What I REALLY think about police.....

I'm a dissident Canadian writer.
I write about social justice, abuses of power and authority, and poverty,amongst other lefty things.

I know a lot of people who say "I hate cops".
They've had bad experiences.
I've listened intently and often with horror to their stories.

I don't hate cops. At all.
I have a huge beef with people in authority positions who step beyond their mandate and play the power trip. Sometimes police officers fit that description.

I do not hate police.

There are soooo many good-hearted men and women who supply incredibly important services and resources to their community and wear a police uniform.
They help people who have been attacked, they are there to help when someone has been in an accident, they listen to stories of harassment and implied violence, they take notes.

We have movies about bad cops for a reason. Centuries of policing has shown us that power does corrupt unless it's properly checked by government, judiciary, and civilian oversight.

We have these works of art about bad cops, because bad cops DO EXIST.

We all know about having to pay bribes to police in certain parts of the world when you travel.
We know there are cities in Canada and around the world where police culture is full of institutionalized violence, racism, homophobia, and domestic abuse.
We see reports of certain forces that have no oversight about taser use abusing the tool and not paying consequences.

We hear our friends stories, about 15-17 year old runaways having to give head to get out of a threat of imprisonment, of assault victims being labeled by an onsite seargent as "self inflicted wounds for sympathy" when later analysis proves this is not the case, raped women being asked about "well, what were you wearing", queers being beat up by uniformed rednecks.

These are real stories I've heard directly from the source.

We wonder how 26 hookers can disappear into the night over a 10 year period and no one seems to care.

These are warning signs to us that certain cities aren't making regular assessments of attitudes and institutionalized violence. Training after initial recruitment alone is not enough for those who serve their communities wearing guns.

We need them, to help, to protect, to serve their communities.
But for us to feel pride and trust, we need to see it for real.

An officer who breaks the law, breaks all of our trust in his/her brothers.
When one innocent personis harmed or treated disrespectfully by that 10% of the force who is just collecting a paycheck and power trips, our whole society is cheated, and all the good police officers who help us are cheated of some of their due.

I have a lot of respect and admiration for police,
When they themselves can see the need for more stringent standards, and a weeding out of the neanderthals, all of us will benefit.

And maybe one day we won't hear ANYONE say
"I hate cops"