Some odds and ends inspired by the shooting of the officer in Texas.....

[hedgehog]

I listened to a press conference and a little commentary after -

First off, the police officer was a real person with a real family and friends, and I feel sorry for their loss

But -

I think it was the sheriff who said something to the effect of how awful that someone was shot for the clothes they were wearing -
and all I could think was what about the color of their skin? The sheriff segued from Black lives matter to all lives matter to police lives matter........Irony is so little appreciated these days.

Then - the commentator was talking about how police protect us and how terrible it is when they lose one of their own; a clearer statement of us versus them than is to be had anywhere else. They may protect us, but they are not one of us. He went on to comment on all the effort that would go into finding the suspect, and I thought, "Aren't you supposed to do that whenever anyone is killed?"

[TeddyR]

1. Well

I don't feel like it is "us vs. them," unless you are referring to criminals/killers vs. law abiding citizens/police officers, then yes, I agree. Not sure why you are trying to turn this into anything else than that. A police officer was murdered by a criminal, who hopefully will face justice.

[hedgehog]

2. I think the police officers do view themselves as seperate from the public they serve,

even if that public is white and presumably law abiding. Look at the extreme response when an officer is murdered relative to what happens when a member of the public is murdered. Maybe not so much an us versus them, but definitely an insider outsider relationship.

[Syzygy321]

3. It's a brotherhood. Or, hopefully, a siblinghood

these days.

I think that's pretty normal for any group. You take a bunch of people who do special training and wear the same uniform and face danger, and who do something the rest of us know nothing about, and who trust each other with their lives: yes that will foster a sense of "us guys are family.". And it's natural to cry a lot more for murdered family than for murdered stranger.

I imagine soldiers and firefighters feel the same.

Ive seem a milder version among hospital nurses - and they don't even risk death - but they do have that sense of "no one but us knows what this job is like."