by miraclesinprogress

Created on: September 17, 2008

I believe that holding the police responsible for their actions is extremely important. However, I also think that this it is VERY important to hold the police accountable ONLY for deliberate and abusive actions, not the stupid, annoying, rude, or personality-less interactions some of them might have on a daily basis. We all have practice dealing with THAT kind of behaviour with all people in ALL professions on a daily basis in our present society.

For example, they, as an organization, are made up of human beings, largely male, and this has always been for a reason, no matter how politically incorrect or offensive this examination may appear to be to others. I am not saying women do not belong in a police environment; but, in all honesty, we need to examine how able-bodied men might feel about women wearing a uniform that IS supposed to denote physical protection in many respects (or, at least it DID at one time). We know we all want this image, yet we all fight for equality in every profession on a daily basis.

I think that this is one profession that is "Damned if you, damned if you don't," despite the fact that there are some that SHOULD be held responsible for their actions. Of course there are SOME errors in judgments! Of course there are SOME idiots! Of course there are SOME bad eggs! What I ALSO see is that we have become so nitpicky about their actions when they DO do their job that we are becoming judgmental about every minor interaction. This might remove our credibility when we need more serious incidents dealt with...and they DO need to be dealt with. However, for the annoying interactions that we feel strongly about, we can steps to, if not rectify, at least ADDRESS the situation, particularly when others know who we are and KNOW that we have done nothing to initiate any mistreatment.

I see three problems with police accountability: One in that it is such a high risk profession it is VERY, I repeat it is VERY difficult for us to judge HOW they should respond to any given incident. I believe that many times when we get all in a knot about how the police have mistreated someone in a traffic stop or an incident where someone is tasered, we also tend to forget that they can DIE in a traffic stop. Simple as that! As simple as a traffic stop might seem to me (and I certainly love being treated respectfully because I, similar to many of YOU, assume POLICE should all automatically be skilled at "reading" what an ethical, upstanding, law-abiding woman I am),

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