Cop :: The Attitude

Did you ever wonder why cops seem to have that “Attitude”?   You know……. the skeptical, cynical, impatient,  cocky,  arrogant,  swaggering,  standoffish,  don’t bother me,  I’ve heard it all before kind of attitude that most cops are accused of having.  

The impression that civilians have that cops are rude, crass, gross, unfeeling, unmerciful pricks that would arrest their own grandmother for spitting on the sidewalk.  How did we get such a reputation as this?   Why aren’t we seen as kind, caring, patient, jolly, good natured, fun loving, and gentle? That is the way we start out our careers, but something happens to us along the way that changes our nature.  It makes pessimists and cynics out of innocent normal human beings.  

I have pondered the change that comes over us after a few years of police work.  It is like a having a fun loving mischievous puppy that matures into a mean snarling, growling dog that should be kept on a short leash lest he hurt someone. What happens to this pup that turns him into a sullen, fearful growling old dog?   It comes from having to defend himself everyday against the unexpected, the profane, the confusing,  unsightly, and ungodly things that he has to deal with on patrol.

I believe that every human being is created with a certain amount of compassion that will last him years into his life, maybe even all the way to the end.  A cop’s storehouse of compassion is quickly used up and after a couple of years, the cupboard is bare, and so like Mother Hubbard’s poor dog he had “None”.   

     When compassion for other humans in their misery and need dries up and is gone,  then the cop attitude begins to assert itself as a matter of psychological self defense.  

Cops are described as being cynical.  I looked in Websters dictionary to see exactly what Cynic/cynical really mean.  It was very interesting.   The word cynic comes from the Greek kynikos which  literally means doglike.   Cynic: one who believes that human conduct is motivated by self-interest.  Cynical: 1 Captious, Peevish  2: having the attitude or temper of a cynic; esp: contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives.

     I couldn’t have described it better myself. (Thanks Mr. Webster)  Yes, that is it because cops continuously see human beings at their worst behavior, and hear their poorest excuses for it. Not only for speeding, but also for child abuse and murder. 

Human beings need to rationalize their poor behavior to themselves  so they can still believe that they are decent and normal.   No one likes to think of himself as a pervert, or a thief, or a cheat and a liar.  But cops can see thru all the excuses and rationalizations, and a cop more than any other person knows what deception and evil lies behind the human heart,  and we come to believe that there is no one who is decent and normal. 

So when we get that “I’ve heard it all before look on our face,  and lose our patience, and seem rude and uncaring,  that’s because we have lost our trust and compassion for people.  We have learned that we can only trust ourselves and our partners, because we have learned the secret of human behavior (it is always motivated by self-interest).