In another comment he mentions that he engages in riot cop training- he's not just acting as an enabler, he's one of them.
And I don't assume that all cops are evil- I assume that every individual cop is an asshole until proven otherwise. Personal history and experience bears out the wisdom of this approach.
He's infantry in the Canadian Armed Forces and has worked professionally as a security guard. He has, in fact, been involved in riot cop training.
And once again, your invocation of "one of them" conflates him, with his mistaken default belief in the inherent wrongness of protesters and his default belief that people who threaten others should not be allowed to do so, with the idea of police who abuse their authority. This is an expression of *your* mistaken default belief that all police are dangerous to you and society, and have no motivation beyond active malice.
I assume that every individual cop is an asshole until proven otherwise. Personal history and experience bears out the wisdom of this approach.
One might suspect, were one a suspicious sort, that the reaction you get from them is somewhat dependent on how you treat them in the first place.
I find it much more useful and more practical to remember that the police are *me*. Or, more specifically, that they're fellow people from my own society who've chosen to do a job. Do some of them abuse the authority this job gives them? Absolutely, just as there are abusive middle management and abusive politicians and abusive store clerks - but it's an extreme minority who abuse their authority deliberately and who sought out this authority so that it could be abused.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-27 12:42 am (UTC)And I don't assume that all cops are evil- I assume that every individual cop is an asshole until proven otherwise. Personal history and experience bears out the wisdom of this approach.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-27 12:57 am (UTC)And once again, your invocation of "one of them" conflates him, with his mistaken default belief in the inherent wrongness of protesters and his default belief that people who threaten others should not be allowed to do so, with the idea of police who abuse their authority. This is an expression of *your* mistaken default belief that all police are dangerous to you and society, and have no motivation beyond active malice.
I assume that every individual cop is an asshole until proven otherwise. Personal history and experience bears out the wisdom of this approach.
One might suspect, were one a suspicious sort, that the reaction you get from them is somewhat dependent on how you treat them in the first place.
I find it much more useful and more practical to remember that the police are *me*. Or, more specifically, that they're fellow people from my own society who've chosen to do a job. Do some of them abuse the authority this job gives them? Absolutely, just as there are abusive middle management and abusive politicians and abusive store clerks - but it's an extreme minority who abuse their authority deliberately and who sought out this authority so that it could be abused.