[javajosh]

American police are corrupted by a catastrophically broken justice system that, in effect, makes cops judge, jury, and executioner. I call it the "martial law bubble" that surrounds each cop. That's bad enough but what makes it galling is how they expect you to be grateful and friendly when stopped and fined, questioned, etc.

But I honestly don't think its their fault. A working justice system would mean a) getting arrested is no big deal, and b) cops are held accountable for their excesses.

(The system is broken because of capacity, complexity of law, powerful police unions, and voter apathy and ignorance)

[mnm1]

> That's bad enough but what makes it galling is how they expect you to be grateful and friendly when stopped and fined, questioned, etc.

Wow. You are right on the money. So well put and so succinct. This isn't just a problem with cops though. It's in the culture at large. People in power not only expect to hurt others and fuck them over, but also that others should be grateful for being fucked over. Got passed up for the promotion / raise and instead got more responsibility with no increase in pay? You should be thankful you still got a job. Got wrongfully arrested, charged, and offered a plea deal to go to jail for something you didn't do? You should be grateful for the 5 year prison deal. You'll get 30 years at trial. Oh you're innocent? We don't care. Got overcharged by a company for a bill that's not even in your name? You should be thankful you can spend two hours a day every day for two weeks on the phone trying to get the charges reversed before they send you to collections. Got invaded by the US and millions of your citizens slaughtered? You should be thankful and grateful for the US bringing "freedom" to your country. The "freedom" to thank the US for killing your family. In all of these cases and so much more, the victim is expected to be thankful to their perpetrator while the perpetrator is fucking over the victim. It's a huge part of American culture and the police are just one example of it.

[bitwize]

> I call it the "martial law bubble" that surrounds each cop.

Ironically, given the discussion about Japanese cops, I refer to it by a Japanese term: kirisute-gomen, "the privilege to cut and leave". If you were a commoner and offended a samurai, the samurai had the legal right to kill you with his sword and didn't even have to report it (hence "cut and leave".) Samurai also used live commoners as swordsmanship practice dummies, but this practice was nominally illegal (still rarely enforced though).

And that's what cops are in the USA: a special privileged warrior class with rights to use violence indiscriminately that commoners do not have.

[petre]

Good thing they were denied carying swords after the Meiji Restoration then.

[bitwize]

Yeah, I'm deliberately comparing modern police with conditions in feudal Japan for a reason :)

[javajosh]

My knowledge of this era is limited to the 80's mini-series "Shogun", based on the book by James Clavell, but wow, I never made that connection before, thanks.