Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Being thankful is a distinct thing from elevating the death of a cop to some special pedestal.
When you hold huge ceremonies following the deaths of these people, it sends the message their job is unique, and deserves a heightened reverence. It does not.
Holding law enforcement up as a sacred calling is disturbing. It's a form of "law and order worship" - the kind of thinking that has created bad policies like mandatory minimums, the war on drugs, and grand jury results like those we've recently witnessed. It's also further veneration of these strange totems we seem to value in this country - being aggressive, being armed, rigidly following rules, seeing complex realities in black and white (npi), moralistic judgment, "traditional mores"...
These are bedrock values of people who typically view questioning, dissent, or nuanced understanding of things, as dangerous. They love rules. They love enforcing rules. They crave order and become paranoid in its absence. In a nutshell, they're about as far from the principles of those who founded the nation, and all of those who've helped us make great leaps forward, as any group could be.
Cops have their place. They are necessary. They are to be appreciated, but that's about all. Venerating them is a step too far.
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To a great extent these are a show from the siblinghood and a product of this being a job that results in strong shared bonds among officers. In the military, the development of those bonds is part of crafting the troops as a "fighting force" - you need people to do often irrational and life threatening things for the greater good, and the strong loyalty makes it easier, for example, to get a squad to go on a suicide mission in order to draw fire from the main attack force. This is what a lot of military pageantry is all about, too. Building pride in the unit and bonds with your fellows.
I think the same bonds can be very important for fire fighters, too, who need to operate as a cohesive force, but are actually less important for cops, who operate in smaller groups and who don't need to do crazy things very often. It's all part of the militarization of the police, but a part that is older and better established than giving them tanks, automatic weapons, and grenade launchers.
