ever wonder why i distrust the police these days?

here's a pretty decent rundown of my reasoning:

4 reasons why police are starting to look like super villains

the cops in the town i live in (population 1500ish) all wear bulletproof vests while on duty, and give everyone the stinkeye all the time... the new police chief just retired from the military, where he served as an MP for several tours of Iraq and Afghanistan- which isn't necessarily bad in and of itself, but he does have a certain mentality that i find disturbing based on what other people have told me.. and he looks at me like i'm an insurgent when he sees me idiling around in my Camaro...

small town/big town .. I can't find any reason to be upset about the on duty police wearing body armor ….

as to attitude … yeah that can be a problem

wait… just saw where you're riding around in a Camaro … I think I understand the problem now

Why would I spend any of my time wondering why you distrust the police these days?

I never knew that you didn't trust the police, but if I had, I would assume that you are one of those who doesn't trust insurance agencies, banks, government in general, etc.

It's nothing new.

And one of them shoots a family dog every 98 seconds. Read an article last week where the dog, quite a distance away, growled at the stranger PoPo, who pulled his gun and shot at the dog, missing. The dog ran away and the PoPo kept shooting until he killed it.

Dr. Hess wrote: And one of them shoots a family dog every 98 seconds. Read an article last week where the dog, quite a distance away, growled at the stranger PoPo, who pulled his gun and shot at the dog, missing. The dog ran away and the PoPo kept shooting until he killed it.

There's a fresh one where a dog shot a "lunging pitbull."

Only problem, the dog was in a car, with the window closed.

The attitude does suck, but considering what they have to deal with, I give the Police a lot of slack.

In reply to wbjones:

Yep, third gen camaro = watch closely due to increased DUI risk. At least that's how my area is. Turd gens get all the drunkards here.

I have no problem with the body armor, but I do have a problem with the fact that the vast majority of the LEOs in my overwhelmingly black community are white, and look & act like 'roid raging skinheads.

Most of my personal experiences in dealing with them have been negative. FWIW, I'm a law abiding Whitey.

Another issue that the Cracked article didn't bring up is that many of the people that pursue law enforcement careers are the people who are least suited to having power and authority. Professional Bully for life FTW!

pinchvalve wrote: The attitude does suck, but considering what they have to deal with, I give the Police a lot of slack.

I agree with this sentiment.. with a wife that works in corrections, and a lot of friends in the business.. The attitude for LEO's is starting to wear on me...

Heck around here.. They run the plates on my car it pops up in dispatch that the wife works for the county.. It works as a Get out of jail free card...

Now... How do you think those guys act when that is basically open accepted practice?

It is very tiring...

This makes me laugh, and laugh....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-dJgFdfl3I

z31maniac wrote: There's a fresh one where a dog shot a "lunging pitbull."

Dog on dog violence is a growing problem.

N Sperlo wrote:

z31maniac wrote: There's a fresh one where a dog shot a "lunging pitbull."

Dog on dog violence is a growing problem.

Ha, sorry. Meant Cop.

z31maniac wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: And one of them shoots a family dog every 98 seconds. Read an article last week where the dog, quite a distance away, growled at the stranger PoPo, who pulled his gun and shot at the dog, missing. The dog ran away and the PoPo kept shooting until he killed it.

There's a fresh one where a dog shot a "lunging pitbull." Only problem, the dog was in a car, with the window closed.

If it's the same one I'm thinking of, it ALSO wasn't a pitbull. It was a lab mix of some kind. (Not that I think there's anything inherently wrong with pits.)

As for cops in general, I don't trust them either. In law school I clerked for an attorney who was handling the defense of a cop accused of murdering his gay lover. I was privy to a lot of gossip and some actual inside information about the workings of the PD in our city (midwest college town, 120k residents plus 30k college kids). I eventually came to the conclusion that there are basically three reasons people go into law enforcement:

1) It's a job. It's neither great nor horrible most days. These guys enjoy the work but they're neither out to save the world nor are they out to get their jollies via exercising their power on somebody else. Depending on how their day is going when you interact with them, you might have a "bad" experience, but you were unlikely to get a "tased or shot bad" experience. Generally respect the law and don't do things they're not allowed to do, with the major exception of NOT SNITCHING if they see another officer do something they shouldn't. These guys are probably a bare majority of the cops out there.

2) Decided to be cops because it was a "noble calling". A small minority of cops. Tend to be very honest and go by the book, also tend to be regarded as candyasses by other cops.

3) Power trippers. Enjoy imposing their will on someone else because they can. Remember when Judge Dredd said "I am the law"? These guys believe it. They are not a majority of cops, but I'd bet between a quarter and a third have short-man syndrome to some degree or another. These are the guys who will lie on the stand, lose evidence, and take any steps they can to cover their asses if they berkeley up.

Unfortunately, you don't know which kind of cop you're dealing with in any situation. Compounding that is the fact that even the good cops WILL NOT give up a fellow LEO if they do something wrong.

You know that chart where every long arm from a BB gun up is known to the media as a "AK47" and everything remotely resembling a handgun is a "Glock?" They need one like that for "pit bull" showing everything from a poodle to a Great Dane.

pinchvalve wrote: The attitude does suck, but considering what they have to deal with, I give the Police a lot of slack.

I'm running out of slack to give when I read stories of cops kicking in the doors on the wrong address, shooting someone and then not getting in trouble.

The CATO institute tracks police misconduct. There are some eye opening tales on this website.

http://www.policemisconduct.net/

pinchvalve wrote: The attitude does suck, but considering what they have to deal with, I give the Police a lot of slack.

They don't deserve slack. Lots of other professions have to deal with the sort of crap that cops deal with day-to-day. Social workers, nurses, EMTs, teachers, etc. Anyone who works with people on the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder is going to spend 90% of their time dealing with the 1% of people who go through life drunk and angry. The police should be held to at least the same standards as those other people. Preferably higher.

People today are basically the same jerks they were 100 years ago. By any measure they're actually less violent and sociopathic. Murders, violence and terrorism are all down since the 1970's-1990's. Cops are also the same people they were 100 years ago, but instead of trying to improve them, we're giving them tools to "make their job easier". Those tools encourage them to take the violent/threatening way out. Tasers, LRADs, SWAT teams and APCs and full body armor. All that junk.

I have no problem with police wearing body armor under uniforms if it makes them safer. But I have a huge problem with them making conspicuous use of mroe serious hardware in situations that are unlikely to turn violent, routinizing searches and other 4th Amendment violations, using tasers to get easy compliance through pain, etc.

Normal people acting as the police are part of a democracy. We moved away from mob justice and groups of the King's soldiers for a reason. We're backsliding. America has always been at its worst when the police start acting like thugs for the guys in power. The civil rights struggle, union-busting, breaking up protests outside political conventions, etc. When the police start looking acting like the fist of the government, rather than society's tool for keeping order, we lose any sense of ownership of the government and things go downhill fast.

There should be some sort of robot cob. A "Robocop" if you will. I propose we beta the idea here in southeast Michigan. If it works, perhaps we can erect a statue in its honor.

It all depends on where you live I think. We have a fairly small PD here in my town and most of them are really nice. The one that actually power trips is the female officer she honestly should not be in that job. The others smile and wave at people, stop and help if you are having car trouble, give out more warnings for traffic stops than tickets and help out at community events. Heck I have been out shooting with several of the guys and I am on a first name basis with the sheriff. He actually is one of those that prefers the people of his county to be armed and promotes gun education programs for kids and adults.

Now when I go to the city I always keep an eye out for cops since they are as big of an unknown as some thug looking guy in some areas.

ronholm wrote: ....This makes me laugh, and laugh.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-dJgFdfl3I

Wow. That's a good one. The cop obviously realized what he was setting himself up for. I am pretty surprised though that he allowed him to film him though. Other people have been "lawed up" for doing that.

I once reported a Sheriff for running a stop sign (there HQ was right near where I worked). He was also not wearing a uniform in a squad car (which is bad apparently). Normally, not that big of a deal, but I can be damn sure tell you I would have been written up for the same thing.

What I told the IA guy was "I am not interested in hurting this guy, but I think, if anything, law officers should be held to a HIGHER standard in regards to laws. After all, they represent it, they CERTAINLY should follow it"

In reply to rebelgtp:

My town recently hired a new marshall, first thing he did was E36 M3can every powertripper and douchebag on the department. They're all pretty good now and actually do their jobs. I'll probably talk with him about doing some reserve work though. I'm the overly honest but not necessarily by the book type. Minor bullE36 M3 would probably get a slide from me, novaderrik rollin' dirty in his third gen would get an overnight stay in county though.....just on principal and for starting this thread.

At the facility where I work ten years ago our security personel didn't even carry firearms. (Great Britain style ploice force)

Then they got pistols and became actual police.

Now with our newest chief has our force wearing outside the shirt body armor and full tactical gear. It looks ridiculous IMHO

aircooled wrote: What I told the IA guy was "I am not interested in hurting this guy, but I think, if anything, law officers should be held to a HIGHER standard in regards to laws. After all, they represent it, they CERTAINLY should follow it"

Walk the talk.. 100% agree.