To Benson
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IamLEAM1983
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3709
- Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:54 am
- Location: Quebec, Canada
To Benson
How has the concept of Copaganda affected Hope's police over the years?
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IamLEAM1983
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3709
- Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:54 am
- Location: Quebec, Canada
As Benson
"I guess, in a roundabout way, you're asking if you feel I or others provide a necessary service.
I've done my time studying Psychology and Criminology and, well, I know that beat cops don't typically come with the best track record, especially not with superpowered individuals or supernatural perps sometimes featuring. I know I'm a bugbear and, as such, I'm built for short bursts of intense activity. I'm the expected donut-muncher whenever I'm asked to pair with a squaddie, and it doesn't help that some bugbears and goblins sort of compounded on the "fat, sluggish and inept cop" stereotype. If you can't do your job correctly, it follows that you'll start looking for different avenues to compensate. That opens the door for criminal involvement and, well, some folks just aren't made for the badge, no matter what their background is.
Where I'll join the ACAB folks is when I see these people abuse their honestly low standing, or think in terms of quotas and bonuses, instead of safety and justice rendered. I realized pretty early on that I was shaping up to be bigger, burlier and tougher than most humans, so it sort of fell on me to harness these traits responsibly. My job, ultimately, is to uphold the public trust and, well, I can't do that if my own colleagues abuse it. I've gotten disciplinary charges on patrol officers for discriminatory charges in the past, and I've had my run-ins with Hope's own police gang.
I can't please everyone, though, and I know some people would rather my posting just didn't exist. There's this unspoken notion in Anarchist circles that people would just help one another or control themselves appropriately as needed, but I've seen plenty of cases where some perps just didn't have that streak of nobility we all think we have. Call me a bastard all you want, honestly - what matters to me is that you do right by your own people before yourself. Most people I've locked up were driven by desperation and would otherwise have been decent people, sure - but there's always outliers. People with a sociopathic streak, people self-centered enough to toss the rest of us under their wheels.
And nope - not all of them get to be boardroom lizards or scene-chompers. All it takes is a little too much self-confidence and some kind of weapon; natural or otherwise. You tell me they're not statistically significant and that what matters is everything else, like housing solutions or mental health support or community integration programs - but someone, somewhere, is always going to try and overstep their bounds.
My thinking is we need people like Anarchists to keep the good cops focused on what matters, maybe more than just coming home safe - which is making sure everyone else is safe. Dragnet, Law and Order, that kind of crap - they're all wastes of time, if you ask me. People don't need cheap entertainment, they need to sense that my colleagues and I have the same priorities as they do - because we're ultimately just like them at the end of the day. We go home, we unload on our families, we cook passable dinner and compartmentalize as ruthlessly as possible, just to stay sane. We see all the terrible shit that's too mundane for supergroups and too difficult to process for your average civvie. My job shouldn't be glamorized at all, period. Shit, there's nothing glamorous about a pathological liar breaking down in the middle of an ER's car park and nothing noteworthy in realizing you'll be reporting a colleague for mistreating a opiates junkie when digging out the Narcan injector would've been more cost-effective. You're watching entire lives fall apart, and the bystander effect makes so many of the so-called reformists stand back and gawk."
He sips at his coffee.
"I'll be the first to cheer once we defund our SWAT and Exosuit task forces and once I don't have the feeling that one guy out of three that leaves the Academy is actually a Fascist jackhole on a power trip - but that's neither here nor there. 'Til we get there, some people still need my help or deserve closure, and they can't afford for Archie Holden to work his way down his To Do pile for case files that won't actually involve saving the damn world."
I've done my time studying Psychology and Criminology and, well, I know that beat cops don't typically come with the best track record, especially not with superpowered individuals or supernatural perps sometimes featuring. I know I'm a bugbear and, as such, I'm built for short bursts of intense activity. I'm the expected donut-muncher whenever I'm asked to pair with a squaddie, and it doesn't help that some bugbears and goblins sort of compounded on the "fat, sluggish and inept cop" stereotype. If you can't do your job correctly, it follows that you'll start looking for different avenues to compensate. That opens the door for criminal involvement and, well, some folks just aren't made for the badge, no matter what their background is.
Where I'll join the ACAB folks is when I see these people abuse their honestly low standing, or think in terms of quotas and bonuses, instead of safety and justice rendered. I realized pretty early on that I was shaping up to be bigger, burlier and tougher than most humans, so it sort of fell on me to harness these traits responsibly. My job, ultimately, is to uphold the public trust and, well, I can't do that if my own colleagues abuse it. I've gotten disciplinary charges on patrol officers for discriminatory charges in the past, and I've had my run-ins with Hope's own police gang.
I can't please everyone, though, and I know some people would rather my posting just didn't exist. There's this unspoken notion in Anarchist circles that people would just help one another or control themselves appropriately as needed, but I've seen plenty of cases where some perps just didn't have that streak of nobility we all think we have. Call me a bastard all you want, honestly - what matters to me is that you do right by your own people before yourself. Most people I've locked up were driven by desperation and would otherwise have been decent people, sure - but there's always outliers. People with a sociopathic streak, people self-centered enough to toss the rest of us under their wheels.
And nope - not all of them get to be boardroom lizards or scene-chompers. All it takes is a little too much self-confidence and some kind of weapon; natural or otherwise. You tell me they're not statistically significant and that what matters is everything else, like housing solutions or mental health support or community integration programs - but someone, somewhere, is always going to try and overstep their bounds.
My thinking is we need people like Anarchists to keep the good cops focused on what matters, maybe more than just coming home safe - which is making sure everyone else is safe. Dragnet, Law and Order, that kind of crap - they're all wastes of time, if you ask me. People don't need cheap entertainment, they need to sense that my colleagues and I have the same priorities as they do - because we're ultimately just like them at the end of the day. We go home, we unload on our families, we cook passable dinner and compartmentalize as ruthlessly as possible, just to stay sane. We see all the terrible shit that's too mundane for supergroups and too difficult to process for your average civvie. My job shouldn't be glamorized at all, period. Shit, there's nothing glamorous about a pathological liar breaking down in the middle of an ER's car park and nothing noteworthy in realizing you'll be reporting a colleague for mistreating a opiates junkie when digging out the Narcan injector would've been more cost-effective. You're watching entire lives fall apart, and the bystander effect makes so many of the so-called reformists stand back and gawk."
He sips at his coffee.
"I'll be the first to cheer once we defund our SWAT and Exosuit task forces and once I don't have the feeling that one guy out of three that leaves the Academy is actually a Fascist jackhole on a power trip - but that's neither here nor there. 'Til we get there, some people still need my help or deserve closure, and they can't afford for Archie Holden to work his way down his To Do pile for case files that won't actually involve saving the damn world."