[thesloppy]

This is only tangentially related, but I'm interested by exactly what/when culturally turned the individual American policeman from a social servant into an authority figure? For a time, the local beat cop was a part of the community, and of course the first person you'd talk to about any kind of local mischief...now, the beat cop doesn't even exist in most of the country, and the police are considered the absolute last resort for lots of folks. Was it the civil/racial unrest of the 60s/70s that turned that leaf? That was kind of the first time that the (white) public got regular viewings of the police conflicting with the general public, and was that what started the cultural divide?

I remember being a kid and regularly going up to police men to ask for trading cards (they were always handing out TrailBlazer cards back in the day...which seems like PR genius these days) or just to say hello, because a policeman was still a young boy's hero by default. I always remember the police saying hello, and being very friendly and approachable. Conversely, as an adult, literally every casual interaction I've had with a police officer has involved them barking at me, like a soldier talking to a foreign civilian in a war zone. At some point there was a shift to militarize not just police equipment, but police attitudes, and I think that's what's doing the most to widen the cultural rift between the police and the general public.

Regardless of any question of morals, or whether any particular cop is some shade of 'bad' or 'good', it seems obvious that in recent years police have been trained to immediately assert their authority in any situation, and to some degree that causes every interaction with police to start on confrontational footing.

While I'm in no way comfortable saying all, most, or even a large minority of cops behave in wrong moral/racist/criminal behavior, I am comfortable saying that all cops have apparently been trained to approach every situation initially as a deadly conflict, without much/any judgment or empathy for the particulars, and that IS a problem. I totally understand that in today's America every situation is a potential conflict, but I think it's completely valid to say that the current system/style of police communication tends to incite that conflict more than necessary.