The second last suggested name was the Futuristic Police Persona. I don’t particularly want this blog to be anything to do with politics - I have Twitter for that. But naturally that is an unachievable goal. Everything is political, including not engaging in politics. The Police are, by the numbers, a purely political organisation. There are no incarceration figures you can look at that paint the often heard line “most police are good people”. They imprison the poor, the marginalised and the mentally unwell.
I am reminded strongly of the eponymous Doctor from Doctor Who. The character that I like the most in all their iterations is the idea of a deeply flawed individual who has a chequered past at best. I imagine being the Doctor’s companion is a lot like being good friends with a dictator. Plenty of luxury in the journey, to drown out the horror at home.
Looking only at the good things a dictator has done you will have a story of a hero. Consider even a small portion of the bad and you very quickly have a villain. The Doctor polices the galaxy from a sense of morality that is more often than not derived from the companion who travels with them. The one who says “Doctor! You can stop now.”
Yet if we do not stand by the Doctor, if there is no companion, the typical result is much worse. So increasingly I find it important to uphold the idea that “most police are good people” in case they find themselves aspiring to be anything but.