A tribute to *good* cops: Massachusetts
I posted last night about three monsters in blue who beat a homeless, nonthreatening, mentally-ill man to death for 10 minutes as he screamed apologies and begged for his daddy.
Now I just read about some more insane cops who terrorized a fellow for giving 75 cents to a homeless person. Seems like these scumbag cop stories come across the transom almost daily.
A lot of sick stuff going on with cops these days.
But I want to be clear: cops don't have to be awful. Specifically, I'd like to take a moment to pay tribute to some good police, the ones here in Massachusetts.
I've lived in our Commonwealth since graduating college, and have never been nervous during an interaction with any of our state or local cops. "But Manny! You're white, middle-class, and now middle-aged! Of course you have no problems."
Those who know me might find this hard to believe, but I can be an asshole to authority at times. I have zero doubt that in most parts of America I'd have gotten pulled into a cell overnight to get taught a lesson, but here I get told to STFU and go home.
In December, a report was released that ranked states on the likelihood of getting busted for marijuana possession. Of the 51 places ranked (all states plus Washington DC), Massachusetts was dead last at 18 busts per 100,000 residents. The next-lowest, Hawaii, was at more than five-times higher at 106. Getting busted for possession in Massachusetts is virtually impossible. In New York State, folks are 25 times more likely to get busted than us Massholes. Why? I've heard police and police chiefs speak publicly on this - they don't want to ruin lives by arresting people for stupid stuff unless they really have to. And I'm guessing that pot possession is not primarily a crime committed by white, middle-class, and now middle-aged men. And we have a helluva lot of college students here, if you catch my drift...
Remember when the Bomber Brothers ran amuck in Boston and Watertown last year? A funny thing happened after our cops nabbed the younger @#$%er (alive, of course - we don't do battlefield justice in these parts). The country had seen pictures like this:
Many DUers wrote "Damn, your cops are millitarized crazies!". But every Mass DUer I know said "Uh... no. They're cool. Relax. Officer Bradley here is more like more typical..."
Remember Occupy? Remember all the crazy cop bullshit all over the country? In Boston, as far as I could tell when I visited the Occupation, the cops were reasonably cool. If I recall correctly, Occupy Boston was the only Occupy that decamped peacefully after negotiations, instead of the cops descending to bust things up. That's what we expect here.
Until I saw the pot-bust stats, I was awfully puzzled by why everyone else in the country thought we should be terrified of our cops. Now I realize - most Americans are used to cops on power trips. We Bay Staters are unbelievably lucky to have police who, for the most part, are way more interested in getting milk for infants than in busting (and busting up) people for sick thrills.
Anyway, I guess I've boasted a bit, although I've had no part in creating our good cops. I just showed up here at the right time, many other good people made our police what they are. And our cops aren't perfect - I've gotten two bull#$%^ tickets over the years, both from Staties. And rarely, really bad stuff does happen.
But hearing all of the bad cop stories, I just wanted everyone to know that good cops also exist, I'm sure in many places besides Mass. And if your cops suck, know that, come the revolution (which will happen in the next few years, for better or worse), there's a chance to make things better. It can be better. Demand it!
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