Heading back to the boat after a hurricane we got pulled over by the local police. I mentioned to my friend that he was being tailed for a few miles just in case he wasn't aware. Sure enough we rounded the corner and he was pulled over. The interaction with police was professional and it was appropriate (As far as I can tell it was a net positive experience). My friend had an expired registration tag on his car and it made sense as to why he was pulled over (I mean he didn't say it was the air freshener or something.) It is logical and I understand that.
(Unfortunately, its his wife's car and he doesn't drive it much. He found the insurance, old registrations and the smog test for an updated registration but couldn't find the actual updated registration document. In general, his wife was good about those things and keeps her car up to date.)
However, despite him being upset at the ticket the behavior of the police were in general appreciated and they did their jobs appropriately. While I'm not excited about my friend getting a ticket while he was giving me a ride, I understand the overall reasons why he was pulled over and issued the ticket. They were transparent and everyone just communicated until they told him what was going to happen and everyone moved on.
(In my mind, it makes sense to be very nice and polite when you get pulled over. It is also ok to ask questions but do so in a polite manner. If your in the moral right just let everyone make their own choices and deal with it later. Its not pro or anti police or anything comment. Because we know the good and bad guns can do, I'm always a little nervous when anyone has them around me because I don't always trust people's judgement. We don't need the frontal cortex to get activated and derail rational thought; as a general rule for everyone. Move slow and move deliberately and communicate what your doing if you sense any tension and/or body language postering. The goal is to deescalate and lower the temperature. Civilians and police can do a better job at that during interactions. It should be a relatively neutral or positive experience. In this case, there was no need overall but its just good advice to keep in the back of your mind.)
In this case, and many other cases, this is what police were supposed to do and they offered a level of honor to their profession (Positive and negative interactions add up to create a PR impression of policing and protestors alike. If people are complaining on a large scale what we are saying and what we are doing might not be the same in all incidences. The brand imagery and the customer experience are sometimes different; assuming they know who the customer is. So let us make sure everything is in alignment to reduce those tendencies.). This is one reason why I once thought about joining the policing profession a long time ago (That and I think they can help people because of their important role in society. I also believe they can sometimes be shady and corrupt if there is societal confusion of their role and the parameters of that role.). I think I would have been a good investigator. :) In my lifetime I have found corruption, helped police nab bad guys/gals, got a drug operation evicted, stood up to bullies, and lots of other stuff that includes having empathy for the essential needs of protestors, and lots of other things that people don't generally understand (Also why hate narratives mislead.)
(If you really think about what protestors want and what police want they have similarities. From a biological, psychological and social level we seek alignment with different aspects of society. That may mean a policy, narrative or culture is out of balance. Some of these issues are with departmental management, a general distrust in some of the public, and probably many other things that create dissonance. Politics likely the biggest culprit but not the root cause of the issue. We might consider asking ourselves these two questions...1.) Are we treating all Americans as having value in all of our institutions? 2.) Do we have an environment that fosters the type of leadership that can create shared similarities between different perspectives (i.e. On a universal level there are shared desires of protestors and police to foster safe communities, fair treatment/justice, opportunities to engage, standard of living, stop violence, etc..)
(btw...I'm not a protestor either. I just want to understand.)
I generally take a neutral approach to police and encourage people to do so as to avoid the hyped up rhetoric. When they do good we praise them and speak about it, when they do bad we correct them and report them. This is how problems are resolved, it sets the expectation socially what is appropriate, and it creates and environment where good police are highlighted for advancement and poor police are eventually discovered and if continues removed (Also why I like the idea of a vetted complaint button on the main webpage of every department. Good interactions should have some influence on departmental policy if there is an essential goal to serve the public. Too many complaints with merit it starts to highlight troubled areas for improvement, training, investigation, etc.).
The same can be said at other times and locations where I heard complaints but then found later found out the police behaviors are appropriate for the circumstances. Meaning they did nothing I can tell wrong. I've written about when I think police are doing the right thing and I write about what might happen if they do the wrong thing. As a society we have freedom of speech so we may learn collectively and set the expectations (In most places we do have freedom of speech in some areas we do not so its not universal across the land yet.). Stifling that freedom for political, religious, ethnic or clan reasons means we don't have a feedback loop, have no way of addressing troublesome issues, that when they go on long enough could derail the entire system if not detected or corrected early. It is irresponsible from a systems stand point to not want feedback loops to stop small problems before they become big problems. i.e. retaliation would be another silencer of free speech.
In this case, I have no complaints. I feel bad for my friend but it is what it is. Don't be all this or all that in anything in life. Police are not good or bad as they are imperfect people (They have bad days too.). They work within a larger system that hasn't yet always grasped the importance of building the best police we can! (From what I understand much of it is more political than practical). Most are good people trying to do the right thing who have lives much like the rest of society. They get ground down by the negatively of their jobs and sometimes departments are good or toxic and that exacerbates other issues. My conservative thoughts are 100% Police, 110% Civil Rights and the propensity to do good or bad is 80% good, 19% shady, 1% criminal in nature. Ask me tomorrow and I might change my opinion. Your opinion is more accurate? That is great! Keep it, share it, throw it, makes no difference. Just don't create a toxic environment from it! We all have to find a way in this world together. 💁
*These articles are designed to improve our society and encourage greater middle path critical thinking on issues. Please feel free discard if you already have better solutions.
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