<> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/nyregion/16-officers-ordered-to-surrender-in-ticket-fixing.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion <> <> " About 60 off-duty officers crowded in the main foyer to support <> their comrades. They formed a human wall, four-deep, between reporters <> and the some of the accused officers as they came out of a hallway. At <> three different times, when three of the accused men showed their <> faces, the crowd burst into applause." <> <> [WS:] It does not appear so thin, after all. <> <> Wojtek
Was reviewing Robert Jackall's ethnography of the NYPD recently. Cops' self-image is one of big german shepards protecting the sheep. They believe that quote, paraphrase: "if it weren't for us, decent people could never sleep peacefully at night. We make civilization possible."
I suspect that protesters might want to rethink their tactic of "who do you protect, who do you serve" in an attempt to shame them. Dunno.I don't think it's going to work much, if that's what they think. To their mind, I'm guessing this claim rings hollow. What they want to shout back, perhaps is, You owe us, motherfuckers. Shut the hell up and quit whining.
but I also wonder about something else, about their own fear and guilt, which Jackall explores in their nightmares. In Jackall's study, every cop he spoke with had a recurring dream that took on three variations:
- under attack, protecting himself and his fellow officers, a cop points a gun only to have it turn back on himself
- in a shoot out, the cop's own bullets would suddenly curve around and come straight for the cop herself
- patting down then cuffing a suspect, the suspect would suddenly become free and magically have a gun pointed at the cops face
Like capitalists who are terrified of the mobs who want their shit, of mobs who will tear their flesh apart in anger if they ever have the chance, that fantasy is a projection. The cop's nightmare reveals that they are feel guilty and ashamed of themselves for dividing the world into us against them. I'm sure that, for the more twisted, the chants "who do you protect, who do you serve," only serve to unleash their anger, the way an abuser hits someone harder when they see vulnerability.