Reply #179: Hmmm [View All]

[SouthernDem2004]

1) Racial profiling is illegal now. I am not sure what you mean by departments obviously still practice it. To be honest I can not really speak to the subject. I live in a medium size city in the South and we have minorites all across the finacialand social spectrum. We do not have neighborhoods where a minority would be out of place.

2) Racisim is everywhere. It is harder to spot in departments where the Officers do not tolerate such ignorance. If the racism is not overt it is often hard to spot. I have never seen an Officer do anything racist. They are not that stupid. I have my suspicions about 2 Officers in my department but they have not done anything overt.

Quick story, Police go to training classes put on by companys that do nothing other then that. I have been around the country just attending "schools." At one of these schools we went to a nearby restaurant during a lunch break and myself and 5 other Officers were in the bathroom at the same time. All were white. The restaurant had 2 mens bathrooms for some odd reason. Two of the Officers worked for the same department from a small town in SC. One of them made the comment that, "this must have been the niggers bathroom." and the other one laughed. Now before I could say anything another Officer called them some choice words and they choose to leave. The scary things is that was probably acceptable behavior at their little redneck department.

Departments are different and Police are different. Racisim still exists and will for a long time to come.

3) Traffic stops: It is up to the individual Officer. I write few citations and yet I have friends that write several a day. Alot of it just depends on who stops you. My decision depends on what the violation was and the drivers attitude. As long as they did not pass a stopped school bus or were not driving 60 miles per hour through a neighborhood I am open to giving a warning. It really just depends...
Crying, flirting, or unnecessary cleavage or leg.. thats a ticket.
Name dropping... thats a ticket.
Attitude... thats a ticket.
Unbuckled children... thats a ticket.
Littering (my pet peeve)... thats a ticket.

4) I am pro seat belt laws. Most traffic fatalities I have worked involved the victim not wearing a seat belt. Its not just a statistic or propaganda. It is an actual fact that seatbelts save lives. I see it all of the time.

5) The most common felony is burglary be it of a residence or a vehicle.

6) Violent crimes are definitely down where I work. Murders are slightly up but most of ours have been Domestic related and we can not effect that. The fact violent crimes are down could just be a fluke. They have been going down for years but they are still at unacceptable levels.