Monday, July 27, 2009

A word of advice ...

This post stays on top today - G

To any cop who thinks like this:

... At that moment I can assure you the officer is not all that concerned with trying not to offend you. He is instead concerned with protecting his mortal hide from having holes placed in it where God did not intend. And you, if in asserting your constitutional right to be free from unlawful search and seizure fail to do as the officer asks, run the risk of having such holes placed in your own.

...


The last guy who threatened to shoot me (he thought I was sleeping with his girl - I wasn't) got his .357 taken away from him and was pistol whipped into unconsciousness with it.

Respect is a two way street. I cooperate with police and I am respectful. I do expect to know why I'm being detained and what cause the officer has to do so. Start waving your cock at me and we'll have problems. There are a lot of guys out there who've seen and done more than a precinct full of cops and aren't scared of a gun, badge, or the funny paint job on the car. Save your penis-waving for the nurses in the ER you're trying to screw.

When cops and district attorneys begin to apply justice in pursuit of the truth, not just to make a conviction, is when I'll begin to cut them some slack but as things stand now, I refuse to let myself be abused by a police officer because he didn't get laid last night or got passed over for promotion or he's scared to death I might be an armed felon and he ain't taking no chances.

This is still the United States of America, not a war zone, and the majority of people are non-violent, law-abiding citizens. There is no reason for cops to act as if they are Marines routing the Taliban in Helmand, Afghanistan. Yes, there are violent criminals on the loose, but that's why the cops (especially around here) are paid so well (or should be if they're not); to put their lives at risk to apprehend those people. Acting like everybody not wearing a uniform is the enemy is unacceptable; the reason they give cops community relations courses. It's time the cops listened to and applied what they learned there instead of leaving it in the classroom. Did the fact they jacked up a brother trying to get into his own house surprise anyone? I'm very surprised they didn't beat the crap out of him first before dragging him downtown.

Since 9/11, and during the Bush years, the police were emboldened to "keep America safe" by any means necessary. With all the Homeland Security money local police departments received, most of them outfitted themselves to near-military standards and many act as if they're on patrol in Iraq and the law is a pacifier for the naive. It doesn't help the fact many cops joined their respective police forces just for the power trip. As I've said many times, many joined for the wrong reasons and those who would make the best police officers don't want the job.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good cops out there and I've met quite a few but, as with everything else, the bad ones tarnish the acts of the good. It's time for police departments to realize they'll get respect from the citizenry when they begin to show some. When you have guys running around thinking they're Navy SEALs or Imperial Stormtroopers, there will continue to be problems. When you treat everyone who isn't white with suspicion, you will not get cooperation solving crimes in ethnic neighborhoods. Demanding respect while showing none will get you less.

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