The primary job of US police is to lie.
Particularly they must lie in a way that assures that they have authority. If police were trained to be honest, trained in the law, and not to exert their authority, like basically every police officer outside of the US is trained to do, then we wouldn't have such an excess of authority and repression in this country.
Watching VICE tonight two reporters were constantly being harassed by police, for doing their job, reporting. They were lied to repeatedly, about what they could or could not do or where they could or could not go. A free press should be able to go anywhere, this is a basic, unalienable right. But because police must keep their perception of authority they must lie in order to do so.
This is how a Canadian officer handles an unruly person who is actively resisting:
There are other issues at play, of course. As BanesBane points out, the gun culture probably contributes to an extent, at least my perspective is that the gun culture creates an air of paranoia, reducing normal people into these rabid, scared, authority figures. We saw this with regards to reporters tonight, simply filming. One officer claiming he'd shoot a reporter if they kept filming because the "light was on their camera." As if that was making them a target to hidden gun villains who wanted blood or something.
But that cops can straight up lie to people is completely counterintuitive and does not do a service to civil society. This very valuable video explains exactly why and how cops lie in their investigations:
= new reply since forum marked as read
I totally agree.
