re: the 'Slug-Bug' (or 'Punch-Buggy') phenomenon -
It must be funny to be the owner of a VW Bug, knowing that everywhere you drive, there follows a wake of people hitting each other in the arm.
From a conversation with a Gentleman at church coffee-hour:
re: people's general dislike and distrust of the police -
The speeding-ticket is to blame for the current public view of the Police. Prior to automobiles (and the speeding tickets which arrived very shortly after their invention) the generally law-abiding citizen had nothing to fear from the police, and so cops were honored and venerated for keeping the peace in the neighborhood. However, now that any average-joe is a possible culprit for doing his 10 over on the freeway, the police have become a source of universal contempt.
also - Teaser Trailer: I am ruminating on and formulating some thoughts on mental illness after observing it first hand for these several months at my current job. Hopefully there will be some good fruit here on this blog.
5 comments:
where do you work?
Rogers, A Psychiatric hospital here in Milwaukee - I do intake, which is sort of like doing triage in an ER - screening people, figuring out what's going on, etc.
I very much like these thoughts, though w/r/t the police, I wonder just whose view it is we're talking about here.
I tend towards the cynical idea that possession is nine tenths of the law. If we're talking middle class Brits or Americans and it's your possession being served and protected, then yeah, the speeding ticket is probably what did it.
But if you're, say, an American steel worker in an emergent union in the 1870s and getting your ass kicked by the police while on strike, you may not have such a rosy view--indeed, your notion of justice is rather in opposition to the police's. Same if you're a Southern (or Northern) black. And if you're in other countries, shoot, forget about it. Still, a fascinating insight.
And all this brings up another question that I can't believe I don't know--what are the origins of the modern police force? When exactly did the police take on the form we understand it to be now?
hmmm...as always - you have pointed out a glaring and hegemonic generalisation of mine. You are right - by "we" i only meant wealthy whites.
also - good question! thankfully, wikipedia doesn't leave us wanting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police#History
though i am sure you have already scoured that one.
Incidentally, now that I think about it, mistrust of the police reaches at least back to Plato.
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