Police Psychology:  Choir Practice

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

In 1975, Joseph Wambaugh named it, when a group of cops go out after their shift for nights of drinking, camaraderie and debauchery.  They would get drunk, be obnoxious to regular citizens and have sex with a variety of barmaids, hookers and naïve young girls wanting to have a good time.  During the day, they would shoot gays in the park and bond together so nobody could get the real story and no cop could get charged.  Their pranks on each other are so appalling and dangerous that Joseph Wambaugh actually had his name taken off the film.  Superiors are all jerks, judges are listed as “black-robed pussies.”  It was called a “film about brutes for brutes.”  But the book and movie actually started something that is quoted frequently today, and perhaps is part of the way the public views cops. (more…)