Am I being too pessimistic and jaded in my worldview?
As a US citizen: No, not in the least. Most are cowed and comfortable and undereducated.
There would be pockets of fighting back, but not enough. The cops here nationwide are almost uniformly pro-oligarchy, they know who butters their bread and they like being an unaccountable gang.
I generally oppose notions such as “all cops are bad” and I do think they should even command some respect in society (it should go both ways of course). You want the police to be on side of society in a broad sense and for them to be civic minded.
I wouldn’t say American police are bad (even though I do have stories of their cowboy antics) per se, but I did get the impression that the US police is somewhat subrevient to the oligarchy.
Having a civic minded police is the best option, but even a self-interested police force can show flexibility and have a indirectly positive influence.
One hypothetical example would be the police not willing to easily, directly side a group in a given case. Their thinking could be something along the lines “why don’t we sit this out, no point in taking all the risks for some breadcrumbs, when the vast majority of the benefits go to someone else. Let them put their asses on the line and we’ll see how things play out.”
As a US citizen: No, not in the least. Most are cowed and comfortable and undereducated.
There would be pockets of fighting back, but not enough. The cops here nationwide are almost uniformly pro-oligarchy, they know who butters their bread and they like being an unaccountable gang.
I generally oppose notions such as “all cops are bad” and I do think they should even command some respect in society (it should go both ways of course). You want the police to be on side of society in a broad sense and for them to be civic minded.
I wouldn’t say American police are bad (even though I do have stories of their cowboy antics) per se, but I did get the impression that the US police is somewhat subrevient to the oligarchy.
Having a civic minded police is the best option, but even a self-interested police force can show flexibility and have a indirectly positive influence.
One hypothetical example would be the police not willing to easily, directly side a group in a given case. Their thinking could be something along the lines “why don’t we sit this out, no point in taking all the risks for some breadcrumbs, when the vast majority of the benefits go to someone else. Let them put their asses on the line and we’ll see how things play out.”
Is there anything that could happen this year that would change your mind? About some cops being okay.