The OP asked why some members of the general population treat police officers badly, which relates to the general population's impression of the Police. Certain members of the Police continued to propagate the cover-up for years, as evidenced by some members refusal to engage with the inquiry, is one very good example of why a lot of people still don't trust the organisation as a whole. The examples given show that these kind of cases keep popping up in time, they are not 'long gone'. It may be the case that the leadership has completely changed, but there will be officers who were serving then and accepted the corrupt way certain forces behaved.
We are arguing the same thing, there is a distribution or people and behaviours within the public and within the policing institutions. I am sure that the vast majority of Police officers join for good reasons and are good people. But you have to accept there are bad behaviours, some of which are institutionalised, that marginalise certain groups or communities and mean that some members of the public will continue to mis-trust the Police.
The whole phrase “institutionalised racism” is about the institution, it’s not about individual behaviours. And it is absolutely not about pointing a finger of blame. It is about acknowledging that systems and ways of working lead to inadvertent racism. And it is about the perception within the community, not your perception! And this is of particular concern with the role-out of automated facial recognition and tracing. I am sure great improvements have been made in individual behaviours and language. The problem now is things like stop and search and policing of regions with deprivation without the community feeling like they are being singled out. Their lived experiences still seem to be very different to a nice middle class suburb.
This deserves a bit more discussion perhaps. In the immediate aftermath of the London Bombings I was tasked with writing and delivering strategy for community engagement and reassurance. It might be apposite to note that several of the bombers were from my district. The police and the local authority were proud (initially) to boast that they were on top of community engagement because they held regular meetings with representatives from the various visible and other minorities resident within the area. It quickly became clear that those representatives were that in name only. We're going back to 2005 don't forget. The police at that time erroneously supposed that those communities were homogenous, and therefore if they spoke with one community representative they were talking to them all. Reality couldn't have been further from the truth. There was a level if disingenuity on both sides - it was of course convenient to showcase the meetings as they ticked various boxes, but the police very much failed to recognise the political and factional divisions within those communities. While many of those forum reps had nothing but the best intentions, others had a very different agenda- such as self-aggrandisement, and even in one case, criminality.
What the police consistently failed to recognise was that they didn't own the narrative. As you point out, if you continue to tackle a problem from the wrong perspective, then you're setting yourself up for failure. The solution would therefore seem straightforward: Seek out true representatives of the real community, not the sock-puppets or self-styled "leaders" , forget your ingrained values, and gain their trust. Simples!
Except that for dialogue between them to be established demands that decades of ingrained community memory be erased, decades of mistrust needs to be dismantled on both sides. That lack of trust is one of the biggest barriers, but it goes hand-in -hand with an unwillingness on the part of authority to hand over control of decision-making.
I don't have all the answers, but I do know that I made every effort to dismantle at least some of those barriers. I'd like to think I made a difference, but I suspect it's a work in progress that will take much longer to get the better of. My point, I suppose, is that the service is far more progressive than people give it credit for. I wasn't unique.
What happened in Slough is simply the friction that arises when a community within a community establishes itself with its own values and norms. In the case of Slough that community frankly doesn't give a toss what the government says or what the laws are - it operates by its own rules as has been the case in many other cities.
Anyone who knows Slough will be aware that the sort of "friction" that takes place there (mass sword fights in streets amongst other things) has been going on for a long time. There's zero respect for the police and no consequence for that - that's the underlying problem.
I respect the law and police.
I just don't like being talk to like I'm a child, two examples in recent times:
Went for a walk with another male. He had been in Australia for a few years. We decided to walk local footpaths for a catch up then a pint to finish. Someone rang the police on us as it was semi rural Police caught up with us on a lane. Talked to us like the headmaster chastising naughty kids. Demanded to know who we were, name, address etc and where we were going without any explanation as to why. Going for a walk ffs. I wouldn't have been so belligerent if I was spoken to in an appropriate manner.
At work on the ward. Man in custody has the usual pretend chest pain. Comes to the ward in cuffs.
Wants food. Fine. Give him some cheese, crackers and butter and a plastic knife. Policewoman who had barely acknowledged me at that point followed me out of the bay to have a go at me for giving him a plastic knife.
A. They refused to divulge his crime.
B. They didn't make it clear before hand.
C. Talk to me like you are in my place of work, not like I'm a criminal.
She then complains to my manager in front of me about it. Ward manager tells her to jog on.
I find 50% of my interactions with police are like this. I still respect the work they do.
I find the turn in discussion very interesting, but I want to reiterate my point that other police forces in other countries have shady history too, but they still command ipso facto the respect of the population.
The RCMP, for example, have been accused of some gross abuses against Canada's Native peoples, but as a force in society - even amongst those same Native peoples - they still command respect. I am sure there are some in Canadian society who think of the police as 'pigs' or some such stupid thing, but you just don't seem to get the same sense of familiarity (positive or negative) happening between the police and people. Police are treated much more like, say, Special Forces or something, as opposed to another bunch of lads, just in black and white uniforms.
Thanks @scapegoat. I do hope that things are progressing in the right direction. I have nothing but respect for what the Police do and put up with day-in-day-out, with friends who serve. I couldn't do it. It's interesting what you say about community engagement and whether or not you are actually speaking with the 'community'. As well as the 'self styled leader' thing, I suspect partly in such densely populated areas there isn't really a community as-such any more.
In one of the towns I covered there were/are, very strong communities. I don't want to appear to over-generalise, or perpetuate stereotypes, but I lost count of the number of factions within what had previously and erroneously been labelled as "the Muslim Community." It meant navigating an absolute minefield of diplomacy, and took a lot of painstaking research and discussions to even start to understand the dynamics of some of them. They varied from ultra-conservative, but nonetheless powerful and influential denominations, as a wider community, to members within others that engaged in powerplays with other mosques of the same denomination. Some of the communities were from different national heritages, and wielded a different type of power and influence. Add to that the often bitter in-fighting between different factions within the same supposed "community" and you'll understand that there was and never will be any "one-size-fits-all" solution. Don't forget that at the time we were looking to implement the earliest stages of Contest and Prevent, and even the tentative beginnings were being viewed extremely suspiciously. Any overture towards one individual could be and often was seen as partisanship/cronyism. Some remained completely opposed to any forms of communication or cooperation, while others welcomed our efforts with open arms.
That same dynamic exists across all communities, and isn't just confined to Muslim communities. It appeared amplified to me at the time, but I'm sure that was down to circumstances. I met similar frustrations in other areas amongst different cultural and ethnic groups.
I know that nearly all police are reasonable people doing a tough job. Mental health social work mostly I imagine. Thank you for picking up society’s failure.
But.
They have all the power and I have none. So every time I have to interact with one I will regard them with suspicion and caution until I’m convinced they’re not a dick, because if our interaction goes wrong it could be life-changingly catastrophic for me.
And I’m not even black or brown or a woman or gay or any of the other people who routinely get treated worst than me.
Not wanting to go too off topic, but...
The Hillsborough cover up was not just "at the time", it was maintained (covered up) for many years afterwards with the police refusing to come clean.
