I've lived in several countries, and spent time in quite a few more, and nowhere have I seen so much deference--often shading into outright fear-- accorded  the police as in the U.S. Nowhere else have I seen so much arrogance on the part of the police themselves. The recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates got me thinking more about this.

 Gates, probably the nation's best-known black intellectual, was arrested after police answered a report that two men, Gates and his driver, were seen trying to force the door of Gates' house. Gates was arrested for disturbing the peace, after he allegedly yelled at the police officer. Though Gates' and the officer's accounts differ, he facts that seem indisputable are that the officer asked Gates for his ID, which was provided. Gates then asked the cop for his name and badge number, which, though the law requires it, was not.  Gates, the police report goes, became angry and began yelling, and was arresting for disturbing the peace. What disturbs me, far more than the incident itself, or even the suggestion of racism, is the reaction I see on the web. An awful lot of people feel Gates  got what was coming to him simply because he yelled at a cop, or had the audacity to ask for a badge number.

Consider the situation a moment. You've just gotten home from an 18-hour flight to find your door jammed. You manage to get into the house, when a cop shows up at your door. When you go inside to get your ID, he--inappropriately and illegally-- follows you in. When you, after providing your info, ask for his, he refuses. At this point, exhausted and cranky with jet lag, and resentful of this intrusion into your home, you lose your temper. Raise your voice. Maybe even say one or two unflattering things about the officer. None of this is against the law, but it runs counter to the prevailing attitude that cops must be approached with obsequious reverence at all times, no matter how arrogant or overbearing they are.

This isn't the case everywhere, as I've seen for myself. In Japan, which admittedly has a very low crime rate, the police are never other than polite and helpful.  The same applies to my more limited experiences in Germany, Holland, Spain, and France.

At the mention of Japan and Western Europe, the law & order camp is sure to trot out the "America is more violent, so  the police are more at risk" argument. I'm not buying it. In the course of their entire police career, the vast majority of cops in the U.S. never have to fire their guns in the line of duty, and far fewer are ever at shot. Routine police work in most U.S. communities is nowhere as dangerous and stressful as we're led to believe.

Albania, where I used to live and work, has a slightly higher murder rate than the U.S.  Firearms are readily, if illegally, available--almost every family has at least one. The police, naturally carry guns of their own. Still, citizens routinely argue with and sometimes yell at police officers--without being carted off to jail simply for being uppity. Whatever their faults, and they are many, cops there don't feel that wearing a gun and a badge entitles them to expect cringing obedience.

I've lived in Taiwan, on and off, for a total of five years. The murder rate here is 30% higher than in the U.S.  The police may be inefficient and sometimes currupt, but they don't make arrests just because they don't like the tone of your voice.  I've seen a group of four cops, guns holstered, calmly try to talk down a raging drunk, even after he took a swing at one of them. He eventually  agreed to get in a cab and go home. Local people were not at all surprised by this, and I've witnessed several similar incidents myself.

The arrogance and sense of entitlement of American cops, and many people's cheerful acceptance of it, is bad enough in itself. But it's just one symptom of a frightening--and growing-- strain of authoritarianism in America. Telecom companies that say they had to comply with the president's "order" to release cutomers' records. "Journalists" who think their job consists of nothing more than copying and rephrasing government pronouncements. The apparently universal sentiment that the death of a police officer is somehow more tragic than that of a plumber or lawyer. Cops who forbid tourists  to take photos of certain buildngs or intersections, without being able to explain why.

In sorry contrast to the tough, pioneer image Americans cherish so dearly, when they look into the mirror these days they're less likely to see Davy Crockett than a timid, obedient, and very frightened child. Far too often, this seems to be the new American archetype: subservient, easily cowed, and far more apt to knuckle under to arrogant authority than, say, the typical Frenchman.

The problem here goes beyond race, beyond class, to the very essence of who we are. We started out as the nation of Jefferson, Franklin, Paine... flawed men, certainly, but courageous ones, and the farthest thing from bootlickers. When, and how, and why did we get where we are now?