Cops- Like 'em or not?

[orygun]

I Cops

Pretty much agree with that.
Neighbors, family members, and guys I went to school with are cops. All very good people.

When I got a ticket (not for many years), I deserved it. When I got chewed out, that was deserved too. ("occasionally" I like to drive/ride a little faster than the law allows)

I've only met a couple that I thought were jerks. One of those chewed me out like he was a drill sergeant and then let me go with nothing but a verbal warning. Musta not really been a jerk then, huh?

I respect them all for the job they are doing and at least initially give them the respect the uniform deserves. It's a job and lifestyle I've often considered for myself.

When seconds count the police are only minutes away? Maybe. That's why I'm prepared to take care of myself and family.

 

[Rix]

Case by case basis.
Can't say much more.

 

[laney1566]

Cops can't afford to give people the benefit of the doubt. That in itself can make them seem like jerks....But at the end of the day, they are trying to make it home from work like everybody else.
My grandfather and great grandfather were both cops. People breaking the law where they served I am sure thought they were jerks....But I loved and respected them both.
I also came into contact with quite a few cops when I got into armed security. I met some great guys that were hard to be friends with unless you knew their world. We all may have differing opinions of the cops, but I for one respect them and their authority. And even now days when I run into a younger cop than myself, I do give him the benefit of the doubt and show him respect by calling him "Sir". They earn it!!

 

[gehrheart]

Cops are people, some I like, others, not so much.

Yep, just people doing a job. Like all jobs, some people are really good at it, some not so good. I dislike no one because of the job they have, might dislike them for who they are, but not because of the badge.
I was was by cops. Both parents are retired Alaska state Troopers. I have know a lot of cops because of that. Most I like, some were just bad. Then the rare few that really should not have a gun or badge.


Why would you hate a person because of their profession?

 

[Dell_dude]

Some are great, some are real a**holes.

The ones that are the worst IMO, are the ones that are good themselves, but don't call the bad ones out when it needs to be done.

 

[The Quiet Man]

I've been listening to their radio comms on scanners for the past 25 years and am pretty much pro-cop.

The young ones tend to be full of piss and vinegar, naive, and idealistic. They can be tiresome to listen to or deal with. Like many folks in their 20's, they know most everything there is to know about everything. They can be a PITA but are in good shape and are willing to do what it takes to get the job done. However, they require supervision, and frequently lack maturity in dealing with adults.

The mid-career officers tend to ride herd on the youngsters, and get most of the work done with quiet efficiency, calm, and rationality. They have seen most of what the job entails and are the people you want to have contact with if contact is necessary. They supervise the young officers and take up the slack for the old guys ready to retire. They are the Police Department.

The officers ready to retire (or effectively retired-in-place) just try to get through their shifts without hassles or breaking a sweat. They are tired and starting to feel out of place with what is happening in society. They have seen it all and would prefer to be fishing. They do not suffer fools well, or have much tolerance for BS. Some seem grouchy.

Sound familiar? The same thing happens in every organization and is likely no different than the company you work for.

From what I have listened to over the years, they are the good guys with their hearts in the right place. A small handful shouldn't be in that line of work, but they are the exception. I wouldn't want to do their job, nor do I depend on them for my security. That said, I am very glad they are out there.

 

[dmancornell]

People hate the police state, so no matter how nice the cops are as individuals, they are still one of the violent entities enforcing the murdering, robbing state. Humanizing the stormtroopers is a nice way to delude yourself about the nature of the beast. Of course, if said cops were really such nice people they'd quit their jobs.

So next time you sheeple get a ticket for being 2mph over the speed, practice cognitive dissonance by blaming yourself for your predicament.

 

[Izzy]

Why are we trying to judge who someone is by what they do, instead of how they behave?

I'm normally not a big fan of answering a question, with a question.
However, this is probably the best answer yet!!!

 

[revjen45]

Any demographic you can name (cops, boy scouts, psychologists, truck drivers, cooks, etc) will have a certain %age who earn the title of **** Emeritus. The scientific term for this group is the Rectum quotient. The average is 8 -12% (YMMV). Just look it up in any psychological text . Unfortunately, too many times the police are allowed to act on these impulses without consequences, and their colleagues will back them up. For the most part they do a difficult job better than most of the rest of us could, but when they do abuse power more often than not they get away with it. On another board the LEOs took it as a personal affront when I cited YouTube - Don't Talk to Cops, Parts 1 & 2 as putting forth good reason not to say anything to the police.
Just remember:
1) Sometimes you do need them, like the time we reported a hit-and-run on our parked car.
2) There are times when they actually do benefit society by dealing with vicious Uentermenschen (that's sub-humans) who afflict the rest of us.
3) Their job is to produce work for the Prosecutor's Office.
4) Odds are they can't get there in time to protect you from serious harm. Your Mossberg 500 will protect you better than the minions of The State. (But you all already knew that)
5) Trusting the police is usually a mistake, but not always.
6) They can say anything they think you will believe to elicit an inculpatory statement. For the rest of us this would be called lying. For the police it's called permissible deception. It's legal for them to B.S. you, but not vice-versa.
7) Watch YouTube - Don't Talk to Cops, Parts 1 & 2 and believe it. There will be a test at some point.

LEOs - don't take this as an affront.
Merry Christmas to all.

 

[mcm56]

I never had a problem with the police until I started having problems in are neighborhood. We live in a nice area and for the most part good neighbor. Right across the street the owner moved out of state and moved there daughter and her two kids in to the house.The mother was into METH and needless to say the problems began. People in and out 24/7 kids lock out of there house till some one would finally come home, property crime on a regular basis and the cop told us is there nothing they can do? 7 and 8 year old kids being left unattended this was over a two year period. when they move out there was stolen cars in the driveway that had been sitting there for over a year. Many neighbor complained, if just one cop would have ran a license plate on one of the stolen cars in the driveway would have had a reason to do something so I do not have a lot of faith in the police in are area.

 

[kyzug]

People hate the police state, so no matter how nice the cops are as individuals, they are still one of the violent entities enforcing the murdering, robbing state. Humanizing the stormtroopers is a nice way to delude yourself about the nature of the beast.

I'm of a similar mind. I don't hate the cops. I hate the system. The system demands they enforce unjust laws, turning them intro tyrants. It gives them a license to resolve otherwise peaceful disputes with violence. It is a corrupting process. I'm sure there were some nice Nazi SS who just took the job because they needed to take care of their families as well.

Of course, if said cops were really such nice people they'd quit their jobs.

Bingo. Upton Sinclair's quote comes to mind though. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

 

[python287]

People hate the police state, so no matter how nice the cops are as individuals, they are still one of the violent entities enforcing the murdering, robbing state. Humanizing the stormtroopers is a nice way to delude yourself about the nature of the beast. Of course, if said cops were really such nice people they'd quit their jobs.

So next time you sheeple get a ticket for being 2mph over the speed, practice cognitive dissonance by blaming yourself for your predicament.

The police are here to protect us from idiots like you - next time you are in danger - call a sheepherder..

 

[buick455]

I feel sorry for most cops.... I'm sure that most of them got into policing to help other people but then they either became part of the money making ticket writing machine or they spend all night dealing with drunken domestic disputes. It's a crappy job and they are grossley underpaid (of course I'm speaking of the ones that spend their day actually working) .

That being said on a personal level I have a hard time trusting someone who doesn't trust me and have an even harder time respecting someone who doesn't have respect for me.

 

[dmancornell]

The police are here to protect us from idiots like you - next time you are in danger - call a sheepherder..

Yeah all those violent libertarians are so dangerous. LOL.

All the protection I need is on my hip and in my safes.

 

[Rapid1]

I have the same respect for cops I do soldiers. They have a job that puts them between criminals and the rest of us, keeping us all safer. There are bad doctors, judges, lawyers, mechanics and any other occupation you can come up with but the difference is, those folks are not putting their lives on the line between the bad guys and you.

Judging them all by a bad apple or two is unfair. Keep in mind that the police on the streets are commanded in most cases by policies laid down by some politician or liberal judge that doesn't give one rip about you or me.

I have had many interactions with police, from numerous traffic violations (in my younger days) to a long road trip to help ID the guys that put a gun to my head during a robbery. The one difference I seem to have with all of you is that I have never, ever had an interaction that was not unwarranted. In most of those, I deserved whatever fine I had coming and in many more, I was let off with a lesser ticket or simply a pour out the beer and "go home". I am also older than most of you and can remember when police could afford to show some judgment. In our culture today, showing judgment is liable to get you sued at the least.

Imagine our society with no police officers...even the haters would have to admit that they don't wish that.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never met a bad cop. I think most of them get a bad rap and in many of the stories posted here, we only get one side. I'm sure most of us would feel different about them if the whole story were to be told.

Merry Christmas to all and especially those in uniform that by not spending their Christmas at home with their family, allow me to do so.

 

[python287]

I'm of a similar mind. I don't hate the cops. I hate the system. The system demands they enforce unjust laws, turning them intro tyrants. It gives them a license to resolve otherwise peaceful disputes with violence. It is a corrupting process. I'm sure there were some nice Nazi SS who just took the job because they needed to take care of their families as well.



Bingo. Upton Sinclair's quote comes to mind though. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Are you comparing Police Officers to Nazi's ?? You don't understand the police anymore then you understand the Nazi's - The Police enforce laws that you citizens demand - and that sometimes requires violence for protecting citizens and themselves- that doesn't make them tyrants.

But comparing Police to Nazi's is an insult - and just proves what an idiot you are. And having been a Police Officer for 32 years and having a distant relative die in a Nazi Concentration Camp - I have a good idea what the Police do to protect life and property - even your life..

As for the rest of you cop-haters - "nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it"

Most of you wouldn't last 5 minutes as a Police officer - so the next time you are so quick to call them storm troopers or hate them for doing their job - look at Mexico - that doesn't have dedicated Police officers- some 30,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since 2006 - 12,500 just in 2010.

Pretty easy for you cop-haters to sling blame - but you couldn't handle the job on your best day..

 

[kyzug]

...The Police enforce laws that you citizens demand

No, they are enforcing unjust laws that some government bureaucrat put in place making noncrimes into crimes.

...and that sometimes requires violence for protecting citizens and themselves- that doesn't make them tyrants

I would argue that violence which is not requried is used far to often. But your thoughts do make a good police T-shirt, "I must kick your *** to proctect you."

...But comparing Police to Nazi's is an insult - and just proves what an idiot you are.

I'm comparing the Nazi regime to a our police state and making the point that they both tend to corrupt people by forcing their agents to act in an unjust manner.

 

[kyzug]

...so the next time you are so quick to call them storm troopers or hate them for doing their job - look at Mexico - that doesn't have dedicated Police officers- some 30,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since 2006 - 12,500 just in 2010.

You make my point for me. There are plenty of police in Mexico. However, they are openly corrupt - they are bought off by the drug lord or they are killed off.

If the state recognized that people owned their own bodies, and had the right to determine for themselves what to put into them, and as a consequence laws restricting drugs were repealed, then drugs would not be forced onto a black market. They could be cultivated, regualated and exchanged on an open market.

Drug crime is completely a byproduct of a state enforcing unjust laws.

You say that you are not a tryrant, but wouldn't hesitate to put someone in a cage for posessing a plant.

 

[dmancornell]

Are you comparing Police Officers to Nazi's ?? You don't understand the police anymore then you understand the Nazi's - The Police enforce laws that you citizens demand - and that sometimes requires violence for protecting citizens and themselves- that doesn't make them tyrants.

The citizens didn't demand anything. The legislators legalized plunder and established an unjust legal system, then hired cops to enforce their theft. The cops aren't tyrants, they're pawns of a tyrannical regime, unless they willingly enforce the unjust laws, then they are just as much tyrants as the legislators themselves.

But comparing Police to Nazi's is an insult - and just proves what an idiot you are. And having been a Police Officer for 32 years and having a distant relative die in a Nazi Concentration Camp - I have a good idea what the Police do to protect life and property - even your life..

You can believe what they want, but philanthropic intent does not guarantee a just result. Many Nazis also thought they were doing what's best for the German people, so how's that different from your view of your own profession?

As for the rest of you cop-haters - "nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it"

Most of you wouldn't last 5 minutes as a Police officer - so the next time you are so quick to call them storm troopers or hate them for doing their job - look at Mexico - that doesn't have dedicated Police officers- some 30,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since 2006 - 12,500 just in 2010.

Pretty easy for you cop-haters to sling blame - but you couldn't handle the job on your best day..

If you mean it takes a moral vacuum to be a cop, then yeah you're right, many people can't do the job. On the other hand, it can't be all that difficult to camp at a speed trap and harass innocent motorists.

I'd write something about the Mexican drug war being a direct result of the American police state, but that's another topic for another time.

 

[python287]

No, they are enforcing unjust laws that some government bureaucrat put in place making noncrimes into crimes.

"what non-crimes do you mean"?


I would argue that violence which is not requried is used far to often. But your thoughts do make a good police T-shirt, "I must kick your *** to proctect you."




I'm comparing the Nazi regime to a our police state and making the point that they both tend to corrupt people by forcing their agents to act in an unjust manner.

"If this were actually a police state - then your remarks would be dealt with like the Nazi's did - they would take you out and shoot you and throw your worthless carcass in a ditch. "

Since you are free to make your stupid comments - that in itself proves you live in a free country and not some police state as you say..

But then maybe you're a criminal that doesn't like getting arrested - you seem to complain a lot about the police and the police state- leads me to the conclusion that you must have a lot of experience with the police - as in multiple arrests.. could that be that your animosity to the police stems from your background of being a criminal.

And your constant reference to Nazi's and a Police State proves to me that you know nothing of history. During the Nazi era in Germany - the Citizens had no choice but to go along with the Nazi's & the Axis - to do otherwise would mean death..