Jones Daniel J
Policing (Oxf). 2020 Jun 5:paaa026. doi: 10.1093/police/paaa026.
One of the biggest challenges facing modern policing in recent years has been the lack of police legitimacy. The tipping point of this phenomenon is often attributed to the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles in 1991, where Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers were videoed assaulting a lone black male. They were arrested and charged but eventually all were acquitted, thereby etching deep distrust between communities and police. Now the Rodney King example is an extreme and criminal act by police but it was the beginning of communities and media focusing on what the police were doing and how they were doing it. This lack of legitimacy coupled with what is referred to as the militarization of policing have lasting consequences and impacts on police-community relations and how interactions between police and community shape society today. In the wake of pandemic policing due to COVID-19, there are tales of two eventualities for police legitimacy that will be explored in this article: (1) The police response to the pandemic results in further militarization and draws deeper divides between police and communities or (2) the police response is compassionate and build on procedurally just operations resulting in the rebuilding of police legitimacy post-pandemic.
近年来，现代警务面临的最大挑战之一是警察缺乏合法性。这一现象的临界点通常归因于1991年洛杉矶的罗德尼·金事件，当时洛杉矶警察局（LAPD）的警察殴打一名黑人男性的画面被录像。他们被捕并被指控，但最终所有人都被无罪释放，从而在社区和警察之间刻下了深深的不信任。罗德尼·金事件是警察的极端犯罪行为，但它是社区和媒体开始关注警察所作所为及其方式的开端。这种合法性的缺失，再加上所谓的警务军事化，对警民关系以及如今警察与社区之间的互动如何塑造社会产生了持久的后果和影响。在因新冠疫情而实施的警务行动之后，本文将探讨警察合法性的两种可能结局：（1）警察对疫情的应对导致进一步军事化，并加深警察与社区之间的分歧；或者（2）警察的应对富有同情心，并建立在程序公正的行动基础上，从而在疫情后重建警察的合法性。
