Clothes really do make the (police)man

What you wear affects the way people perceive you.  I remember once somebody in one of these Robocop get-ups got on an elevator with me.  I smiled pleasantly and asked, “How’s it going?”  I found that there was a human being underneath the visored helmet and the other gear, and we had a brief but civil conversation.

What you wear also affects, in a mysterious way, the way you feel.  The time when I went through Army basic training was the first time I wore boots rather than shoes on a regular day-to-day basis.  I’m not an especially aggressive person, and I wasn’t back then, but there was something about wearing boots that made me feel that, if I wanted to, I could kick the world down.

Hat tip for the MAD magazine drawing to Bill Elwell.

Tags: Mad Magazine, Militarization of police, Norman Rockwell, Police Uniform