"So what are we supposed to do instead" and "Do I trust the police right now" are different questions.
I don't like the fact that I trust self-policing by any community (even my own) more than the institution that is supposed to be doing policing. But whether I like it doesn't affect things.
I agree that it is important for us, as a free society, to fix policing. In the meantime, the best way to minimize injustice is not to invoke police when there is no immedate threat that can't be otherwise solved.
This is exactly why I don't think self policing is suitable. If someone broke the law and endangered other people, you or I as possible community members should not be able to decide no police action is involved when others are the people that were actually endangered. Do the people on the road during this situation not have a voice? We are not incentivized correctly to handle this situation suitably.
The police and judicial system sometimes have conflicting incentives as well, but at least they are aligned more with the public good than ours are. There are laws and they are, for the most part, rewarded for enforcing them.
>Do the people on the road during this situation not have a voice?
Of course they do. They can call the highway patrol or 911 and report a disabled vehicle. Let's imagine how that call would go.
911: 911, What's your emergency?
Driver: Hi, there was a vehicle travelling slowly on the freeway with its emergency flashers on, I had to switch lanes.
Pause...
Driver: Hello?
911: Sorry, I was waiting for you to finish. Was there any other information? Did the driver or occupants appear to be in distress?
Driver: I don't think so, he was alone and appeared to be talking to someone, perhaps on hands-free, or maybe On-Star?
911: 911 is for emergencies only, in the future please report events of this type to local authorities' non-emergency number accessible via 411. Goodbye.
Exactly. In this situation, the people on the road have less information that we do after the fact. People deserve to know if they were put in danger and why. Since this was done on a public highway, anyone that uses public highways has a right to feel upset about the behavior.
I would like to think that a call to 911 with more information (which of course a fellow driver wouldn't have) would be handled differently:
911: 911, What's your emergency?
Driver: Hi, someone on the freeway has purposefully disabled their vehicle in a location without shoulders, and is slowing while driving, impeding traffic. I'm not sure if the power brakes or steering are functioning, but the driver is definitely not in full control of the vehicle.
911: We've dispatched an officer to your location. Has there been an accident yet? Has the driver recovered control of the vehicle?
With other recent news releases about insiders being fired in internal affairs departments for findings against the police, I believe, we must assume that the police are self-policing in their own right.
I don't like the fact that I trust self-policing by any community (even my own) more than the institution that is supposed to be doing policing. But whether I like it doesn't affect things.
I agree that it is important for us, as a free society, to fix policing. In the meantime, the best way to minimize injustice is not to invoke police when there is no immedate threat that can't be otherwise solved.