According to a new Data for Progress poll, a majority of Americans think police officers can generally be trusted. In that poll, 70 percent said their views more closely align with the statement “police officers can generally be trusted”, compared to 30 percent who said their views more closely match the statement that “police officers can generally not be trusted”. There was, however, a fairly large age gap on this question. Among people ages 18 to 29, 59 percent said that police officers can’t be trusted, compared to 41 percent who said they generally can be trusted. At the same time, a majority of Americans 30 and older said they can be trusted, including about 4 in 5 of those 50 or older.
Kris: “Wait, what?”
Murphy: “You can’t see my screen share again?”
Kris: “Dammit, Murphy, I’m so sick of this virtual meeting stuff. I miss the faculty club.”
Murphy: “Alas, Kris, we are zoomed to bury the faculty club, not to praise it. I doubt we’ll ever see its like again.”
Kris: “Yes, we were lucky that our university kept the dinosaur alive as long as it did. Now, I guess, we each have to pour our own wine at home. And try to make out tiny scribblings on phones and computer screens. So I repeat myself. Wait, what?”
Murphy: “What what?”
Kris: “That crack about who trusts police. You’d think, from all the media screaming, that nobody wants anything to do with cops these days. But this poll is telling me that four out of five Boomers do trust the police?”
Murphy: “That is what it says.”
Kris: “The same people who, when they were young …”
Murphy: “Yeah, about the same age as the Gen Z-ers today who are six out of ten in the ‘no cops’ camp.”
Kris: “… went to great lengths to get the police forces labeled ‘pigs’, ‘tools’, ‘the fuzz?'”
Murphy (sings): “He’s, just, your …”
Kris and Murphy (sing together): “… friendly neighborhood narco agent, friendly neighborhood narco man, courtesy of your local CIA.”
Murphy: “Ah, but there is a difference between being under 30 then and being under 30 now.”
Kris: “Difference? Where? They both shouted down their professors for daring to challenge their under-30, eminently trustworthy wisdom with facts. And they both torched anything in their way. I don’t see much in the way of difference.”
Murphy: “And the commercial and social media go ka-ching. Nowhere near as much torching, then or now, as the profiteers would have you believe. Besides. We don’t have classes now any more than we have faculty clubs. No, it’s like this. The Boomers wanted the police off their backs. The Gen Z-ers want them off their necks.”
Kris: “Argh. Feel the sting.”
Murphy: “Well, we are talking about the police.”
Kris: “OK, for your next foray into video conferencing tricks, you can send me a screenshot of the label on that bottle you’re drinking from. I want some. For self-protection.”
Murphy: “I’ll try. No guarantees. Of the quality of the screenshot or the effectiveness of the potion.”
Kris: “Yeah, speaking of effectiveness. Do you think, when these Gen Z-ers get to be the age that the Boomers are now, that things will really be any different? Like how the Boomers thought things would be?”
Murphy: “You’re assuming that, by then, the oceans won’t be dead, and give any surviving Gen Z-ers something more immediate to worry about.”
Kris: “Yes I am. And …?”
Murphy: “I point to the evidence, fellow Boomer fuddy-duddy. Stickin’ it to The Man is fine and dandy, until you are The Man.”
Kris: “Your wife just texted you that line, didn’t she?”
Murphy: “Ssshh!”
Kris: “Yeah, well, thanks a lot, Murphy. And your wife. Damn you.”