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
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