Relying On Police: Trust versus Faith

trust (noun): firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something

faith (noun): strong belief based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof 


"Sure, you liberals all hate cops until you need one, and then you call them up expecting their help!"

In the spirit of full disclosure--and this will really shock people who know me--I am what most people would call a liberal (though I'd prefer to call myself a "progressive"). This means that I disagree with many, but not all, "conservative" viewpoints. I've been part of many online debates/ discussions/arguments during which I let emotion rule me, and said things that were as divisive and ultimately useless as my conservative counterparts did.

But divisiveness is not going to help anyone addressing the hot-button issue of police overreach. Instead, I'd like to explain why I, as an American--not a progressive American, but an American--grow increasingly concerned each time I hear about a policeman killing a civilian and getting away with it.

We know criminals break the law. That's the whole point of criminals. They don't respect the law, they don't follow the law, they don't care about the law. On the opposite end, we have police, who vow to protect and serve. 

This brings me back to the two definitions I started with above: trust, and faith.

We rely on the police not because we have faith in them, but because we trust them. Trust is based on things you can see and experience: their reliability, their truth, their strength, their ability. 

When a bad cop--let me repeat that, a BAD cop--breaks the law, and is allowed to walk away unpunished, our trust in the police erodes. When another bad cop breaks the law and is allowed to walk away unpunished, our trust erodes some more. And the next time, it erodes some more...

Each time a police officer is allowed to commit a criminal act with impunity, the reliability, strength, truth, and ability of the police is shaken. Soon we can no longer trust that the police will protect us. Instead, we must have faith that they will...and as we all know, faith is belief in something that you can have no proof of.

Note that I am not judging all police. I am sure the vast majority of police officers are decent people. But surely anyone can see that when bad police flout the law, kill civilians and get away with it--protected by district attorneys who fail to get indictments even when the entire incident is caught on video (Daniel Pantaleo/Eric Garner), or when they admit to having witnesses make false testimony before the grand jury (Darren Wilson/Mike Brown)--your trust will be shaken.

Conservative or liberal, moderate or progressive...that's not hard to understand. Is it?