Homosexuality In America,” -- or-- How I found out I was “gay” at age 16, 1964.

[Pix]

I think we all have a fairly good idea what would have happened to a police car, even a campus vehicle, being held hostage in the name of civil disobedience in this day and age. It wouldn't be pretty. Images of Tiananmen Square

Interesting enough I read a TIME article on the Kent State shooting which included comments by others outside the US, including China who gave a fairly reasonable course of action and saying China would never be so barbaric (or words to that effect). As I read this in 2000 (give or take a year) I already knew about Tiananmen Square.

I say that purely as trivia (I know I was interested by it). On a more personal level I didn't see cops as friends when I was a kid, and after time as a runaway I saw them as basically "the gang that isn't likely to be arrested for being a gang." Their only redeeming feature IMO back then was that most of them were too apathetic to bother us, but there were some real bullies and outright sadists among them (which the other cops turned a blind eye to), each with preferred targets. One was an old man into molesting runaway boys (he PROBABLY had to hide that from other cops, don't know), though most such predators preferred the girls.

I'm not quite as cynical today as I was then...but still fairly cynical and see the justice system (cops, courts, all of it) as more of a game we're sometimes forced to play rather than anything truly just (which explains why many criminals have less to fear from it than the law abiding), and the system also counterproductive in creating more crimes and social ills than it prevents.

As for cops specifically, my general observation is that cops tend to reflect the community, but unfortunately many communities are at least subtly hostile to gays so I can see why cops tend to have such a bad rep in the gay community. That, and cops often can't act in a meaningful way until an actual crime has been committed and then it's just another day on the job for them, something that grates on many crime victims (especially those who have lived a life of being terrorized, oppressed, etc). And I'll throw in that while my dad was royally screwed in court (in part due to his own stupidity as well as unfair use of the system against him) he pretty much got away with attempted murder at least twice with the restraining order against him unenforced unless it was the neighbors calling 911 (gods those were some scary times for me, and though I'm aware I can't help but be biased, I think I was screwed over more by the courts in that divorce than he was).