In the highly polarized political environment we suffer under, we are accustomed to expecting some conflicting knee-jerk reactions on many topics. We expect conservatives to think of government as bad just as we expect progressives and liberals to think of government as good. That dichotomy is replicated regarding many topics and in particular regarding trade unions. We simply expect conservatives to think of trade unions as bad just as we expect progressives and liberals to think of trade unions as good. There are arguments for both positions of course; conservatives will point to Jimmy Hoffa and his connections with organized crime while progressives will point to the remarkably better economic conditions whenever and wherever labor unions are strong.
But sometimes these simple nostrums come face to face with what is their transparent over-generalization of what seems a simplistic formulation. We see this when conservatives look to government to bail out their favorite failed business or perhaps when liberals are confronted with criminal activities in a union. What is remarkable at this particular moment, however, is how conservatives and liberals both face a this sort of conflict at the same moment regarding the same hot topic in the news; both sides act out of character and the media ignores it. Our media is now very focused on how the role of police in America needs to be updated. However the role of police unions seems to be ignored.
Conservatives have long been openly critical of labor unions; seemingly all trade unions. That was even before Reagan attacked and destroyed the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) and it continues to this day with efforts to weaken and destroy the American Postal Workers Union and other public workers' unions. But for some reason, noticeably absent are attacks on police unions. Given their strong and steady antipathy toward unions this just seems a bit odd.
On the other hand, progressives have remained consistent with their general rule about trade unions being good, apparently even police unions. But surely police unions have been a major force in erecting the so-called blue wall of silence and in the establishment of kid-glove treatment of police who are implicated in the use of excessive force. If it were not for concerns about weakening the trade union movement, one might well expect progressives to be forcing more attention of the long-standing abuses on accountability that have to a large extent been instigated by police unions. Given the propensity of progressives to analyze root causes, it seems odd that this feature of police behavior has remained largely ignored.
