Police in cities across the country are facing an angry backlash from the public after a series of police killings of unarmed African-Americans. But many police think they’re being stereotyped as racist and brutal, reports the Portland Press Herald.
"The idea that police wake up, strap on their guns and pin on their badges, and sit around thinking about how they’re going to make lives miserable in the minority community – that’s just at variance with common sense," said James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, a national labor union representing rank-and-file officers.
Officers and their families are concerned that antagonism toward police might make them targets of violence or retaliation, Pasco said. They also worry about identity theft and so-called doxxing, in which an individual’s address and contact information are published online as a form of public shaming.
"We pull people out of wrecked cars, we hold people's hands when they're dying, we talk to 5-year-olds when they get raped, and one cop puts a chokehold on somebody and all of a sudden we're all racist killers," said James Glennon, a retired police lieutenant who owns Calibre Press, a company that trains police officers in the use of force.
