their job well and honestly every single day? Of course there are. However, we both know that there are also far too many who abuse their positions of authority, or just plain aren't cut out to be police officers. Unless you're suggesting that every conviction against officers of corruption or misconduct
in history was unjust.
We merely start off looking at a situation like this with a different set of assumptions. You go in figuring the cops were probably in the right, at which point it will never be terribly hard to convince yourself of this...after all, police are authorized to use force, even deadly force. If you go into any use of force assuming that the police officers acted appropriately, it will be hard to convince yourself otherwise.
Those of us on the other side of the Blue Wall tend to look at things a little differently, considering we are the ones at risk of ending up on the wrong side of a police-issue weapon. I don't go in with the assumption that the cops
were in the wrong, only with the assumption that they
could have been. Granted, when looking at a situation like this through that lens it becomes almost equally easy to come to an opposing conclusion...I'll admit that.
Of course, the real problem is that investigations into incidents involving police use of force are (at least in my opinion, and in the opinions of many who are
not LEOs/ex-LEOs) generally biased in favor of the officers involved. Which means that at the end of the day, the public generally just doesn't have much faith that the "truth" will come out...and have no doubt, I know the "truth" is that some such uses of force
are justified, but that others are not. Since we (as the non-LEO public) have little reason to trust the results of such investigations, we go home with our assumptions, and you go home with yours...further aggravating the "us vs. them" mentality on both sides.
Lastly, I'll say this. It may sound like I dislike and distrust
all LEOs. Maybe I do. Want to know why? Think about Muslims for a moment. Many in our country tend to distrust and dislike
all Arab Muslims, and treat them all as possible terrorists, even though statistically only a very small percentage are in
any way involved in such activities. The most common justification I've heard for this is that while only a small number are terrorists, an equally small number of the rest are willing to do so much as speak out against these actions, let alone help stop them. Forget for a moment the few that cheer after terrorist attacks...they are also a small minority. Think instead of the majority, from religious leaders all the way down, who instead just remain strangely silent on the issue...how does this make you feel about them? Does it make you trust them?
Not a perfect analogy, to be sure...but I see many similarities between this and the public perception of police officers. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've heard LEO's/ex-LEOs come out against their fellow officers' behavior in public. Yet we all know bad cops do exist. How is that supposed to help us trust any of you?
You might feel safer behind the Blue Wall of Silence, but how can you also expect not to end up distrusted (at best) or hated (at worst) for standing behind it as well?
Also, you know what's fun about "us vs. them" mentalities? To you, I'm "them." But to me, and to a majority of the public,
you're "them." Who knew?
