Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by untog 2899 days ago
Small local police departments are also staffed by the 90%, though.

I find it difficult to imagine an uprising against the 1% in America any time soon, but if it did happen I can absolutely imagine the police siding against the 1%.
6 comments
suresk 2899 days ago
At this point in America, pretty much everyone who has weapons and authority to use force is pretty ideologically aligned with the 1%. There is a pretty strong narrative in that group that all of these problems that many would ascribe to poor income equality are actually caused by immigrants, welfare recipients, and government.

I think the chance of the police or military siding against the 1% is incredibly small.

link
coliveira 2899 days ago
Police forces are ideologically selected to protect the 1%. In extreme cases what you say is possible, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
link
refurb 2899 days ago
Considering the top 1% is ~$450K per year per household, I'd wager plenty of folks on HN are in the top 1% if they are a two income household.
link
lev99 2899 days ago
The top 1% of income is very different than the top 1% in wealth.
link
amorousf00p 2898 days ago
hear, hear.
link
grosjona 2899 days ago
From my experience, police officers generally don't like rich people. Also, I don't think that members of the police force or the military are as obedient or loyal as they used to be in the past.
link
joncrane 2899 days ago
They don't like "rich assholes" but they are very authoritarian and respect and obey "power."
link
gremlinsinc 2899 days ago
If the 1% decided to lobby for police salaries > 400k per year, would the police be more obedient? If revolution was coming, you better believe pay for police would rise, and they'd definitely protect their own interests.
link
cafard 2899 days ago
You might want to look up the history of for example the Republic Steel Strike in Chicago in the 1930s.
link
dredmorbius 2898 days ago
Studs Terkel on that:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/wfmt-studs-terkel/published/22485.m...

link
gremlinsinc 2899 days ago
Except, if it looked like it was coming to that, guess who just got a major pay raise : Police... Now Police is the highest paid field in America...and they'll do anything the 1% tell them to.
link