It's so easy to dislike the police

Originally published on Tumblr.

“If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.” - Winston Churchill

I don’t like the police. Some of that dislike is their fault, and some of it is my own misdirected blame.

I’m a middle-aged, middle-class white guy. It must be much worse for people with skin darker than mine, especially younger men.

I know we’re in the middle of a police crisis in Ferguson, Missouri. There’s too much noise coming out of there for me to comfortably comment, but one thing is clear: the police isn’t much liked.

Instead of speculating about why other people don’t like the police, I’ve been thinking about why I don’t like them.

Our society needs police, but I think their use should be minimal. Every act of law enforcement is an opportunity for conflict, because the people involved are not equals. It’s too easy for the people with more power to abuse that power, and it’s too easy for people with less power to feel threatened or unfairly treated, even if they aren’t.

I’ve only been involved in a few incidents in which the police abused their power. To someone like me, it’s a rare occurrence. To other people, it’s not. Most of my dislike, I’ll readily admit, is misdirected. I dislike the police when they are used as fundraisers for municipalities, and I dislike the police when they have so little to do that they fill their time enforcing laws that shouldn’t exist. My dislike should instead be directed towards the officials asking for funds to be raised this way, and towards legislators and regulators who impose excessive limitations on people’s freedom.

A few weeks ago I was in Kansas City with a colleague. He was driving. Leaving a gas station he didn’t stop at a stop sign. He didn’t stop because he didn’t see the sign. It was hidden by foliage. I didn’t see it either, and it was on the passenger side of the care. A police care was waiting around the corner and pulled us over. They were raising money for the town, and their tactics were despicable. It’s difficult to respect, never mind like that kind of law enforcement.

I travel a lot, usually by plane. I loath the TSA, not so much because of the way their personnel behaves, but because of the ridiculous show they put on in the name of safety and counter-terrorism. I’m no expert in this area, but I trust people like Bruce Schneier who thinks and writes extensively on the topic. This agency wastes our time and it wastes our money. I can’t take their work seriously, and I will not help their personnel. I realize my reaction towards the front-line TSA agents is misdirected, but that is unfortunately often the way it works. It’s hard to angry with the faceless bureaucrat who writes a silly ordinance, but it’s easy to be angry at the young officer doing her job by enforcing it.

This morning I went swimming with my dog in a public river in Austin. Many people bring their dogs for a swim there every day. Today two policemen showed up to fine everyone with dogs off-leash. All the dogs were off-leash, because they were swimming to retrieve sticks and balls thrown into the river. The leash law in this area is absurd. Does the Austin police have so little to do that they can send officers out to look for dogs at play? Apparently so. One of the ironies of this morning’s police action is that it forced everyone to go into the river with their dogs, in clear violation of a “No Swimming” ordinance issued by the municipality. Maybe tomorrow they’ll decide to enforce that rule.

The net result of this kind of police activity is the public’s diminishing respect for police officers. This is dangerous, because it forces police to take ever more heavy handed tactics to do their job. This isn’t an easy cycle to break.

I don’t think my view of law enforcement is terribly sophisticated. It’s emotional. I recognize that, but I also see that I’m not alone in this response. People in power often abuse it. That’s always been true. Of course we need checks and balances, but just as importantly we need to stop passing unnecessary laws. They exacerbate the problem, forcing law enforcement to deal with more and more petty infractions, which aggravates the public and leads to a loss of respect for the enforcers.

Policing is necessary, but if people like me resent the people who do the job, we have a problem.