THE POLICE ARE THE POLICE, WHETHER HERE OR IN GERMANY

                        ------------She had never had to deal with a policeman in her life, and it had never entered her mind to be menaced by one.  Policemen were neither friends nor enemies; they were part of the landscape, present for the purpose of upholding law and order; and if a policeman----for she had never thought of them as being very bright----seemed to forget his place, it was easy enough to make him remember it.  Easy enough if one’s own place was more secure than his, and if one represented, or could bring to bear, a power greater than his own.  For all policemen were bright enough to know who they were working for, and they were not working, anywhere in the world, for the powerless. / Another Country / James Baldwin

You learn to become a policeman by attending the police academy.  Then you learn to become a policeman by riding as a rookie in a patrol car with a veteran.

 And this is where the police culture steps in.  Many people would like to forget that 50 years ago the Mountain City Police ran the biggest burglary ring in the country.  And, true, those times and those men are long gone.  But I have to wonder if this attitude and these legends have not permeated the cop culture, changing it for the worse.       

It is the police culture that is engrained.  The police operate under an us or them, good guys and bad guys, siege mentality.  Mountain City and Englewood police departments want to be like LA cops.   Might makes right and right makes might. 

   The last chief of Mountain City police played politics and kept his job for 12 years while his department ran wild.  The new chief is an import from the mid South who is here to change the police culture.  If you think this will happen, there is a cruise ship in Italy that I will sell you cheap. 

The Mayor is new and is already compromised.   The Chief is so new he still has to ask where the toilet is.  The Governor, while I am sure is still quite involved in Mountain City is standing on the East steps of the Statehouse listening for the call of the Great (Kinda’) White Father.  I have personal experience on coming in from the outside and trying to change Jack.  If I were Chief White I wouldn’t unpack my bags.

This will be continued and picked up on my next post.

                                                                           

                                                                                 The Shadow Knows------Oh, How Very Well!