COPS!

I was rudely awoken this morning by 3 cops that busted in my shared house with a warrant to arrest my housemate (a back packer from France).

This made me think about the experiences I have had with cops in my life time of which there are 3:
1. NYC 2004 a police officer gave me a ticket for drinking in public (he had yelled "hey you in the green jacket" which I responded to by throwing my can of beer down and throwing my hands up. It wasn't until I saw his befuddled face till I realized he was referring to the now sprinting vandal artist also in a green jacket.) He ticketed me but in my drunken silliness I asked him for a cigarette and his number. I got both. (The ticket was later dropped).

2. Toronto 2013 I was walking home and a police officer forced me to accept a ride at 2am. That was kinda nice but as expected my grandpa flipped his trout at the site of me exiting a cruiser.

3. Australia 2014 after getting very drunk and lost. after a beach party I ran into a cop that bought me a coffee and had a dance with me before I sobered up enough to give him directions to drop me off the next town over (I walked the wrong way).

Have you had any run ins with cops? How do you feel about them.

I am not particularily fond. I see a lot of inappropriate use of excessive violence, power abuse etc. Some are ok as the ones I have met and even a good friend I adore is a cop in Florida.

Have a few family members as cops and friends. Generally I associate those that were picked on in primary school as future cops, so I usually don't give them much respect I suppose.

I'd actually enjoy to be one, if time pertained.

Interesting that three out of your four encounters with cops were positive experiences (I won't count what they did today as a positive or a negative experience, because I don't know if your housemate did something serious that easily justifies busting in in the middle of the night), yet you are not particularly fond of them merely because of their media image!

Just as with any subsection of society - computer programmers, scientists, potato chip manufacturers, you name it - there are going to be good people and bad people. But cops have two problems:
1. They are in a position, much like surgeons and politicians, where their decisions have far-reaching and serious effects. If a technical writer like me screws up, the worst that can happen is an instruction manual has a spelling mistake (and in the vast majority of cases it won't affect understanding). But if a cop screws up (or does something on purpose), people die.
2. Cops are in a position of legal authority, which means they face a great deal of resentment - both from the standpoint of the individual who hates getting a traffic ticket and from the standpoint of the many segments of society that hold an appreciation for anarchism.

I hold a great appreciation for cops - when they do their jobs. In America that was always the case, and I knew I could depend on my local police to be courteous yet firm, tough but fair. Here in Israel, the cops are made up of anybody who wanted to enter permanent army service but couldn't cut it, so they have a well-deserved reputation for laziness and incompetence. But that's still a far cry from seeing them as actively antagonistic. Just like there will always be evil/sadistic computer programmers, there will always be evil/sadistic cops. But in a modern, free society it's unheard of for them to be a significant percentage, no matter what impression you might get from the media.

When I was 3 I ended up in the back of a cop car with a family member for a bulltrout reason. I was crying hysterical and the cop told me to shut up. About five minutes later I puked in his car.

There's one cop in particular who stops every time he sees me walking down the street to make sure I'm going to be online when his shift ends. It's hard to believe that such oppression could exist in my humble village.

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Originally Posted by Chemical

Australia 2014

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Chemical, you're drunk. Go home.

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Originally Posted by Yerushalmi

Interesting that three out of your four encounters with cops were positive experiences (I won't count what they did today as a positive or a negative experience, because I don't know if your housemate did something serious that easily justifies busting in in the middle of the night), yet you are not particularly fond of them merely because of their media image!

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This was my first thought as well. xD Not sure about the media image thing but yeah, weird that you wouldn't be fond of them when they've been pretty great to you. Did you call the cop's number, Ash? ;)

My experiences with the police have always been fine. We had a cop going door to door questioning people as part of the reaction to a nearby homicide (a shooting in Edinburgh is kind of unheard of), he was really nice, we chatted about NZ, Suits, Game of Thrones and cats while he surveyed us and then was off on his way to our neighbours. Very sociable, A+++++, would reccomend for chats at the pub.

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Originally Posted by Loony RoB

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Originally Posted by Yerushalmi

Interesting that three out of your four encounters with cops were positive experiences (I won't count what they did today as a positive or a negative experience, because I don't know if your housemate did something serious that easily justifies busting in in the middle of the night), yet you are not particularly fond of them merely because of their media image!

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This was my first thought as well. xD Not sure about the media image thing but yeah, weird that you wouldn't be fond of them when they've been pretty great to you. Did you call the cop's number, Ash? ;)

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Those are my direct interactions, I have witnessed indirect not so nice. And frankly being forced to take a ride was not a positive experience. I dont like being told what to do first of all, second of all because there was no reason to take me into custody that police officer had no right in making me accept a ride by threatening to give me a ticket for disturbing the peace. (I was walking alone, home, not bothering anyone after the bar and not even drunk as I did 2 drinks and parted). That event actually really pissed me off. It was just a blatant abuse of power and I dont care if that officer believed he was doing the right thing. I said no, I should not have been forced.

And no its not a media image thing, at least not entirely. Its really an opinion formulated from a variety of different sources and discussions. Some books especially took a role in shaping my world views.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics
http://www.amazon.ca/Rise-Warrior-Co...ation-Americas
for example.

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Originally Posted by Chemical

Those are my direct interactions, I have witnessed indirect not so nice. And frankly being forced to take a ride was not a positive experience. I dont like being told what to do first of all, second of all because there was no reason to take me into custody that police officer had no right in making me accept a ride by threatening to give me a ticket for disturbing the peace. (I was walking alone, home, not bothering anyone after the bar and not even drunk as I did 2 drinks and parted). That event actually really pissed me off. It was just a blatant abuse of power and I dont care if that officer believed he was doing the right thing. I said no, I should not have been forced.

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Aha. That puts the story in a very different light than your original description - normally "forced me to accept a ride" is meant a little bit more tongue-in-cheek.

I don't think a ticket like that would stand in court, and that's definitely unacceptable behavior. I don't want to outright say "abuse of power" as it's likely the officer had benevolent motives (whether to keep you from doing anything or to keep anything from happening to you, depending on how deserted and/or dangerous the streets are in that area). But it's definitely wrong.

Power can get to people's heads. It's just a fact of life - we're human beings. If you have the ability to dictate, it takes somebody of strong will and moral fiber to avoid doing so particularly in cases where you're sure you're doing others a favor.

Anyway, do you know at all what your housemate supposedly did?

I have an inherent distrust of police due to the rampant abuse of power I've witnessed in recent years.

I know there are good, decent officers working in the public interest in the system; unfortunately, due to the actions of others, those ones have to work to break through my distrust. I can't even see a police car drive by without going into high alert, wondering how the guy is going to try and smurf me over.

Funny story: I got pulled over for driving on the wrong side of the road once.

I was 8-9 years old, on my bike, and a cop pulled me over because I was on the wrong side of the street.

I've been arrested like 6 times. But not that I'm not running around doing as I please I don't run into them much anymore.

But Ash, you avoided my important question. Very important.

I was out practicing driving with my dad and freaked out at a stop sign because I didn't know who had the right of way. I almost turned too late and a car narrowly missed hitting me. Of course there was a cop right there and he pulled me over to make sure I was okay. No ticket or anything though. :D

I just love a man in uniform.

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Originally Posted by Chemical

And no its not a media image thing, at least not entirely. Its really an opinion formulated from a variety of different sources and discussions. Some books especially took a role in shaping my world views.
Freakonomics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.amazon.ca/Rise-Warrior-Co...ation-Americas
for example.

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This wasn't in your original post so I'll address it now. Are not books a type of media?

I've not had many run-ins with the peelers myself, mostly because I'm way too much of a nerdy shut in to ever get into trouble. The couple of times I have been in potential trouble (i.e. being a drunk rowdy teenager) the cops just told us all to sod off home with more a rakish grin than a stern rebuke.

The on-duty cops I have met have generally been alright and friendly enough and I sure as hell want well-trained people out there tracking down rapists and killers and all that, so I'm not opposed to the principle of the police and I've not had any bad experiences personally, but the way things are set up encourages all kinds of horrible behavior on their part. Even things that should be benign like giving someone a ride home late at night gets turned into what sounds like a pretty scary experience, because the police just abuse their power and there's basically no oversight.

I don't even want to get in to how racist cops are over here. Short answer: yes I have had run-ins with the Po Po, but I have never been given a ticket or arrested.

The Police and Army have never got on well with me.

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Originally Posted by Mister Adequate

I've not had many run-ins with the peelers myself

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Uh, careful there. In Canada, "peelers" means strippers.

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Originally Posted by Citizen Bleys

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Originally Posted by Mister Adequate

I've not had many run-ins with the peelers myself

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Uh, careful there. In Canada, "peelers" means strippers.

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Funnily enough, the paragraph:

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Originally Posted by Mister Adequate

I've not had many run-ins with the peelers myself, mostly because I'm way too much of a nerdy shut in to ever get into trouble. The couple of times I have been in potential trouble (i.e. being a drunk rowdy teenager) the cops just told us all to sod off home with more a rakish grin than a stern rebuke.

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still makes perfect sense if you interpret it that way.

The New Zealand police force are responsible for some of the most traumatizing events of my life, having used a combination of excessive force and negligence to fail to do their job. I cannot comment on the United States police, other than it worries me that they carry guns, and sometimes I pretend to be this guy:

I've gotten traffic tickets a few times. The cops weren't rude, I suppose. One was nice enough to hurry my ticket when he saw I was a teacher on my way to work.

The only bad interaction I've had with a cop was when BJ and I were teenagers. It was pretty late and we were on our way to one of those obscure places at the edge of town where teenagers go to drink and make out and the like when we ran into a dead-end. The area was under construction, and they were turning a through street into two cul de sacs. It was just a patch of dirt at the time and it was late so he just drove over it. A cop happened to be nearby, pulled us over, asked BJ to get out of the car, and just swore at and berated him for several minutes, telling him how he could "smurf up his life" and such. For driving over a patch of dirt.

It was just really irritating.

I've had about 35 too close calls. Ha like that was a joke.

No seriously.

I've been stopped so many times where I -should- have been arrested and taken in, but there wasn't enough evidence / there was someone in the car with me that could pull off being sober enough to drive/ The cop was too lazy to do it all right.

I've also been violated by a cop, but I didn't know that what he'd done was against the law until several years later. A state male trooper did a "body search" - digging his hands in my pants pockets, my coochie (not inside my pants, but yeah), etc. I didn't know until a couple of years later that even state troopers were supposed to call for female back up when it came to searching women's bodies.

Why they're called Peelers

Robert Peel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EDUCATE MOTHERsmurfER

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Originally Posted by fire_of_avalon

When I was 3 I ended up in the back of a cop car with a family member for a bulltrout reason. I was crying hysterical and the cop told me to shut up. About five minutes later I puked in his car.

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smurf da police!

I've had a good few run in's with Police (or Gardai as they are called here). Been arrested twice. Once was when I was 16 my cousin was getting started on by some guys, I tried to defend him, what happens? I get arrested, they leave the rest there, they kick the trout out of him. Parent's had to collect me, not a pleasant experience.

Another time was when I was out in San Diego. I started to dance on a cop car bonnet (it was July 4th :monster:) and I got arrested. But instead of going to the station they sent me to a drunk tank when they found out I was Irish. They were like 'I got an Irish grandfather, you Irish are crazy man!'

Other than that the only other run in's were 3 other times being sent to the drunk tank in San D, getting into bother because I had a fake I.D., and refusing to give it to them. Other than that it's been dealing with them over drunken brawls or something. All in all though, apart from the first one, the police I've dealt with have been good people trying to listen & help. Haven't had a run in with them in years and I'm sure it will stay that way. What do everyone of them have in common? They all involve alcohol.

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Originally Posted by Rocket Edge

Another time was when I was out in San Diego. I started to dance on a cop car bonnet (it was July 4th :monster:) and I got arrested. But instead of going to the station they sent me to a drunk tank when they found out I was Irish. They were like 'I got an Irish grandfather, you Irish are crazy man!'

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So.... From now pretend to be Irish is what I am really hearing.

The very first ticket I was issued was when I was sixteen. I got pulled over and thought that he might let me go on the moving violation I had just committed (making a U-turn without using my blinker) because I had only had my license for about two weeks but he did not and I was angry after that. :colbert: He wasn't a superjerk about it, just unrelenting.

The rest of the times I've been pulled over have all included super nice cops who have let me off.

edit: oh, I lied. Rantz and I had an encounter with a super mean lady cop when an ambulance was blocking the entrance to my apartment for an hour after we had a very, very long day. Suuuuuuuperbitch.

My interactions with cops have been okay I'd say.

I was driving home late one night from work in the countryside and a cop pulled me over. He thought I was drunk driving... I wasn't, I was just tired from work! He told me to be careful and offered to follow me home to make sure I didn't die. I said "sure". Whatever, it wasn't a big deal.

Another time it was raining and I was in a new car for me and I tried to brake but I accidentally hit a lady's car on her back bumper. The lady was a mega bitch about it even though there was no damage to either car. She called the cops and a cop came, but the cop basically told her that she had wasted everyone's time. xD He didn't give me a ticket, just told me I got lucky and to try to be more careful next time.

I'z doin' donuts in my car out by Sky Harbor Airport (there's this like massive dirt area where people used to party on the weekends and stuff right before VanBuren turns into Mill Ave.. IDK if that's still a thing or not.. Anywho).. My car's a 5 speed so the person I was with was teaching me how to do donuts and I smashed a trashcan. Like.. Slid into that MFer and obliterated it - did no damage to my car, though. I'd drank like 3 40's of budweiser (I was a relative lightweight back then) and we left. I popped some gum real quick and of course got pulled over. I'd left my license & insurance & everything back at my apartment, but I knew my license # by heart, so I gave it to them. They asked if I'd been drinking (No! Of course not! with 3 empty bottles under the passenger seat...) and then said something about gang activity and we could get shot or stabbed and I should go home. Which was exactly what I -didn't- do. heh.

I've never encountered one, not that I can recall.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

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Originally Posted by fire_of_avalon

When I was 3 I ended up in the back of a cop car with a family member for a bulltrout reason. I was crying hysterical and the cop told me to shut up. About five minutes later I puked in his car.

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smurf da police!

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I was with this girl and this dude and the chick's son was with us and we all got stopped and some um... Questionable substances were found under dude's driver seat in his car ya know? So we're all in cuffs and shiz and chick's son goes "YOU BETTER NOT TAKE MY MOMMY TO JAIL MOTHERSUCKER!" & kicked him in the shin really hard. It was very difficult to not laugh. They let us go though and we had to walk like 20 blocks back to her apartment in the middle of July.

I don't like 'em.

Cops in central Ohio especially have the tendency to be racist. Try being anything other than white and driving through Grove City or Hilliard, the former town actually formerly being a hotspot for the KKK. You'll get a ticket for no reason, and so quickly that it'll make your head spin. It's precisely why I don't go to either of those places anymore unless a friend takes me. And good goddamn luck trying to fight any tickets you get. You'll get laughed right out of the courtroom.

When you actually need help, the cops always come too late, or say they're gonna help you, but actually don't end up helping, and just wave your case off like it's nothing. We have a lot of red light cameras around here, which are basically used to make money off people who legally turn right on a red light, or people who get caught in between two lights that are about 300 feet apart and end up sitting right under a red light (making it look like you ran a red light, even though you actually didn't).

Yeah, Ohio law enforcement is so smurfed in the ass it's not even funny.

I might just have an innate respect for the police and in authority in general, but I'm 'generally' supportive of the police. Whenever I see them or the police community support officers walking around the streets I like to smile and generally be nice towards the police. Perhaps I'm being naive, and perhaps that is because I've never really had a encounter with the police, but I like to think that the majority of them in my area are good people trying to do a tough job. I can't speak for America though.

Not to say that I'm blindly in love. While I do have a innate respect for the police, I do get angry at police brutality and tactics such as kettling or other acts of police brutality. I do think the police should be, and generally is a positive influence to society but that they should certainly not be held on a pedestal: when they make mistakes, they should surely be criticised for it.

The funniest ticket I got was when I was driving down a state route going east. The highway happened to be heavily crowded at the time, and what I didn't see was a cop had a car pulled over on the side of the road. By the time I got to him, I couldn't get over because there was a huge line of cars in the next lane. He was still sitting in his car so I slowed down and drove past both cars. It was either do that or ram my car into the line of cars in the left lane.

Big mistake apparently. He pulled me over and claimed I tried to run him over with my car, when he was sitting in the car making out a report for the previous person he had pulled over. When I went to court to try to fight it, the judge basically gave me a speech about being careful and how ashamed I should be for almost running over a police officer. Had to pay 250 bucks because a cop decided he saw some easy prey.

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Originally Posted by Polnareff

The funniest ticket I got was when I was driving down a state route going east. The highway happened to be heavily crowded at the time, and what I didn't see was a cop had a car pulled over on the side of the road. By the time I got to him, I couldn't get over because there was a huge line of cars in the next lane. He was still sitting in his car so I slowed down and drove past both cars. It was either do that or ram my car into the line of cars in the left lane.

Big mistake apparently. He pulled me over and claimed I tried to run him over with my car, when he was sitting in the car making out a report for the previous person he had pulled over. When I went to court to try to fight it, the judge basically gave me a speech about being careful and how ashamed I should be for almost running over a police officer. Had to pay 250 bucks because a cop decided he saw some easy prey.

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I'm really not sure "funniest" is the right word here.

I meant to use that word with both meanings, as in it was strange that I got that ticket in the first place, and that the ordeal was funny in retrospect. Basically all I ended up learning was, don't use that highway ever again.

My dad got a speeding ticket once.

He went to court and contested it 'cuz the cop had no proof that he was actually speeding. He got it thrown out and only had to pay like $30 for court costs. This was back in the 80's though.

You can do that you know. Unless speed detectors now record a vehicle's actual speed & the make, model, & license plate number as hard evidence, you can go to court and get it thrown out. All the cop actually has is the dash camera that shows the traffic stop.