When did this... become this?

[KamaAina]

[In_The_Wind]

1. Oh, sometime in the past 50 years.

Cause when I was a kid we looked up to cops.

[PowerToThePeople]

2. COPS reality tv show.. n/t

[uponit7771]

3. when the majority of those being policed became black in that area

[NightWatcher]

4. when the War on Drugs turned cops into paramilitary stormtroopers and seizure laws went into effect

so that they could buy new, more deadly toys every time they pulled over a kid with a joint in the ashtray

[sufrommich]

5. I doubt that first picture was ever the case in some minority

neighborhoods. The '68 Detroit riots started because of police brutality.

[L0oniX]

10. 1967

[leftstreet]

14. +1

[Brickbat]

6. War on Drugs.

[Malraiders]

7. It's refreshing to see people able to peacefully demonstrate in the US without

being herded into a free speech zone, or shot in the head and nearly murdered with a bean bag like Scott Olsen was by police or pepper sprayed in the face like the demonstrators were at Berkley Ca by campus cops. Or pepper sprayed in the face like a smiling NYPD supervisor did to the young women during an Occpy march in New York City. Not to mention how the rights and liberties of people are routinly violated by police officers all across the US everday in this country.

I think I speak the truth when I say hat the police in Ferguson MO ( No matter what city or county authority they serve) see the demonstrators marching in Ferguson as their enemies. And that can be said about the other examples I smentioned too.

Sadly I doubt the refreshing feelings I feel will last very long.

[Delphinus]

8. I know.

I wanted to be a cop when I was growing up - but, at that time, females didn't have that latitude.

My son was a cop - and a good cop. For me to say I don't believe a word that's coming from Ferguson cops hurts me a lot.

[Trillo]

9. It's a simultaneous marketing strategy combined with a police state.

Kids are still being taught that in schools, if an Internet search is correct: See this as one example. It's not a matter of when one became the other, it's a simultaneous marketing strategy combined with a police state.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. It started with "Hill Street Blues"....

Cops went from this:



And this:



Where cops were depicted as people with intelligence and the job was about conflict resolution and responding to emergencies and kind of fun and exciting which attracted nice guys to join the force...

To this:



Where the job was NOT fun at all but was was gritty, dark and dangerous to discourage people from joining.

To THIS:



Where police are depicted as slamming people to the ground and slapping on the cuffs before you even talk to them. Sometimes after a foot chase and ALWAYS to people who are poor. Sometimes hassling someone because they look like they might be someone who does drugs.

This attracted the thugs and bullies of society. The High School Jocks on the football and wrestling team to join up so they could get paid to kick some ass.

[truedelphi]

12. And the Big Wars based on The Big Lie didn't help any either.

Police departments across the country give a lot of weight to people who have served in Iraq I or II and/or Afghanistan.

And one of the main reasons for having that war in Iraq was to teach American service people that busting through someone's front door and slamming everyone to the ground, even the little kids, is just part of everyday standard operating procedure.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. As is thinking "Shock and Awe" was "cool"....

I bet these guys wanted to call in an air strike.

[Rex]

13. 9/11...did everyone really just not get what Cheney meant when he said

"9/11 changed everything."?

[Initech]

21. Yup, 9/11 and the "Patriot" (term used loosely) Act turned America into a police state.

[Rex]

22. That kind of outrage just doesn't go away. We know who to blame for

our version of a modern day police state. Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Bush. The GOP and all their special interest groups. They helped create the MIC. The DHS. They started this War on the Poor.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. Policing has become a racket - like the mafia

I've read at least a dozen articles regarding drug asset forfeiture and how it's related to the militarization of the police. It's what's producing cash by which police departments are buying all these armored troop carriers and machine guns. Drug asset forfeiture should become banned. Police departments use false informants who get cash rewards on which to base bogus warrants to go into the homes of suspected drug dealers. Even if the wrong home was chosen or the people are innocent, the police can seize the home, the cars, and whatever else they want under our current laws and it's the home owner who must then go to court to prove a negative; that he wasn't involved in drugs, which can take years. In the meantime, the police are enriched enough to afford all kinds of expensive military goodies.

"...New Yorker reporter Sarah Stillman, who penned a deeply reported piece on asset forfeitures,wrote in August 2013 that “thousands of police departments nationwide have recently acquired stun grenades, armored tanks, counterattack vehicles, and other paramilitary equipment, much of it purchased with asset-forfeiture funds.” So SWAT teams have an incentive to conduct raids where they seize property and cash. That money can then go into their budgets for more weapons. ..."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/14/11-ways-the-militarization-of-police-is-wreaking-havoc-on-innocent-americans/

[lunatica]

17. I don't know about that. I lived during the 60s and cops

got very nasty. They earned their moniker "Pigs".

The difference is that now they wear the full thug armor and weapons. They used to only beat the shit out of you with their night sticks.

[KamaAina]

18. And then there's this

[cwydro]

20. I like this one.

Sad.

[HipChick]

19. It never really changed...the message black parents have to give

their male children has always been the same