joeylittle
Sponsor
I wanted to respond, @afuneralinmybrain. This topic is clearly a very heated and intensely personal one, and I am really sorry for what you watched the police do to your brother. Here in the US, I'm really sick right now over the recent grand jury decisions on the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. Actually, sick isn't a big enough word. I'm horrified, frightened, angry, and despairing.
The question posed in the thread is quite specific - "why are people drawn to law enforcement?" - and of course threads expand as they develop, that's what makes a forum what it is. I can speak confidently on behalf of all staff here: we have no bias in one direction or another when it comes to moderation.
The reason @Anarchy was thread-banned does not have to do with the content they were posting, not at all. It has to do with the fact that the content - a debate over whether or not the law-enforcement system itself could ever be anything other than corrupt - is a topic worthy of its own discussion; @Anarchy was (and is, as far as I'm concerned) encouraged to start a new thread with that conversation, as opposed to possibly shutting down this one by virtue of the sheer length of argument needed on that other, complex, intricate topic.
When the comments flying back and forth turned into an argument over communication style, the individual who was most off-topic was thread-banned.
But this does not in any way prohibit a new thread on the topic of corruption in law enforcement. No one's voice is being shut down, and no kind of PTSD is being respected more or less than any other.
Thanks for reading that. If you, @afuneralinmybrain, or anyone else would like to discuss this further, please take it to the Help Desk; all new comments on the thread-banning issue will be moved there.
To the original question - I really would like to believe that there are people who genuinely want to make a difference for the better - that some people become police and stay police (as opposed to working up the career ladder of law-enforcement) in order to help other people. But people being people, not everyone's motives are always good. I think there are many people who go into various kinds of "power over others" positions (police being one) because they are angry and want that kind of power. And then I think there are people who become hardened and changed by their experiences and turn violent and angry. And some people do it because it's basically the family business - but whether they can police themselves well and stay sane, or whether they find the power seductive and turn dangerous - it's kind of a crap shoot.
I wonder what it's like in other countries. My experience is only rooted in the US, and one brief entanglement with the police in Budapest - which was incredibly terrifying because they were military police and I didn't speak the language.
