Observation from the Netherlands.
1. The USA has a fetish for “law enforcement”, constantly bolstered by endless cops shows and movies.
2. America has an authoritarian stick shoved deeply, and ever so perminently deep into its national bowels. I imagine its a product of the religeous extremism that took Puritans to the colonies in the first place.
3. America has created “super citizens”. These are people for whom the law, in practice, does not apply and /or does not apply equally – you call them Cops.
4. America has been raised on fear. Fear of the native Americam, the Chinaman, the Irishman, the Italian, the slave, the black man, the socialist, the communist, the atheist, the mo-slim, oh goodness the list goes on and on. In this environment it is easy to be afraid of crime even in the face of facts that show the real risks. It is also easy to elevate the cop, “the protector” of all that is good and christian into the status of near diety, who while they might make a mistake (or simply be a murdering arse-hat) to that of Guardian Angel. The american love of the super-hero who fights “Evil” in the name of “Good” could be a product of the state of fear. Every threat is then easily labelled “Evil” and must be delat with by the “FORCE of good” – its so utterly simplistic one has to wonder if an entire nation went through remedial class while at school !
5. The of course there is the national love affair with guns…………….. Being a cop in the USA gives one pretty much a freedom to enjoy their use. How many bullets get fired into suspects there per cop killing, I saw somewhere a figure of an average of two dozen shots fired per killing (shots fired by cops, not those that strike their victim) by cop nationally – holy shit guys in my nation of 17 million cops fired less than a dozen rounds last year and most of those were warning shots into the air (and each discharge of a weapon investigated by the national independant ombudsman) !
