Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
I know this is meant to be an ideal for the police, but it could also be read as a descriptive claim about public favor, and it’s worth noting that that claim is sometimes false: how often do people approve of police bashing the heads of $OUTGROUP?
I know this is meant to be an ideal for the police, but it could also be read as a descriptive claim about public favor, and it’s worth noting that that claim is sometimes false: how often do people approve of police bashing the heads of $OUTGROUP?
This is true—and it’s also the case that sometimes the law supports abuse of an outgroup.
I don’t know enough about Peele’s era to have an opinion about how those issues played out for his police force.