The Role of Police in Politics

In the course of my life I have had several encounters with police. On some occasions it was to report a crime or suspicious behavior, but in other instances I have met the police as a force of oppression. The general belief is that a police force is established to enforce the law and protect the citizens. Certainly police do "serve and protect," but they are also a tool of the elite; used to maintain …

…capacities of the police in combination it seems that, as Boots Riley of the Coup says, "[...] the police are just a bunch of handicappers." Elites utilize police as a means of providing safety to those who support them, and also as a means of repressing those who challenge the endemic ideology. They do this through threatening dissenters with physical violence and economic penalties, as well as by offering protection and safety to their support base.