Not all cops are bastards, and I don't want to think that way.
Not all good, not all bad
When I was a kid, Mum taught me that "you can always trust a policeman". Well she was white, from an honest family in working-class Lancashire, and not surprisingly that held true for her. But life taught me it was not true for me. With no disrespect to my friends who were or are police, some are utterly despicable. The constable who dealt with us when I was beaten up at a disco for pre-adult teens was every bit the closet racist, asking me why I had bothered going and what did I expect if I went to a white kids disco, and essentially reluctantly taking my statement whilst at the same time victim-blaming? And he wasn't the only one I have encountered over the years. I have been stopped because I was "the wrong colour to be wearing a biker jacket", or I "looked out of place driving that car".
But some of my friends also want me to learn that all police are total villains, willing tools of oppression and nasty pieces of work. Life has also taught me this is also not true. I remember the great contrasts. The career sergeant who came round when Mum called the police when, aged 11, I was stalked by a weirdo on a bicycle was every bit the caricature of the kindly red-faced evuncular bobby, very sympathetic and very soothing and patient.
You have to take them as you find them. Some rotten. Some diamonds. And most - like the majority of other people - somewhere in the middle, imperfect, making bad judgement calls sometimes, but basically well-intended.
I don't ever want to wake up in a world where I have to hate someone just because they carry a badge.
