Growing up, I would come home from school and watch ALL the Law and Orders. Still do today. I didn’t hear much about how cops were pigs and corrupt—I heard a few stories but mostly kids and teenagers hating the police because they wanted to be against the government more than anything actually have happened to them
With the murder of Trayvon Martin I was very confused. It’s a kid, in a hoodie. 95% of my life I a kid in a hoodie, so…what’s going on here. Then I moved, spent less time with my parents and under strict supervision and would see and have interactions with police.
I’d see them texting while driving, the wrong way down a road.
I’d see them run through the red light without or without the siren on, or just turn it on so others would get out of the way. Both panic-inducing, confusing, disrupting and disturbing as that is a really, loud noise.
I’ve seen them brush off issues that they felt were beneath them to deal with and experienced them lying to me and my lack of understanding and believing and trusting them being held against me. Obviously I was the one who was lying, because at the time I didn’t know my rights.
(ACLU, thank you for your efforts to make this and other protections in this and other interactions known: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/stopped-by-police#ive-been-pulled-over-by-the-police)
The distrust of the police is not media brainwashing; it is the complete trust and authority given to police that comes from the all the television shows that at this point are pure propaganda. The police’s values are supposed to be about compassion, respect and professionalism but in my experience their main priority is not their life or even their paycheck but whatever they want when they want it. My experiences are small, but it is the lack of accountability with the most minor of offences that allow larger acts to go unreported—becoming part of the norm.
Police officers choose to serve their communities and they need to prove they are serving all of their community with police officers only being approved if they pass racial bias exams, and police communities are focused on reform with the guidelines set by Campaign Zero and other organizations and reporting systems based on integrity. (https://www.joincampaignzero.org/reports)