You don't expect this from me, which is why I'm saying it.

I am the police.

I work in the juvenile justice system and when I get pulled over by the police for some minor infraction and tell them where I work I get off with a joke and a smile.

This is how it is.

The police, more now than ever, don't really like having to do the job that is expected of them. They are people like anyone else and they are doing a job. My own job involves watching and evaluating teenage girls for signs of a desire to do themselves or others in. I sometimes have issues with my job, but in my mind, if you bring the shit into my place, I'm going to see it and I am going to report it. I can't tell you how many times I've told a girl, "Look, do whatever you want, but if you are going to bring evidence in here, I am going to see it and be forced by the requirements of my job to report it. This is a lesson you need to learn now, because every day the law gets more and more authority to dig into your shit. Be cool, keep it on the quiet side."

Let me tell you something. In the current state of affairs, most of the police don't like having to do their jobs. Those that do are really, really fucking scary. It isn't about maintaining the peace any longer. It is about keeping order in such a way it makes career police officers uncomfortable. Believe me or not, but I see police officers on a daily basis and within the system I am so close to them that they feel in many ways like I am one of their own.

Don't blame the police. Don't blame the soldiers. Don't blame people like me who are now given carte blanche to root through every single belonging and piece of written material you have to find something wrong. Blame those who mysteriously found it necessary to authorize such things. We do as we're told. Otherwise we have no job, and in today's severely limited economic climate, we don't really have any other options.