It’s no secret that American coppers do not have a good reputation, both in the US and internationally. A seemingly perpetual string of police brutality incidents has given them a reputation for shooting first and asking questions second.
Naturally, many Americans are terrified of crossing paths with the police. A 2022 Pew Research poll found that just 26% of Americans have “a great deal” of confidence in police, with racial minorities, young voters, and liberals all emerging as particularly wary of law enforcement.
In my own limited run-ins with the police, the presence of a service weapon is impossible to look past. It's terrifying. In 2018, I attended the March for Our Lives, a march to the Capitol building calling for strengthened gun control legislation, and we were somewhat ironically monitored by armoured policemen with assault rifles. In 2020, I was pulled over while driving through rural Maryland. The highway cop kept a hand on his pistol for the duration of our interaction. Both of these experiences left a bad taste in my mouth: a peaceful protest met with military grade weapons, and a speeding high-schooler made very aware of an officer's service weapon.
"Their presence contributes to the dramatically unbalanced power dynamic between citizens and law enforcement"
Of course, given the American right’s fetishistic obsession with the Second Amendment and the staggering amount of guns in the country, cops need a pistol and realistically couldn’t do their jobs without them, but their presence contributes to the dramatically unbalanced power dynamic between citizens and law enforcement. A huge amount of Americans are frightened of those who are supposed to “protect and serve,” and a frightening amount of cops seem to feed off that fear.
At the end of the day, all I can speak to is my own experience. Having lived in one country rich with gun-toting policemen and one without, I can safely say that I’ve always felt safer around Met officers than sheriff’s deputies.