Nation: POLICE: THE THIN BLUE LINE
(11 of 11)
It is unfair, says Roger Wilkins, director of the federal Community Relations Service, "to expect the police, no matter how good, to be able to do a first-rate job where society has pulled back. The whole society has failed these people in the ghettos—and then it asks the police to go down and keep order." In the U.S. today, the policeman's role cannot be redefined simply by enlightened police chiefs, or vague calls for law and order, or courts resolved to protect the rights of the individual. It will take a degree of awareness and concern about the causes of violence and social insurrection that is not yet evident in American life.
* The word cop means many things to many people, and its origin is not certain. One explanation is that it is the abbreviation for Constable of Police; another traces it to the verb copper—to arrest or inform against. * Apparently from "Mr. Charlie," the equivalent of honky or whitey. -In an experimental program pioneered by the Vera Institute of Justice, New York is now sending many Bowery drunks to an infirmary, where they are dried out, counseled, and assisted in finding jobs. In six months, only 150 of the 650 men treated have been arrested again.
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