r/Glasgow Tools

I have seen it from both sides. When I was a wee guy growing up we would see the cops and shout "POLIS!!!, RUN!". Nobody ever said "why are we running?" We just did and if they caught us we would get a boot up the arse.
I was married to one for over a decade. We socialised almost exclusively with other cops and their families. I am over generalising but for the most part there are "criminals" and "civvies". "Civvies" are criminals who have yet to be caught committing a crime. They dehumanise entire groups of people, mostly anybody who is not a cop. I see my apparent hypocrisy in that statement, but I stand by it. They particularly dislike other emergency services, especially the Fire Service. Who are all "lazy bastards" who get "paid to sleep." However one thing that may pass you by if you have never been part of the scene is they are especially fucking horrible to each other on an almost daily basis. A typical shift is full of factions and cliques. They will fuck each other over in the most horrible/dangerous/criminal of ways. Me and my ex were quite happily married for several years until we joined the "Police Family". They don't have happy and fulfilled personal lives. Divorce is endemic as is domestic and substance abuse and inter-polis shagging. It totally changes anybody but the most robust of people. How could it not? It would change me and it would change you. They never see people at their best, always victims or criminals. There are good cops, who are genuinely good people. Those are the rare super robust ones that the "job" has not dehumanised and to be honest I didn't meet many in over a decade.