• givesomefucks
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    18 hours ago

    You do realise that “not being afraid of the police” is actually the norm in most developed democracies, right?

    You do realize that perception doesn’t match reality, right?

    People not being afraid of police, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be. Just that they haven’t had a personal reason yet…

    Which is why no one will name one of these mythical places where police are helpful and not a danger.

    Because if you did, anyone could explain what you’re not noticing.

    On some level, people realize that, or someone would have given one of the “many developed democracies” as an example.

    • thebestaquaman
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      17 hours ago

      Checking in from Norway. Can confirm that neither myself nor anyone I know has ever expressed that they’re afraid of the police, or that they have reason to be. People I know include a fair number of people with minority backgrounds, criminal records, or both, so this isn’t a statistic that comes from never interacting with the cops.

      Sure, cops here can make mistakes, and sure, there are probably some people that shouldn’t be cops who are. However, by and large, it typically becomes a national media case if someone is injured by the police. Excessive use of force seems to be very uncommon, and in the few cases I’m aware of where it’s happened, the cops involved have been charged and sentenced for it.

      It may seem alien to you, but when you build a well educated police force from people that actually want to help their communities, what you get is a police force that most people feel they can trust. When you follow up with clear corrections when some cop does something wrong, you end up with a system that most people feel they can trust.

      Relevant link: The average Norwegian rates their trust for the police at about 7.5 / 10, which is the highest of any public institutions here (slightly above courts at 7/10, and a bit ahead of the parlament at about 6.7 / 10).

      Edit: Some more details from the link above: Most European countries (Poland, Slovenia and Czechia excluded) rated their trust for the police above 6/10 in 2014, so this isn’t some uniquely Norwegian thing. All the European countries investigated have in common that the police are rated highest out of the public institutions.

      • welfare_wizard@lemmy.zip
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        15 hours ago

        There’s plenty of people in Norway who are afraid of the police, especially minorities. We got discrimination going on just like everywhere else, it just doesn’t reach the national news most of the time. The officer who killed Eugene Ejike Obiora not only got away scot-free, he’s now the chief of operations for the local police force and is still harassing our minorities.

        • thebestaquaman
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          13 hours ago

          I didn’t mean to imply that no problems exist, they definitely do. My point was regarding the original comment that “not being afraid of the police is the norm in most developed democracies”. Despite some exceptions, I would definitely state that the norm in Norway is, by a solid margin, to not be afraid of the police. There’s also plenty of statistics that back me up on that.