There is an interesting cultural disconnect in that law enforcement officers (i.e., police) are lauded as heroes, while politicians are reviled as villains, when in fact they are two sides of the same coin.
Pop culture sells the idea that police exist to protect the people and serve justice, always trying to catch violent thugs and protect the innocent. I’m sure that many, perhaps most, police officers do some of that – I’m sure that’s what attracts so many well-meaning police cadets. But in fact, police officers are meant to to enforce laws, which are crafted by politicians in service of a great many interests, not always those of the “people”.
Government is, and has always been unbalanced, favoring the vested interests of the elite and powerful. In ancient times, the elite were those with personal or genetic connections to the rulers – now, they are usually those with the most money and prestige, and sometimes special interests who control large voting blocks.
The “justice” system (including police, lawyers, politicians and judges) does work to protect people, especially rich, mainstream people, but it also persecutes people when enforcing kyriarchist and oppressive laws or more neutral laws but with kyrarchist interpretations. This is perhaps most obvious in the so-called war on drugs, where the elite (high in the kyriarchy totem pole) suffer infrequent and mild punishments while those who are a minority or otherwise disadvantaged, end up disproportionately imprisoned for extremely severe sentences. Law enforcers also abuse power all too frequently with few, if any repercussions.
Sometimes, it seems to be but a matter of a transit officer having a bad day and shooting an unarmed and prone man (of color) in the back. Or cops assisting an extremely drunk woman by proceeding to hang out in her apartment for hours, admittedly cuddling with her in lingerie and allegedly raping her. Other times, it involves collusion of all elements of the so-called justice system (politicians who wrote an unfair law, police and judges to enforce it). For example:
In 1997, a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time was handcuffed and driven away in a squad car, when a man she’d just met that day subsequently shot and killed a police officer (and then himself). The woman, despite being in custody at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for “Felony Murder“. It seems unbelievable, but it’s true. This happened to Lisl Aumen who became the subject of Hunter S. Thompson campaign to free her (which fortunately resulted in the conviction eventually being overturned, but the law allowing conviction of non-participants was upheld and remains on the books in Colorado).
This is not to say that all law enforcers are bad – I’ve met friendly and helpful lawyers and police officers, but it is to say that law enforcement is a job which comes with a lot of power and the laws it enforces are not entirely altruistic nor incorruptible. The idea of of law enforcers as “all heroes” is myth. Injustice is served all too often, good intentions or no.
Try an internet search on: police shoot unarmed
(or search on: police racial)
one size fits most
laws protect power
and you, it may hit or miss
that is (in)justice
