us vs. them: why people hate the police (feat. Pat Welsh)

I think one question a lot of people have is, like, I'm curious about why people hate the police so much.

So from your experience, why is it a lot of the general public really have a really strong hatred towards police and law enforcement officers?

Yeah.

That's, that's a great question.

And part of it is, um, psychology, uh, and part of it is, um, manipulation.

The psychology part of it is everybody, e- every human being, uh, has four really basic fundamental wants and needs.

Um, they want safety, security, prosperity, and control.

Control in their lives, control of situations.

But everything falls into one of those four categories.

And psychologically, people's encounter with law enforcement, um, it's not because they were having a really good day that they run into a police officer or need a police officer.

Uh, and it's, you know, it's chaos, disorder.

Uh, they've been a victim.

I mean, they need the police or they need the fire department in very tense, stressful situations.

And they're already under attack psychologically, emotionally, physically or whatever in one of those four things.

Their security, their safety, their prosperity, their control, they've lost it or it's been impacted, and now the police come in and start barking orders trying to bring, um, calm to chaos.

And a lot of-- and then if it's like a domestic violence, y- somebody, somebody's in trouble for why the police are there almost always.

Car accident, it doesn't matter.

Uh, there's gonna be consequences for behavior, and people just instinctively resent being told what to do, how to do it, or having their freedom, you know, taken away from them.

So that's kind of the psychological component of that us versus them mindset that, that folks have.

The manipulation part of it is, in my opinion, um, that, um, people only-- 99% of the population has no encounter with law enforcement, personal encounter.

There are people who have never ever, other than seeing a police officer, have never ... needed or encountered a police officer, so what they know about policing or what they think they know about policing is what they see on TV.

And whether it's TV shows or movies or the news, they think that's what policing is all about and how all police officers think, talk, and act, when in reality it's not.

Uh, and so I, I think that le- that's, those are two of the biggest components that feed the distrust of, of, uh, law enforcement.

And, and not just in the United States, that's worldwide, uh, that, that, that sense of distrust or resentment or, or anger.

And then you have a critical incident like a George Floyd in Minneapolis or something, and that's like throwing gasoline on a fire.