The tragedy is that the police and inner city communities should be allies. Who suffers most from violent crime in America? Inner city communities. Who has a personal and professional interest in lowering that violence? Cops.
Don WinslowRead
We have contradictory expectations of police: We want to be perfectly safe and perfectly free. We want total security and total privacy. We want the bad guys stopped and the good guys unmolested. That's great for the consumer; try providing it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the conflicting demands society places on law enforcement regarding safety and freedom.
Don Winslow's quote captures the inherent contradictions in societal expectations of police forces. On one hand, people desire complete safety and security from crime, while on the other hand, they value their freedoms and privacy. This duality creates an impossible dilemma for law enforcement, as achieving both total security and total privacy is fundamentally unfeasible. The quote challenges us to think deeply about what we truly want from our systems of law and order and the practicality of those desires.
Themes
PoliceSafetyFreedomSecurityPrivacyExpectationsLaw Enforcement
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about police reform, you might say this quote to highlight the complexities of public expectations.
More from Don Winslow
All quotes →Police departments are always a reflection of the society that they serve. Is there such a thing as 'police culture?' Absolutely. Is that culture isolated form the surrounding society? Absolutely not.
Don WinslowRead
When you criminalize something, only criminals can deal with it. When criminals deal with it, there's no recourse to law, so there's only recourse to violence.
Don WinslowRead
Similar quotes
The lowest and vilest alleys of London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.
Jean-Pierre De CaussadeRead
No true believer could be intolerant or a persecutor. If I were a magistrate and the law carried the death penalty against atheists, I would begin by sending to the stake whoever denounced another.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Every word affords me pain. Yet how sweet it would be if I could hear what the flowers have to say about death!
Emile M. CioranRead
What does it mean to be true to the faith? That word true implies commitment, integrity, endurance, and courage.
Dallin H. OaksRead
Unless you see yourself standing there with the shrieking crowd, full of hostility and hatred for the holy and innocent Lamb of God, you don’t really understand the nature and depth of your sin or the necessity of the cross.
C. J. MahaneyRead