>
>Justin Schwartz wrote:
> >
> > Some people even exclude cops from their
> > >>definition of working class.
> > >
> > >Cops are, like scabs, traitors to the class:
> > >
> >
> > This is silly. THey're mostly just working class people who want a civil
> > service job with decent pay and benefits.
>
>That's also an accurate description of scabs.
Civil service?
And initial motivation
>(which in any case probably varies greatly from individual to
>individual) is inadequate as a basis for analysis.
I'd bet dollars to donuts it fit 95% of all cops througgh their whole careers.
But "strikebreaker" is
>not part of the job definition for firefighters -- it is part of the job
>definition for police.
That's interesting. I get the FROP would like hear about it . . . .
And police constitute an instance in which there
>is, for the most part, a fairly rigid and mechanical derivation of
>consciousness from practice. They grow to fit their job.
>
Look, Carrol, I am not naive about the police. I live in Chicago after all. And I have handled a lot of police brutality lawsuits close up and nasty. Btw also fire dept paramed suits too. But in the society we live in, we need police. The very communities that are most brutalized by the cops are the ones that cry loudest for police protection against gangsters and thugs. I don't think it's false consciousness either. If you had drug dealers threatening your kids on the corner, you'd want the heat out there too.
jks
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