I can't understand the United States police

I must say that the United States has one of the weirdest police forces, and police officers, in the entire world. I just can't figure them out.

On one hand they are excessively totalitarian, regularly abuse their position of power, and do not even know (or care) about the laws they are allegedly enforcing. On the other hand they seem to be extremely weak, cowardly and unable to actually uphold the law and keep law and order. And, what's worse, they seem to be highly biased and selective on when they decide to perform their sworn duties that they were hired for, and when not.

When it comes to that first aspect, it becomes quite evident when you watch so-called "first amendment audit" videos on YouTube (which I have done quite a lot).

At many places in the United States the police seems to be deadly afraid of people with cameras. Even though the law clearly states, and this has been confirmed by courts numerous times, and government officials and workers, including police officers, have been numerous times sent memos explaining to them that public photography, including that of police stations and other government and federal buildings, is completely legal, the police still seems to be so afraid of people with cameras that whenever they see somebody filming them or their stations, they will go harass that person.

What exactly they do and demand varies a lot, but in the worst case scenarios it has led to illegally detaining or even arresting the person. There have been numerous lawsuits against these police officers and departments over this, and in most cases the courts have upheld the rights of the private citizen to photograph the police from a public place (such as one of the most famous cases, Turner v. Driver.)

Almost invariably the police will ask the person for ID. The amount of insistence (and the consequences if the person refuses) varies quite a lot, but from what I have seen, on average they will be very insistent about it, sometimes even going so far as threatening the person with arrest if he refuses (even in states that are not "stop-and-ID", ie. where the police cannot demand ID from people who have not been legally arrested).

While I don't have much knowledge about most other western countries, nevertheless I'm not aware of any other country, at least countries that are free democratic ones, where the police behaves like this. It's certainly not the case here. The police does not simply go around demanding ID from random people just because they find them "suspicious" for holding a camera (or anything else). I have never seen or heard any cases where the police just demands ID right there, on the street. They might arrest someone (and then ID that person at the police station or wherever), but I don't think it's common practice for them to demand ID right there on the spot. I believe this is the case in most western countries (and most countries overall).

The police easily and constantly demanding people for ID seems something that would happen more in a totalitarian police state, not something that happens in a free democratic constitutional country. Demanding people, including people who haven't done anything wrong or illegal, for ID works as an intimidation tactic. It's essentially saying "we know who you are, we know where you live, we have your information, so don't try anything funny." It keeps people submissive and on their toes. It exerts authority over people.

Constantly and randomly demanding people for ID is something that's very common in totalitarian regimes. For example, it was very common in Spain during Franco's regime. It was common in most of the former Soviet countries. It's probably common in countries like North Korea and China.

I have to wonder where exactly the United States police has learned to be constantly asking for ID of people they find "suspicious", even when the law doesn't give them the right to demand it. Who has taught them this? Is this something taught at the police academy? Or is it a custom that essentially passes from officer to officer during the course of their duty, every new recruit catching this habit by watching their older peers?

Then there is, of course, the use of excessive force, especially against unarmed people who are not posing any threats. You can find dozens and dozens of videos on YouTube of police officers using clearly excessive force on somebody who very clearly is unarmed and is non-threatening (example). In some cases (like in this example) such officers get suspended, but there are countless cases that just fall through the cracks, or even where nothing happens to the officers even though there's clear video evidence of the event.

So, quite clearly, there's a problem in the American police force of a totalitarian mindset and abuse of force that's way too common yet... what about the second part I mentioned at the beginning, about them being weak, cowardly and biased?

Well, that's why I just can't figure them out.

In some situations they are excessively eager to enforce the law, even laws that don't actually exist, and are eager to arrest people for the most minor of "suspicious behavior" and "failure to ID", and sometimes even use completely excessive force to do so, completely illegally...

yet in other cases they seem to be completely unable and unwilling to enforce the law and stop criminals from committing crimes that are happening right in front of them. Not just people engaging in "suspicious behavior" or filming the police. People who are clearly, unambiguously, blatantly and egregiously breaking the law, right in front of them, in their full unobstructed view. And I'm not just talking about petty misdemeanors like littering or jaywalking. I'm talking about extremely serious crimes, like vandalism, destruction of property, arson, disruption and endangerment of traffic, harassment of people, and even physical assault.

For many years now masked terrorists have been roaming the streets in many parts of the country, disturbing the peace, disrupting traffic, vandalizing property, harassing people, and sometimes even outright assaulting people, and this oftentimes happens in full view of a large group of police officers who just watch, doing nothing to stop it or arrest these criminals. There have been massive brawls at some places, with the police doing absolutely nothing to stop them. There have been examples of masked terrorists illegally stopping and redirecting traffic, without any sort of permit or legal permission to do so, with police officers simply watching from the distance, deliberately doing nothing about it. There have been extraordinarily egregious cases where people have been physically assaulted in front of them, and the police officers have done absolutely nothing about it, other than watch.

A somewhat amusing example of police cowardice happened recently, when a bunch of middle-class rich white kids decided to create their own "autonomous" mini-country in Seattle, comprising of about 8 blocks of the city. Part of this act was a literal invasion of a police station within that area, chasing away the police officers from there and kicking them out of this area. The police station has been vandalized and taken over.

The consequences of this literal attack on a police station? Nothing, of course. No consequences. The police officers just fled like cowards, and have done absolutely nothing about it. No reinforcements, no special forces, no SWAT teams... nothing. They just fled the station like cowards and have done nothing to take it back and restore law and order.

I'm not aware of a single other country in the world where the police would behave like this. Not a single one. Here in my country the police most certainly does not behave like that, and would immediately and quickly put a stop to such criminal activity being committed in front of them, and arrest the culprits. I'm not aware of any other country where that wouldn't be the case, no matter what kind of political system there might be in place, be it a free democratic form of government, a totalitarian government, an Islamic government, or anything else. The United States is literally the only country that I know of where this is the case, where the police acts like this. (If there's another country where the police acts similarly, I would love to know.)

There also seems to be a great deal of bias on which people the police will arrest and which they won't, for the exact same activity. Check for example this. This kind of political bias is literally corruption among the police forces.