Why are some people so hostile and angry at cops? Cops risk their lives to keep our cities and towns safe, their jobs are not easy. So, why the hate? The poor relations start at a granular level: the seemingly minor day to day interactions we have with police. If those interactions are positive, and orderly we will learn respect the police, if they are hostile, belittling and chaotic, that respect is worn away.
NYC has a history of disturbing and frightening incidents of police violence. The police shootings make headlines, and people debate endlessly about who was at fault what really happened... many cops note that in some (poor mostly black) communities no one wants to talk to them, no one wants to give them information on crimes. They are outsiders and they feel so unwelcome. The cops who experience this are absorbing the legacy of the actions of their predecessors. Actions large and small that have degraded the community and created a vast and raw rift. So, even a cop with the very best of intentions ...on the outset, can develop the "us vs. them" mentality that forms a dark cloud over every interaction members of the community have with the law.
You can feel it in the tone of voice the officer uses with you. You are NOT one of the citizens he serves, but rather one of the creatures he tries to control and corral. There are two choices: retain your dignity and get arrested, or bow and scrape the way he wants you to and continue on you way after losing some dignity.
You know that you have broken no law, you know that you do not need to show ID upon request for no reason, you know your rights, but, you are alone, and if it is his word against yours... you lose. Bow. Scrape. Fawn. Do as you're told. Don't ask questions. Keep your mouth shut and keep walking.
The cop before you is not respected by the community, and he is aware of it. In retribution he wrings some forced phoney respect out of you.
Yes, not all cops are like this, but the ones who are really lower the level of discourse. And, if there is one cop acting this way and he asks another for back up? They act as one-- like army buddies they have each others backs... and you are the enemy.
Witness this funny... and yet sad video on a Brooklyn street.
In the video the cop has stopped a cyclists for riding about 2 feet on a sidewalk up to the door of his friend's house. (His friend is making the video from the balcony.) The cyclists cooperates with the cop. Another friend walks by and jokes to the cyclist "you're a grown man! Should not be riding on the sidewalk!" or some such thing -- the cyclist takes this in stride and says something about training wheels.
It's a silly situation, but then it became awful. The cop takes offense to the passerby and starts arguing with him, then arrests him for ....? um for.....? I don't know even. Soon neighbors are out on the street and it becomes a huge depressing scene. Over NOTHING.
The only thing that is remarkable is that it's on tape this time. This is the "granular" stuff I was talking about... these kinds of interactions, where we are told "give me your ID" just for walking around and existing are very much degrading.
The cop treats all of these grown men like 6th graders. Then gets mad when they won't respect him in the way that he wants. The cops were writing a frivolous ticket and manged to blow it up in to a pointless arrest. You would think we must be a crime free city for our officers to have the luxury of wasting so much time on nothing but their egos-- and at the expense of already distressed community relations!
(Some background: NYPD has been doing a "crackdown" on cyclists recently. There are many theories on why, but no one really knows. This includes ticketing a woman for having her handbag on her handle bars, ticketing recreational cyclists at 6am in central park for "speeding" ... I even got a ticket cycling slowly down through Harlem on my way to work. Yet, the cops are not much inclined to chase the cyclists who run red-lights in big intersections, or those who go the wrong way on one-way streets... I think becuase they can't catch those guys... And our drivers are as bad as ever, naturally, There is very little enforcement of motorist induced nastiness like edging pedestrians out of crosswalks to avoid stopping and yield signs, running lights and excessive honking in residential areas... but, I digress.)