I was around to see when metropolitan foot patrol officers began carrying their trusty 6 shot revolver on one side of their waist belt AND a high capacity semiautomatic pistol (oriented for cross-draw) on the other side along with a couple of extra magazines. The polarization of LE came about as the organization of civil unrest became large enough to conceal violent factions which would strike and then blend back into a crowd. The crowds of mostly peaceful demonstrators did largely nothing to help the vastly outnumbered individual LE officers who responded to the violence, since it didn't suit their purposes to do so. Demonstrators publicly denounced the violence in order to be PC; but, privately reveled in the publicity the violence brought to their agendas and permitted it to continue by not policing themselves.
LE reacted to protect itself from what today could be construed as aiding and abetting domestic terrorism. The general population has no one to blame other than itself after it reneged on its partnership with LE (not the other way around) by subscribing to the idea that population subsets of sufficient numbers could turn a blind eye to action factions that operated outside the law: 'All that's needed for evil to prevail is for enough good men to do nothing.'
LE was cut out of the general population loop and forced to fend for itself. It's not unlike soldiers abroad encountering roadside IEDs knowing that local civilians must know about the emplacements; but, they say nothing and soldiers get killed. The soldiers adopt procedures to protect themselves first and then worry about protecting the locals. For LE, their IEDs are violent flash mobs. LE knows that when the shit hits the fan, they're not going to get any help from the general citizenry; so, it has adopted tactics and strategies (like the military) that enable its survival to continue its mission.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lamplighter
... Of course, the endless rough cop ("Make My Day") movies from Hollywood made such attitudes heroic among some
... maybe that's the half of the public that doesn't start from a position of trust.
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That's why Republicans had Clint Eastwood speak at the RNC.
