So you wanted to know why cops are such assholes? Go ahead, ask.
- Thread starter nepheleim
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This one I can't really answer. Nothing I know of in the Texas Transportation Code has any issue regarding those mirrors. It might be a local ordinance where you live, a law in your state or province, or maybe that one officer once got stung by a nest of tiny but irate hornets that had taken up behind one of those mirrors as a child.Johnny Impact said:
Most people don't get shot by police. They say that police aren't courteous or polite or pleasant to be around, which varies from individual to individual. No definition of asshole includes randomly shooting people. That would be more "psychopath" or "spree killer".The Only Gay Eskimo said:
Addressing that point, it's incredibly rare for an officer in this day and age in the United States to go shoot somebody for "next to no reason" and I can't find evidence of one, in recent history, who shot a man "because they're black".
No. Just be polite, and they'll be polite. If you're dating or are close with their family, treat them like a close relationship's family. Police are individuals. There is no hive mind. I'm a visible minority, and police never bother me when I'm out and about in public.Lufia Erim said:
Racial profiling is the hallmark of a bad officer. And I don't mean morally, I mean they're inept at their job. Criminal profiling, which comes off as code in the media for racial profiling, is fairly common. Criminal profiling is simply fitting existing criminals that we're aware of, with likely crimes that they're committing in an area. If Johnny the burglar gets arraigned, released on bond, and moves to his mom's neighborhood, and then burglaries start popping off, then we're looking at Johnny first because of what we know about him.Bob_McMillan said:
As for whether cops are racist. I will say that some officers, and some that I've worked with, exhibited some racial animosity for reasons I never discovered. But the other officers usually step in before it becomes something that escalates a situation. One officer I knew apparently took "Black Hawk Down" somewhat to heart, and was badmouthing a Somali immigrant before I sent him back to his car "before he had a coronary" and then finished the stop, with only mild confusion on the part of the subject. That said, it seems that the older generation exhibits that sentiment more openly than the younger officers, though I wouldn't say I know a statistically representative sample of officers in the US.
Either A) The person is an asshole and is drawn to a position of power over people, or B) The cop forgets that not everyone is the dregs of society when they handle casual interactions.
It also doesn't help much that if you're a law abiding citizen, the only outcome from engaging with a cop seems to be a fine of $100 or more, it's not hard to see where the resentment comes from. Cops in more peaceful areas are less about protecting society now, and more of just tax collectors.
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It also doesn't help much that if you're a law abiding citizen, the only outcome from engaging with a cop seems to be a fine of $100 or more, it's not hard to see where the resentment comes from. Cops in more peaceful areas are less about protecting society now, and more of just tax collectors.
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I dunno about Canada not having a militarized police. Those Mounties do not play.Robert B. Marks said:
But for your questions:
1. It's funny, because in training they do harp a lot on threat awareness and watching people and the overall impression is that anyone could suddenly turn hostile. Which is true to an extent. It's amazing the wide variety of people who just switch over to full on attack mode, though mental illness and substance abuse form a good chunk of that. But once you're out of the academy, and you begin to fall into the pattern of "beat responsibility", you start to get an appreciation for who the trouble is, but also for who the honest folks just trying to avoid that trouble are while they eke by. Officers who take the time to get to know their beat folks tend to develop a sort of paternalistic protectiveness of "their people".
2. I've never been a soldier, so I'm not sure I can answer that accurately. I will point out that from my side, the issue with police militarization isn't the equipment that police are getting, but rather unnecessary deployment of paramilitary units (SWAT teams). Your average patrol guy is gonna be driving a family size sedan, have a regular uniform, maybe cargo pockets, wear a nametag, and have a visible badge number.
In my experience most cops are just normal people who wanna stay safe and do their jobs. At the end of the day there will be asshole cops and you are much more likely to remember being treated poorly. I think the main thing that bothers me is when police officers do something wrong they are very rarely held accountable. At all. Murder should come with more than suspension and traffic duty. Can you answer that? Why are cops who do the wrong thing given a slap on the wrist for deplorable things? I don't mean in cases where its a question of whether or not it was justified like Mike Brown but more like the kid who was shot in his house while holding a Wii controller or the homeless man who was beat to death by 6 cops. Cases where it clearly was not justified in any sort of reality. Why do police officers never get punished for these things? That is what pisses me off. The whole blue code of silence bs that has the people who are supposed to be taking care of us taking care of each other instead. At the expense of citizens.
They're not so bad. People just like to have someone to demonize, and like to think the police are a good scapegoat.
These are usually the people crying the loudest when crime actually affects them.
These are usually the people crying the loudest when crime actually affects them.
Psychological counseling is usually offered by areas that can afford it. Confidentially even. But I know from experience that most police will not get that help, for a variety of reasons. They don't want to seem weak, etc.sageoftruth said:
There really shouldn't be a justified belief that police can get away with murder (as defined by most penal codes). The vast majority of justified shootings are exactly that, justified, and a small element will scream thunder in an effort to convince people it isn't so. A lot of it can be blamed on ignorance of what goes into a force on force confrontation, which frankly shouldn't be something that people become familiar with anyway.
I'm not familiar with a homeless man who was beaten to death by six officers. If you're referring to the homeless man who was shot while he was on the ground, video did show him removing an officers pistol while they fought and discharging it, before being shot by the other officers.Robert Marrs said:
The crux of your question rests on the word "wrong". The officer who shot a kid holding a wiimote controller is judged by 1.) His supervisor, 2.) Some variation of a Special Investigation Unit, 3.) An investigator from the District Attorney's Officer, and 4.) by a grand jury on the basis of what the officer knew and reasonably believed at the time. Someone making dynamic entry into a residence, with the accompanying adrenaline and potential tunnel vision, may reasonably believe that the object being pointed around (the wiimote) is a weapon and respond as such. This is tragic, but until we can turn officers into unfeeling robots from the new robocop, I don't know any way around it. The other would be to cut back on unnecessarily deploying tactical or SWAT units as much as we do. The day of knocking on a door in order to execute a warrant isn't over (even I did it), but there is always pressure to use tactical units in order to justify their budgets, and that leads to tragedies.
Thank you very much for the answers, and thank you even more so for the opportunity to ask the questions!nepheleim said:
If I may ask another question: what sort of conflict resolution training do American police officers receive, and how effective do you find it upon contact with the real world?
Not all police officers are assholes. I've known some cops that were actually pretty nice people. Also my cousin is a cop with the RCMP and, while I've never seen him on duty, I've never known him to be an asshole.
In the academy you can have upwards of a month of conflict resolution. This is extremely important in police training as most urban police probably deal with domestic issues more than anything else, and de-escalating the situation is paramount in resolving the situation (whether or not there is an arrest) peacefully. In the real world, the best advice for dealing with the public is to listen. People will often tell you, maybe without knowing, what steps you need to take (as an agent of the state) to calm the situation and resolve matters. There are an estimated 45 million contacts between police and citizens in the US per year, and we can see from those numbers that the vast majority of contacts involve no use of any sort of force, to include loud verbal commands. Simply conversing with people to determine what's bothering them will usually suffice. And sometimes they just need to vent. I got dispatched to a family violence call that turned out to be a case of sister in law accidentally burned the christmas chicken while visiting for the holidays. Everyone got the complaining and shouting out of their system, apologized to each other and the world turned on. The events were documented and the wishes of the complainant respected.Robert B. Marks said:
Cops deal with terrible people, and stupid people every single day. It is their job to interact with these people while they are committing crimes, during the aftermath of crimes, and if they are lucky trying to prevent a situation from escalating to the point where it becomes a crime. Sometimes if they work really hard they get to watch lawyers turn their best efforts into bullshit and go on stakeouts where they watch bad people with higher pay have fun. It can leave them jaded. Try making friends with a few and be supportive while they tell you about their day. You might make their job more worth doing.
Something that has always irked me is when a cop does something bad or is corrupt the media is there to cover it and generalize all cops as bad. Yet when a cop does something good the media pretty much ignores it and says that a cop was just doing their job. The story about the cop that was killed inside the GameStop stopping a robbery is one such instance. I saw maybe one or two news stories on it and that was it.
Even if he was just doing his job the man went above and beyond giving his life to stop a crime.
Even if he was just doing his job the man went above and beyond giving his life to stop a crime.