# Police

Police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state to enforce the law.

## Quotes

* Bad cops are the product of bad policy. And policy is ultimately made by politicians. A bad system loaded with bad incentives will unfailingly produce bad cops. The good ones will never enter the field in the first place, or they will become frustrated and leave police work, or they'll simply turn bad. At best, they'll have unrewarding, unfulfilling jobs.
** Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop: the Militarization of America's Police Forces
* Cops are necessary. Not everybody appreciates their hustle, but they’re like whores—they've been around since the beginning of the so-called civilized world, and you can’t get along without them.
** Pierre Barbet, A Problem in Bionics in Donald A. Wollheim (ed.), Best From the Rest of the World (1976), ISBN 0-87997-343-9, p. 141
* The politician follows the line of least resistance; it is easy to fall asleep over the unhappiness of others and to count it for very little; it is easier to throw a hundred men, ninety-seven of whom are innocent, into prison, than to discover the three culprits who are hidden among them; it is easier to kill a man than to keep a close watch on him; all politics makes use of the police, which officially flaunts its radical contempt for the individual and which loves violence for its own sake. The thing that goes by the name of political necessity is in part the laziness and brutality of the police.
** Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity. Philosophical Library. 1948. ISBN 978-0-8065-0160-4. Part III: The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity
* Presentations of police are often over-dramatized and romanticized by fictional television crime dramas while the news media portray the police as heroic, professional crime fighters . In television crime dramas, the majority of crimes are solved and criminal suspects are successfully apprehended. Similarly, news accounts tend to exaggerate the proportion of offenses that result in arrest which projects an image that police are more effective than official statistics demonstrate. The favorable view of policing is partly a consequence of police’s public relations strategy. Reporting of proactive police activity creates an image of the police as effective and efficient investigators of crime). Accordingly, a positive police portrayal reinforces traditional approaches to law and order that involves increased police presence, harsher penalties and increasing police power.
** Kenneth Dowler, “Media Consumption and Public Attitudes Toward Crime and Justice: The Relationship Between Fear of Crime, Punitive Attitudes, and Perceived Police Effectiveness", Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 10(2) (2003), p.111.
* The public has a long-standing fascination with crime, law, and justice. Crime is a central feature in news, newsmagazines, documentaries, reality-based shows, and fictional drama. The experiences of police, lawyers, judges, private investigators, medical examiners, correctional workers, criminals, and victims are probed in a variety of television shows. Every year, television executives attempt to find crime and justice programs that capture viewers and enjoy high ratings. In particular, the police drama or procedural is a staple of television programming in the United States, and several shows have experienced critical acclaim, large viewing audiences, and longevity. Since 1950, there have been almost 300 police dramas that have appeared on network, cable, and syndicated television. This number does not include the large number of shows that focus on other elements of crime and justice, such as detective shows, shows based on lawyers, judges, correctional workers, and criminals.
** Ken Dowler, “Police Dramas on Television”, Crime, Media, and Popular Culture, (Nov 2016).
* What is the Police? This we can best answer by a deduction of the conception of the police power of the state. The state, as such, has entered into a common compact with its citizens by which each party assumes certain duties and receives certain rights. We have shown the means of connection between the state and the citizens in all cases in which the citizen can and undoubtedly will prefer complaint. He who violates a police law must suffer all the disagreeable consequences which may result to him, and is, moreover, liable to a fine. The chief principle of a well-regulated police is this: That each citizen shall be at all times and places, when it may be necessary, recognised as this or that particular person. No one must remain unknown to the police.
** The Science of Rights 1796 by, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, 1762-1814; Kroeger, Adolph Ernest, 1837-1882, tr Publication date 1889 P. 374, 378
* Why should a government secretly place a watch over its citizens? In order that they may not believe themselves watched. But why should they not believe themselves watched? That they may discover their thoughts respecting the government and its plans, and may thus become their own betrayers; or may betray whatever they know of other secret and illegal acts. The former is necessary only where government and citizens live in perpetual war with each other; where the citizens are unjustly oppressed, and seek to regain their freedom again by employing all the means and tricks of war: the latter is necessary only where the police are not watchful enough.
** The Science of Rights 1796 by, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, 1762-1814; Kroeger, Adolph Ernest, 1837-1882, tr Publication date 1889 P. 391
* The police, who administer the law which teaches only the path to a better life for society’s victors and submission to authority, lower their sabers and menace human actions, taking everyone who they fear might shake the pillars of power and bam, bind them up one and all.
** Kaneko Fumiko, Because I Wanted To (1923–5), compiled and partially translated by Max Res, who is a part of Viscera Print Goods & Ephemera
* I'm convinced that it is the psychopathic personality that searches out a uniform. There's little doubt of what's going on in that man's head who will voluntarily don any uniform
** George Jackson, Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson, p. 160 (1970)
* If you ever saw a policeman with a club in his hand, I want to ask you, did you ever see that policeman club a millionaire? But it is "Get out of here, damn you, go on to jail, damn you," if it is a working man.
** Mother Jones, Speech in Princeton, WV. (15 August 1920)
* Men were not created in order to obey laws. Laws are created to obey men. They are established by men and should serve men. The laws and rules which officials inflict upon poor people prevent them from functioning harmoniously in society. There is no disagreements about this function of law in any circle-the disagreement arises from the question of which men laws are to serve. Such lawmakers ignore the fact that it is the duty of the poor and unrepresented to construct rules and laws that serve their interest better. Rewriting unjust laws is a basic human right and fundamental obligation.
** Huey P. Newton, "In Defense of Self-defense" I (June 20, 1967)
* Fuck the police comin' straight from the underground A young nigga got it bad 'cause I'm brown And not the other color so police think They have the authority to kill a minority.
** NWA, "Fuck tha Police" (1988)
* Police exist in the life of every state.
** Russian: Полиция в жизни каждого государства есть.
** Kozma Prutkov, Thoughts and Aphorisms Not Included in Fruits of Reflection (1856-1860)
* Hawaii once had a rat problem. The, somebody hit upon a brilliant solution. Import mongooses from India. Mongooses would kill the rats. It worked. Mongooses did kill the rats. Mongooses also killed chickens, young pigs, birds, cats, dogs, and small children. There have been reports of mongooses attacking motorbikes, power lawn mowers, golf carts, and James Michener. In Hawaii now, there are as many mongooses as there were once rats. Hawaii had traded its rat problem for a mongoose problem.... Society had a crime problem. It hired cops to attack crime. Now society has a cop problem.
** Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
* Every law the people has not ratified in person is null and void - is, in fact, not a law.
** Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)
* The inflexibility of the laws, which prevents them from adapting themselves to circumstances, may, in certain cases, render them disastrous, and make them bring about, at a time of crisis, the ruin of the State.
** Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)
* The police are often the least likely people to be able to solve problems, to think in nuanced ways about emotional pain and its projections, and as a result are not the people we need help from if we are interested in creating peace.
** Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2016. ISBN 9781551526447.
* Collecting data in and of itself is a good mechanism to hold police agencies accountable.
** Andrew R. Wheeler, as quoted in “What the data say about police shootings” by Lynne Peeples, Nature, 573, (04 September 2019), pp. 24-26.
* The police officer who puts their life on the line with no superpowers, no X-Ray vision, no super-strength, no ability to fly, and above all no invulnerability to bullets, reveals far greater virtue than Superman — who is only a mere superhero.
** Eliezer Yudkowsky, in "Superhero Bias" at LessWrong.com (December 2007)

## See also

* Hong Kong Police Force
* Justice
* Law
* Law enforcement in the United States
* Police state
* Rule of law