Cops are, like scabs, traitors to the class:
***** ...We suppose at least some of this often lethal cop edginess comes from a fractured sense of class status and function. After all, most police come from the working class and the vast majority shift class loyalty in the course of duty. Historically, this switch was recognized and fostered, especially during the time of police union organizing. In the early industrial period police wages began to run at about double those of similarly unskilled workers, and this doesn't even take into account bonuses for strikebreaking. Better working conditions meant greater allegiance to semimilitary organization. Yet despite such job perks for cops, morale often lagged.
One of the grander ideas for the necessary morale boosting came from big-city mayors, elevating cop death to the status of near sainthood by flying the flag at half-mast and cajoling entire city staffs to turn out for a blue funeral.
<http://www.counterpunch.org/crazycops.html> ***** -- Yoshie
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