The Past: I have a friend, Ken, a bit older than me. He grew up in N. Dakota on the Montana border, talks of riding a horse to school, storing his Winchester in the cloak room. When he was a kid, the County Sheriff would visit the ranch at times and talk with Ken's father. "Sheriff Joe" generally wore jeans and a sport coat, and usually did not belt on a gun. If he actually had to serve a warrant, he'd stick a .38 in his pocket.
One day, young Ken asked the Sheriff, "Where's your gun, what if you need a gun?"
Joe let his eyes sweep around the horizon toward the surrounding ranches, as he replied, "Oh, I figure there's plenty guns around here if it comes to that." What Joe as saying was that he KNEW every one of his neighbors would pick up a gun and back Joe's play if he needed it. He KNEW that. Any Officer who cannot say that today, should be aware that he and/or his department just failed a very important test.
The Present: Police Officers are the servants and enforcers of the ruling class. They are tasked with revenue collection and enforcing ridiculous and worse laws that often trample the rights of citizens (A Washington State Patrol Trooper can make more stops than others in his unit, yet receive a royal ass-chewing because he fails to write tickets and take money from at least 75% of his stops). Police forces recruit Marines and other GI's, because they want warriors will follow any order. They often speak of "police vs civilians," denying that Police ARE Civilians. Laws are passed, making Police "special" (lying to a citizen is normal interrogation for a cop, but lying to a cop is felony obstruction. Assaulting a cop, perhaps by touching him with a finger during conversation, is a worse crime than assauling an ordinary citizen. Letting the air out of my tires is a prank; letting the air out of a cop's tires is felony obstruction...). Many of today's Officers are not the Peace Officers of old. Those men are retiring or have done so. I've worked with some of them and I miss them. This new breed of Enforcer is what the new ruling class wants. We've seen men rejected as "too intelligent for police work" for scoring too high on the entrance exam, fight it through the courts and lose.
Beginning in earnest with the advent of speed radar and the crimogenic 55 mph limit in 1974, Police have become something that is no longer viewed by most members of society as friends. The Officer on the street had little to say in this. The politicians did it.
I have said many times that we have too many police and FAR TOO FEW ordinary citizens who are willing to take responsibility for their own protection. Remember, some of the most infamous gangs of the old west where "shot to doll rags" by ordinary citizens. Once upon a time, prior to 1845, this nation survived without regular full time police forces (yes, the Texas Rangers existed, but the force which later became known as NYPD was not created until that year).
Prediction: As the global financial meltdowna and societal collapse worsens, we will be reminded that comfortable slaves tolerate much, but hurting and angry people do not. Uniformed Police will increasingly become the targets of people who "lose it" and strike back. Sure, the politicians really deserve it, but that uniformed cop, the one who comes up behind a worker with flashing lights and takes the money the worker needed to feed his family, will be the visible target of societal anger. This will become VERY bad before it ever improves. Police, already "running scared" of citizens, will become increasingly trigger happy.
It is an unfortunate truth, that "helping" Police is increasingly dangerous. And, increasingly, Police regard all non-Police with suspicion. If you harm anyone, even at the direction of an Officer, your neck is out a mile. If you are perceived as "going too far," or in any way doing the job that should have been done only by Police, you will be prosecuted without mercy. "Choose carefully, Grasshopper."
I'll stay with the position that I should know who I help. When we had a really decent young Deputy up here, some of us used to keep an eye out and watch out for him. We'd have backed him. If I saw one of our Damned Tree Soldiers (native term for National Park Ranger) in a bind, I'd laugh and wonder if the other guy needed more ammo. When we had the psychotic Deputy here, most of us would have laughed and offered the other guy help. Know the score, know the game, or stay the hell out of it. The goal is to go home alive. The cop has the same goal, but your life is unimportant to his attainment of that goal, and he's damned near guaranteed a "good shoot" ruling if he says "I thought my life was in danger" (ask Amadou Diallo). The non-cop is damned near guaranteed a prosecution for homicide if he has to shoot.
