Gestapo or Public servants?

[shbaz]

Darth is right, I sort of hijacked Raggits thread.

I've only dealt with police in traffic.. general experience is that I'm super polite about it, they're not at all, and I don't usually end up with tickets.  I've been demeaned, mocked and asked if I was stupid.  Well, no, I'm not stupid, I was in a little bit of a hurry and did something that I thought was safe given the circumstances even though it was a minor infraction of the law.  Regardless, they always ask if or imply that I am stupid.  There was one time that this did not happen, and that was when I got a ticket.  I was simply pulled over, gave my papers, given a ticket, and sent on my way.  Then I went to court to argue my case.  This is the proper way to deal with misdemeanors.  The reason it was different was because this particular small town was a speed trap and 99.5% of infractions were speeding.. i.e., he didn't have anything better to worry about.

But arguing with the police gets you gestapoed.  The thing is that they know certain things, while illegal, are very very minor in comparison with other things they could be dealing with, so if you're amiable you get away with a warning.  If you're a smartass and you point out that the law is too strict and what you were doing wasn't going to hurt anyone they justify lots of things that are entirely inappropriate, like choking.  COME ON, holding someone down, ok.  Twisting their arms to pain points to get them to subdue, ok.  Choking is torture, depriving you of oxygen, not an acceptable method of asserting your position of power to someone committing a misdemeanor.  Assault is a much more serious offense than skateboarding for civilians and it should be equally unacceptable as a repercussion for skateboarding, even though the perpetrators run.  On a tangent.. show me a place where bicycling is illegal.  The only difference is that there is a prejudice against kids, and knowing this, they fight it in a typical smart-assed teenage fashion.

The more I write about it the more I realize that in most cases the people who argue with and run away from police are the ones that most need to be taught a lesson.. but the proper channel is the judiciary system, not a police officer roughing them up.

Every time a discussion of the police comes up someone always chimes in, "Well they put up with a lot of crap."  This is true, but everyone who deals with the public deals with all manner of verbal abuse and the police are the only ones who can respond back with violence for that (usually triggered by waiting for minor resistance or any physical contact initiated by the perpetrator) and get away with it.

I don't think that the other people who are assholes make it justified for the cops to be arrogant and pretentious to everyone.  This isn't a case of a few bad ones either, there is a personally observed culture of arrogance and pretension, even (and especially) with the people I've closely known who are police officers.  You get confronted, it's understood that the attitude of the cop is going to be, "You're in the wrong, I'm righteous and I'm here to tell you what to do," when it should be, "Pretty sure what you just did is illegal, go talk with the judge about it."  They're not our judges and executioners, they're our enforcers.

I think the biggest problem with my county and local police is that they aren't paid crap.  There's a huge market for people with a high school education who want to tell other people what to do and get a company car to boot so they don't have to offer much money.  But if they did pay more, people would put up with more and do their job a lot better, probably without all of this extra nonsense.

In bigger cities with the budgets for it there is a requirement for an associates degree, higher pay, and a much more professional police force than I am used to dealing with.  The same goes for our state police.

Basically, I understand what the problem is, and it's that we don't pay for the extra quality that we need, but allowing people to get away with this crap just because it's hard to find good help isn't worth the consequence.

[mouthuvmine]

And it really seems like any opinions to come from topics like this seem to mirror most peoples view of cops themselves...it's all just too black and white.

Saying "cops put up with a lot of crap, so not freaking out an shooting everyone near them is comendable", is like putting a mentally handicapped person in a gifted class and saying "well, at least he's not eating the pencils" and passing him. Neither the cop, nor Mongo really belonged in that situation to begin with.

Now cops deserve respect. Those kids should've gotten in some trouble. I'm always rooting for kids like that to avoid getting caught, but if you are breaking the law, and you get caught, oops. Your mistake. You deal with the punishment. But a responsible person (cop or otherwise) should recognize and work around their own temper.