A HERETIC I AM
A HERETIC I AM's JournalOne thing about this "vast majority of officers" that isn't mentioned.
The distance from being Officer Friendly to beating the crap out of someone or killing them can be measured with a micrometer.
Entirely too many police officers seem to take the position that if you do not do exactly what they tell you to do the instant they tell you to do it, you deserve to be punished, REGARDLESS of whether or not the victim has actually committed a crime.
They don't do a particularly dangerous job and it is, after all, a job they CHOSE.
I'm convinced that a large proportion of police officers get into "Law Enforcement" (a misnomer if there ever was one) because they like the idea of being able to tell others what to do. They relish the power their badge and gun gives them and if you don't like it, you had better watch out.
What would happen to my industry if truck drivers began running people off the road for the slightest infraction on the highway? How long would I be able to keep my job if I put people into the ditch for not letting me over when I have my turn signal on? What would be the reaction of the general public if trucking companies rallied around bad drivers and gave them "Administrative leave"?
The police have become an entity unto themselves and they have repeatedly demonstrated they hold the opinion that they deserve to go home more than the general public. An attitude shift needs to happen if they want to get back to the point where their profession is actually respected and looked up to, instead of being considered the band of armed thugs who can hurt the populace with impunity that is the case today.
ATTENTION RELIGIOUS POLITICIANS!!!
LOOK......we get it, OK?
I'm taking the liberty of speaking for the millions and millions of Americans who identify as, at the very least, religiously skeptical here, and that number is growing faster than you can grasp.
We get the fact that you feel you and your constituents are being "persecuted" merely because you aren't getting your way with everything these days. What with Same Sex marriage being more accepted, with fewer young people attending Church and getting married (and as a consequence, revenues are down) and same sex couples adopting babies (THE HORROR!)....we get it. You have had your way with various societies for something like 1500 years now without any push back: Now you're getting pushback and you don't like it.
We get it
We know you are pissed. We understand you don't like it. But trust me, America has NEVER been the "Leave it to Beaver" and "Ozzie and Harriet" world you really wish it was. Just ask the next 70 year old black man you meet if he looks back on the 1950's with great fondness.
So....take a deep breath, realize no one, and I mean NO ONE has tried to close the church you so regularly (religiously) attend, and believe what the fuck you want to believe. Knock yourself out. It's OK with us, really. No one is persecuting you simply because they don't agree with the way you think society should operate. If I ask you to stop hitting me with your cross, it doesn't mean I am intolerant. It means I want you to stop hitting me with your cross.
We think, as sentient beings in a relatively scientifically advanced society, you are being rather silly to take so seriously a bronze age myth system such that it compels you to enact laws affecting the well being of total strangers, or laws that allow people who think like you do, a diminishing demographic to be sure, a license to legally act on the hate they feel for their fellow Americans, laws that the American people a mere 30 years ago would have rejected out of hand as being absurd, but that is not the point.
We get it.
You feel threatened.
Just stop worrying.
Go to your church every sunday, compare clothing or whatever it is you do, ridicule those of us who don't think like you to your hearts content and GET ON WITH YOUR LIVES! Not to mention, do the job you were elected to do, GOVERNING!
Stop enacting laws that do nothing but hurt people who have done nothing to you, merely because that's what you think some guy from Palestine 2000 years ago would have done.
All we really want is for you to stop being such pushy assholes about the whole thing and just let everyone lives their lives as they see fit, for crying out loud!
How hard is that?
Profile Information
Name: SchmengieGender: Male
Hometown: Podunk, FL
Home country: USA
Current location: Various.
Member since: Mon Aug 4, 2003, 03:56 PM
Number of posts: 24,365