First of, ACAB. There’s no denying that American police are steeped in institutionalized racism and violence.
But secondly, I’d like to point out that conservatives will never view men’s mental health as a real issue (cops are disproportionately male), and liberals will never view cops as human enough to have mental health issues.
The United States is the country with highest rates of civilian gun ownership in the world. Every police encounter has an inherently higher risk of gun violence. Now, cops frequently provoke when they should deescalate. But multiple things can be true at the same time. Policing as a profession attracts narcissists and sociopath, policing as an institution enables that behavior, and policing in a country with rampant gun ownership is a highly stressful and traumatic experience.
I say this as a survivor of a mass shooting. Gun violence changes how you look at your environment and the people in it. There is no room and no person that escapes your unease and suspicion. I can only imagine what a work environment that perpetually affirms those suspicions could do to one’s mental health.
None of this excuses police brutality. I just think that we need to start looking at cops as legitimately mentally ill people, whether they are sociopathic or traumatized.
Destigmatizing men’s mental health means every man’s mental health, and the left’s inability to address this blind spot is allowing the manosphere to dress its alpha male bullshit in police and paramilitary aesthetics.
Where is this coming from? Do you make that assumption about liberals and military? Because (while not perfect, and continually improving) mental health care for military has made huge advances in understanding and public acceptance in the last 2 decades.
I would like to see the same shift happen for police.
I would like for police leadership to truly normalize mental healthcare, and not just give it lip service.
I would also like for police as a whole to maybe adopt similar rigorous criteria for new career candidates, much like lawyers, CPAs, and other professional licenses. I’m held to a high standard of conduct and criminal liability because I have the technical knowledge to really destructively ruin peoples’ lives. And the most dangerous tool of my trade is merely a calculator.
No, I am speaking about the police specifically.
The advancements being made to mental health care in the military are meaningful, and the reduction of homeless veteran through housing programs speaks to the progress and recognition of difficulties in reintegrating into civilian life.