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The Police—Why Are They Necessary?Awake!—2002 | July 8
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Stephen is a former police officer in the United States. He says: “As a police officer, you have the resources and time to offer the best help when people turn to you sincerely for support. That’s what drew me to the job. I wanted to be there for people and bear the burden for them. I feel that I helped to protect people from crime, at least to some extent. I arrested over 1,000 people in five years. But finding lost children, helping Alzheimer’s patients who had wandered off, and recovering stolen vehicles all brought satisfaction. Then there was also the excitement of chasing down and catching suspects.”
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Police Protection—Hopes and FearsAwake!—2002 | July 8
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American Cops Get Started
In the United States, New York City was the first to have a professional police force. As the city’s wealth increased, so did its crime. By the 1830’s, every family could read the lurid stories about crime that were printed in the newly published cheap newspapers—the penny press. Public outcry grew, and New York got its police force in 1845. New Yorkers and Londoners have been fascinated by each other’s police ever since.
Americans shared the Englishmen’s fear of an armed force in the hands of the government. But the two nations came up with different solutions. The English opted for a top-hatted force of gentlemen police, uniformed in dark blue. They were armed with only a short concealed truncheon. To this day British bobbies still do not carry guns except in emergency situations. However, as one report states, “there is a growing air of inevitability . . . that the British police will become a fully armed force in a matter of time.”
In the United States, however, the fear that governmental power might be abused led to the adoption of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.” As a result, the police wanted guns. In time, their use of them resulted in street shoot-outs that became characteristic of American cops and robbers, at least in the popular image. Another reason for the American attitude toward carrying guns is that the first police force in the United States was born into a world very different from London’s. New York had become chaotic as its population mushroomed. The influx of thousands of immigrants mainly from Europe and of Afro-Americans after the start of the Civil War of 1861-65 led to racial violence. Police felt that they needed to adopt tougher methods.
Therefore, police were often considered a necessary evil. People were prepared to put up with occasional excesses in hopes of achieving a degree of order and security.
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