"You don't know what it is like until you have been there"
At A Glance Author Shamus Greenman Contact Shamus [email protected] IAM Shamus Greenman When N/A Simple words, but words that are unbelievably true and real, and words that if we all took a moment to try and hear, and understand, well, things everywhere might be a lot less hateful and we might be in a better space to all be able to heal.
I became a sworn police officer on October 27th 1989, I was 21 years old, and thought I knew EVERYTHING. I had done something few people could, successfully complete police training at a Federal level, I had been through the best training available, gone to university and hell before becoming a cop had worked with the security department of one of Canada's largest and busiest universities.
I KNEW about people, I knew about human behavior, I knew it ALL.
God I was an arrogant little pup.
I sit here now, some 15 years later, the majority of my life spent in law enforcement related work. I have more education, more life experience and more things which I understand...
And now I have things I want to share, from an ex cop, to the modded community...about how we look at you, why some of us look at you the way we do, and how things have changed...and I hope that maybe, just maybe more than a few of you will see us in a new light, and will understand that, at the end of the day, regardless of what lines we all might think are drawn in the sand, and regardless of what you, or I might think we know about the other...we really are not that different, and as a cop, as all cops would, I would still do everything I could to save you, if you ever dialed 911 late at night.
In 1989 tattoos and piercing were still in the eyes of law enforcement an outlaw activity...relegated to gangs, biker and street, and piercings were part of the punk culture...and while a tattoo meant little, someone with a large number was to watched with suspicion and care, and people who were pierced were just plain weird or fucked up in some other fashion.
At the academy we had a class on "Outlaw Tattooing" which focused on the meaning behind most gang and prison tattoos...how the Nazi like SS tattoo on Hells Angles was a symbol of a member of the gang that had killed for club business. Or how a skull head on some gang members in prison could be a representation of Voodoo activity or a satanic cult member. Spider webbing on the elbow was a representation of time served, and a tear in the corner of the eye, or a certain symbol in the webbing between the thumb and fore finger was a sign of having done time in a prison, and depending on the symbol could tell you the prison or the sentence you served.
Regardless, tattoos belonged to outlaws, and outlaws were criminals and criminals were meant to be arrested...end of story...and this thought process and training went on in Police Academy's across the country and all over the world.
As a police office if I noticed tattoos on someone, if I saw that they were visibly pierced, my cop sense went on, and much like racial profiling, the person was already placed into a category that regardless of anything else, they would now have to prove themselves and not deserving to be in.
Posture, voice and manners were all different when dealing with those who are "different" or outside the norms that society has put in place.
One of the reasons I ended up leavening the force was its inability, at that time, to change and to adapt to new ideas and information.
By 1995 it was clear, thanks to Videos such as Areosmiths Cryin that tattooing and piercing were coming into the main stream...it is hard to find a great deal or criminal threat in a 16 year old girl out at the mall with her friends...and while piercing and tattoos were still being used by gangs and criminal elements, such as junkies to try and hide track marks...they were becoming more and more a part of main stream life in the early nineties...much like Harleys were the new luxury car for those who had the means.
Once I left the force and began working more in a training capacity, and returning to school, I began to experience changes of my own...I began to study and understand piercing and tattooing as an art form and as a deep and spiritual form of expression and of self.
I even got a tattoo, something totally unthinkable in some ways as a police officer.
Much like motorcycles were once viewed as the vehicle of criminals tattoos which were once the means of expression of the criminal element have come into their own.
Sites like BMEzine.com have helped contribute to a sense of knowledge and understanding, and have done more in a few short years to bring the art form of piercing and tattoo to a mainstream stage where they are more widely accepted and understood.
Police however are still at the cusp of their learning curve, and are still on the journey.
Most police officers will look at a persons face and eyes but for a moment, faces and eyes are every generic in nature, and are hard to use to describe someone to others when looking for a certain "type"., it is easier to say 6 foot, red hair, blue jeans and a large tattoo of Nemo form the Disney film on his forehead.
They are not looking, believe it or not at your race or such, they are looking for distinct items which set you apart form anyone else running out on the street.
It is never nice or right to be judged based on how we look, or what or who we might appear to be...but in a split second a cop does it as part of training and as part of risk assessment...
Going forward the polices forces of Canada and the U.S. are developing more and more community based policing initiatives and this in turn is bring officers out of their patrol cars and out onto the street and in direct contact with the people that we have been charged with serving and helping to keep safe...this can only lead to a better understanding between the two worlds.
However all of the blame can not lay at the feet of the police, the modded community needs to make the outward steps as well of being open and welcoming of the police officers...we both need to work towards meeting in the middle so to speak...and learning from one another.
Most of us have never walked in the others shoes, I'm lucky to have lived a life where I have been exposed to both sides, and we are not that different at the end of it all.
Most people who are modded are real people, they are as much a part of society as the guy who runs to corner store, or they guy who runs the tattoo shop.
And most cops will do what ever it takes to help keep you safe, and will come running at 3 in the morning when you call 911 after you hear a bump in the night.
Policing in the 21st century is moving away from it's abusive past, it is now common place to see pierced and tattooed cops, there are a couple here on BME. The police are no different than anyone else, and as with any society are a true cross section of the society we are sworn to protect.
While the police are still called upon to help keep the peace and defend things and places that we ourselves might not like or even believe in, we do it because it is our job, it is what we are sworn to do, it is who were are at our soul.
A little understanding, by everyone, goes a long way, and when we stop to see the other persons side, we might just see ourselves.