“If you think about it, this is a really ingenious trick. Because when most of us think about police, we do not think of them as enforcing regulations. We think of them as fighting crime, and when think of “crime,” the kind of crime have in our minds is violent crime. Even though, in fact...

submitted by Robin from self.Psychology

what police mostly do is exactly the opposite: they bring the threat of force to bear on situations that would otherwise have nothing to do with it... most violent crime does not end up involving the police... Why are we so confused about what police really do? The obvious reason is that in the popular culture of the last fifty years or so, police have become almost obsessive objects of imaginative identification in popular culture. It has come to the point that it’s not at all unusual for a citizen in a contemporary industrialized democracy to spend several hours a day reading books, watching movies, or viewing TV shows that invite them to look at the world from a police point of view, and to vicariously participate in their exploits. And these imaginary police do, indeed, spend almost all of their time fighting violent crime, or dealing with its consequences.” David Graeber

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[–]FormosaOolong 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've thought about this a lot and am glad people are noticing and expressing it. We're being entrained to "need" policing, "want" policing, and to glorify the police/military. The blatant militarization of the police, as well as their having become the personal security force of corporate interests makes it plain that their campaign has, thus far, been successful.

When was the last time any one called them "keepers of the peace"? WHen was the last time they even tried to act like that?

[–]HeyImSancho 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The Po-"Lice", are basically used for shoplifting calls from the company store. Before the 80's, they were often portrayed as bumbling idiot keystone cops, and often times as almost 'highway men'. Now? I guess the whole grouping of parasitic influences has hidden any mention of the overall cancerous conditions caused to the dying host.