The police are not your friend

I think with the events of the weekend I should revisit this topic, we saw a lot of love from the boys in blue on Saturday, comparatively little militarized police presence, no arrests at even the largest protests, and even some cute photo ops showing cops interacting peacefully and happily with protestors.

While this is nice and all, and I surely wasn't hoping that there would be widespread brutality or anything, it is also a pretty deceptive act.

First off, police presence at demonstrations is not for the public safety, indeed most demonstrations would probably be a lot calmer without cops hanging out everywhere, rather their presence is meant to remind everyone that they could drop the hammer at any time, for any reason, and their continued restraint will last only as long as they want it to, the message is that they are allowing protest, with the implication that the protest better not be anything they disagree with, or else.

Those who were at the protest here in Portland on Friday night should recall that lesson being delivered very skillfully, no major harm done, no martyrs inspiring even more dissidence during the bigger protests the following day, just enough to show the mailed fist inside the glove. I haven't been able to find out but I would be extremely surprised if the same scenario didn't play out in major cities all across the USA on Friday.

I rarely write about the function of police in preventing crime and I do that for one primary reason, they don't. Oh they catch criminals, among other people, they punish crime, and do so very well, but they are not there to prevent crime, not really, that crime is lower when there is an active police presence is a by product of their primary purpose and not their intended one. Put simply, the police are here to show you who is in charge, actually that isn't quite right, they are here to show you that you aren't in charge and it doesn't matter who is, stop asking questions.

As a progressive and a citizen, your duty is not to make their job easier, because their job is enforcing the status quo, they are only loosely restricted by the laws protecting us, and those laws and regulations grow looser every year. It behooves us all to not give them anything they can use against us. This means knowing when you are legally allowed to walk away, as well as when you can do so safely, those two situations are not the same! It means keeping your interaction with police limited to the necessary business and not anything further, answers to questions should be as short as possible to convey the barest minimum of information. Do not speak to the police in any on the record capacity without a lawyer if at all possible. This applies whether you are a suspect, a witness, or even if you have called the cops yourself

The job of the police is officially to protect us, and to serve the public interest, the people decide the public interest, not the bureaucracy, give them only what they need to do that job, nothing more.

And because there is inevitably that one person, usually the same person who says "not all men" whenever feminism comes up as a topic. who says "Not all police". This is not exactly true, while it is true that not all cops actively pursue tactics of oppression and every police force probably has its share of decent individuals who embody the ideals of the country and the force, just as women can't really afford to assume the best of some random guy who starts talking to them on the street, we can't afford to assume the cop at our door asking if they can ask some questions is going to be one of them either. And even if they were, the thin blue line has been incredibly reticent about talking about the injustices within their system and even the "good ones" aren't exactly speaking up are they?

Respect must be earned, and while individuals within the departments can and should be respected for the work they do, that doesn't equate the the department being respected, and we cannot afford to assume that the individual we are dealing with is worthy of that respect, we must assume they deserve our fear and act accordingly.