Police stopped being servants of the people and became the implementation arm of brutal compliance under threat of arrest and above the very laws they swore to uphold.
Earning the distain and hate has happened as police enacted the unlawful feelings and pushed people around without lawful authority. Police officers that don’t respect the people’s rights under the constitution have failed us in a way that can’t be repaired overnight. My dad was a career police officer and died in 1992 as a deputy sheriff, after 3 decades as a police officer in a northern state mostly as a chief.
Police are the most visible and accessible members of governments that have lost credibility with the public. Supreme Court decisions that affirmed the ability of police to lie to the public and a recent decision ratifying the infliction of pain to enforce compliance...not just on suspects...are a big part of the problem. Throw in politically motivated police chiefs and its a wonder that violence hasn’t peaked beyond its current level.
While I’d never consider violence against them, I go out of my way to avoid interaction with them.
Amen. Bears repeating.