Two major factors at play in police brutality, race and class. I'd imagine white cops view other white people who are poor as no longer white and thus valid targets to them. So it pains me when poor whites think themselves above even the richest black man. Nah man, when you're poor, we're in the same boat.
I think theres a factor the left overlooks a lot, which is police identity politics.
They come to identify with their job through media, the trauma of the violence they do brings them closer together, they express their desires as an identity group through guilds and brotherhoods (so called unions), lobby as a group, and provide a single narrative to the media, even when it contradicts the interests of the powerful, like in the Mike Brown murder.
It's a kind of false consciousness that drives a lot of police behavior. If we want to do anything about police brutality (short of abolition, which is preferable) we'd need to stop making shows about them, stop giving them media, bust their unions, and break their departments into 20 different mini departments (one for parking, one for traffic direction, one for shooting dogs, you get the idea).
To stop police terror, we'd need to break their solidarity and their conciousness.
Same situation for me. I've been pulled over a few times for lapse of insurance coverage and hit with big tickets. I'm more than sure if I was wealthy and had connections the cops would look the other way.
Yeah, interacting with rich people is such a weird experience. I don't really know any rich people, but I know a couple of family members of rich people so I've interacted with that crowd before. It's like stepping into a completely different universe.
And if you have a shitty looking truck, they won't even care if you have plates or not if you are white. I've never been pulled over in my truck, and I've been pulled over in cars four or five times despite having driven my pos truck at least four times as far as any car I've owned.
The lack of tickets more than makes up for the extra cost in gas. Trucks suck if you don't need a bed though, they are loud, uncomfortable, and drive like shit. At least they are rwd, unlike most beater cars.
Two major factors at play in police brutality, race and class. I'd imagine white cops view other white people who are poor as no longer white and thus valid targets to them. So it pains me when poor whites think themselves above even the richest black man. Nah man, when you're poor, we're in the same boat.
I think theres a factor the left overlooks a lot, which is police identity politics.
They come to identify with their job through media, the trauma of the violence they do brings them closer together, they express their desires as an identity group through guilds and brotherhoods (so called unions), lobby as a group, and provide a single narrative to the media, even when it contradicts the interests of the powerful, like in the Mike Brown murder.
It's a kind of false consciousness that drives a lot of police behavior. If we want to do anything about police brutality (short of abolition, which is preferable) we'd need to stop making shows about them, stop giving them media, bust their unions, and break their departments into 20 different mini departments (one for parking, one for traffic direction, one for shooting dogs, you get the idea).
To stop police terror, we'd need to break their solidarity and their conciousness.
These are all great points.
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Same situation for me. I've been pulled over a few times for lapse of insurance coverage and hit with big tickets. I'm more than sure if I was wealthy and had connections the cops would look the other way.
Wealthy people's insurance doesn't lapse in the first place
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Bingo!
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Yeah the bourgeois might as well live on a different planet.
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Yeah, interacting with rich people is such a weird experience. I don't really know any rich people, but I know a couple of family members of rich people so I've interacted with that crowd before. It's like stepping into a completely different universe.
And if you have a shitty looking truck, they won't even care if you have plates or not if you are white. I've never been pulled over in my truck, and I've been pulled over in cars four or five times despite having driven my pos truck at least four times as far as any car I've owned.
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The lack of tickets more than makes up for the extra cost in gas. Trucks suck if you don't need a bed though, they are loud, uncomfortable, and drive like shit. At least they are rwd, unlike most beater cars.