If you were really a good cop,

[Jed Dilligan]

anti-cop sentiment on DU or elsewhere would not affect you in the slightest. At most, you would chuckle at the irony--that the rights you are sworn to protect are being used against you, but in a way that cannot affect you negatively in the slightest. And if your ego is a little bruised, just turn on the TV. You will surely find a program on RIGHT NOW that glorifies and lionizes your profession.

What I'll never understand: how, on the one hand, we're supposed to drop to our knees and worship anyone in uniform because they are such violently competent, macho, manly men, and on the other hand we're supposed to fret so much over their poor widdle feelings.

[TwilightZone]

1. Ah, yes, because we all know that all cops are men.

:eyes:

[Jed Dilligan]

2. Are you saying we should protect the feelings of female cops

because they're female? That's pretty sexist. The female cops I've met are as macho as the males.

[TwilightZone]

3. Too funny. You think all cops are "manly men" and you want to accuse me of being sexist?

Hilarious.

[Jed Dilligan]

4. I think most cops are dickheads, regardless of gender

But I also believe the people who worship them are worshipping a masculine ideal.

[11 Bravo]

14. You think that "most cops are dickheads", yet you feel qualified ...

to offer your no doubt unbiased opinion as to how they should react in a given circumstance. It reminds me of those times when Hannity or Limbaugh offer their unsolicited opinion to Dems as to how to deal with a situation. I think Hannity and Limbaugh are phony, pretentious jackasses, what do you think?

[Jed Dilligan]

16. Be homeless for a week and get back to me

You'll get to know the dark side of your friendly neighborhood "peace" officer.

[hang a left]

5. Well I am not really sure the point you are trying to make.

I have met some killer cops who have been very helpful and protective.

I have met some asshole cops that have problems years of therapy wouldn't fix and shouldn't legally be able to carry a firearm.

The absolute WORST cops in the world are the investigators. You want to talk about making shit up. I got a story for ya.

I think the grunts in the street can go either way. I would hope, and maybe it is wishful thinking, that they would have some sense of humanity.

Then again, I have to think, what if???

What if I was exposed to the criminal element 24/7. Meaning everyone I came in contact with on a professional level was a career scumbag. Would I not be jaded. Would not my outlook upon life creatures be affected. I think that it would. Just being honest. There are some bad ass offenders out there.

Just saying...

[Jed Dilligan]

6. That's a load of crap

"Exposed to the criminal element 24/7"?

Most cops spend most of their time writing tickets for minor infractions to help balance their municipalities' budgets.

The only way to be "exposed to the criminal element 24/7" is to be poor or homeless and live in one of the worst neighborhoods. I haven't met a poor cop yet.

[hang a left]

7. Where the hell are you from??

You certainly have no idea what you are talking about.

Let me guess. White girl from the suburbs.

[Jed Dilligan]

10. Mixed race male, live in the inner city

Have been homeless.

Most cops would rather hand out tickets to middle-class speeders than answer a dv call in a trailer park. I don't blame them, but that doesn't make it right.

[hang a left]

11. Jed I am sorry about your hard luck times.

I just have had hundreds (literally) encounters with city police and county sheriffs. My experience has been what I detailed in my original response to you.

I apologize. Just because I come from the street, I think sometimes that most people have had at least some of the exposure I have had.

If all of your experiences have been negative, well then I will grant you that. It must be hard, I am sure that you are not doled out a lot of respect.

I think we were talking about two different subjects.

[Jed Dilligan]

12. If you're homeless on the streets

being harassed by asshole cops is a daily experience. I don't know exactly why you've had so many dealings with the police, but if you're homeless or perceived as homeless they will NOT treat you with respect for your dignity or rights.

I'm doing just fine now but I still cringe inside when I see a police car or police officer.

[hang a left]

13. I am so sorry. nt

[DaveJ]

8. What I don't understand...

Is why people here expect them to be macho men, able to take down a large and physically agressive man with their special fighting skills. They are criticized if they are brute fighters, and they are criticized if they are not.

[iamthebandfanman]

9. Cops are just JADED, thats all

when you work a job like that, one would tend to believe youd have to be come jaded too...
given the fact that its not your job to decide innocence or guilt, only contain and detain, you would hafta learn to not take a side .. to not be overly compassionate to one side... i think dealing with jackasses makes them treat everyone equally bad.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. I don't know about that

I am a good teacher and the anti-teacher stuff really bothers me.

[Jed Dilligan]

18. That's because your funding is constantly under threat

and your personal and professional welfare is highly susceptible to public opinion. This is absolutely not true of law enforcement.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. Yes that is true about our funding

I honestly don't understand law enforcement funding well enough to comment on it. But I will take your word for it.

[Jed Dilligan]

27. Let's just say a politician who suggests cutting law enforcement

is pretty much a dead duck, politically.

[TheUniverse]

17. I have nothing against good cops.

Its just too bad there aren't very many of them.

[WilliamPitt]

19. "Its just too bad there aren't very many of them."

You got any data to support that claim?

Or have you met them all?

C'mon folks. The other side is supposed to be the obnoxious judgmental generalization people.

Right?

[Jed Dilligan]

21. Your perception of cops is skewed if you have never been

homeless or non-white.

[WilliamPitt]

25. OK

Does that mean you can never understand an Anglo cop because you've never been white and securely domiciled at all times?

See. That's easy. None of us know anything, if we press it far enough.

I have no context that compares to your experience. I'm sorry that happened to you. But I can't abandon my perception of things because I don't have your perceptions, or his, or hers, etc.

Sometimes you just have to make a judgment call as best you can.

Cheers.

[Jed Dilligan]

28. You don't find it at all disturbing

that the cops who are consistently helpful and polite to the white and domiciled, may be consistently unfair and hostile toward the non-white and the homeless? Are you saying that's just a matter of perception?

Why is the incarceration rate so much higher for blacks than whites? Can you explain it without resorting to A) racism or B) the fact that cops are more likely to press charges and likely to press greater charges against black suspects?

[WilliamPitt]

29. Reply

You don't find it at all disturbing that the cops who are consistently helpful and polite to the white and domiciled, may be consistently unfair and hostile toward the non-white and the homeless? Are you saying that's just a matter of perception?

Of course I find it disturbing, of course it's far more than perception, and of course I said nothing of the kind in my post, so of course I'm replying to a strawman.

Why is the incarceration rate so much higher for blacks than whites? Can you explain it without resorting to A) racism or B) the fact that cops are more likely to press charges and likely to press greater charges against black suspects?

You think the high incarceration rate for Black men is because of cops? Where does the War on Drugs fit in - a gram of powdered cocaine gets a light first sentence, a gram of crack has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, most crack users are Black, most drug users are white, most white cocaine users do the powder...and so mandatory minimums are racist, and that's that...and it isn't the cops passing those mandatory minimums laws, either.

The Prison Industry, which has lobbyists in DC, and which earns its daily bread through the steady flow of prisoners sent into their system by mandatory minimums.

Thoughts?

[Jed Dilligan]

30. Cocaine/crack is a small, small piece of the incarceration explosion

Last report I read the War on Drugs (odious as it is) accounts for only about 30% of the increase in rates. There is a lot of other "tough on crime" legislation (like California's three strikes law) that is also contributing immensely to the problem, and racist cops, judges, DAs, and jurors ensure that the brunt of these laws (which are unenforceable on a universal scale) will be borne by poor or minority individuals.

You'll get no argument from me on the culpability of the prison lobby (which in my state at least is supported LARGELY by the correctional officers' union, who vigorously oppose any rescinding of sentencing minima because it will affect their o.t. hours). Nonetheless, a lot of the inequity in the current police state does arise from the discretion of individual officers "doing their jobs" as they perceive that notion through a racist, homophobic, classist, and authoritarian lens. Having been both a homeless person and a "respectable citizen" in my life, I have seen how their behavior changes according to how they classify you. You are much less likely to be taken to jail if they perceive you as an "upstanding member of the community." Case in point: I've actually been in a car with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white boy who was WAY TOO DRUNK to drive, and going almost double the speed limit--and he got off with a warning.

[TheUniverse]

22. I have never meet a cop who I think is good...

How is that for data?

[WilliamPitt]

26. If I wrote books based on that data

They wouldn't be books.

Just saying.

But then again, I just got through talking about perceptions and judgments, so yeah, OK, you know what you know.

:toast:

[TheUniverse]

23. Every time there is an instance of police brutality.

There are always other cops who allow it to happen... Why do none of them ever step in?

[Jed Dilligan]

20. They're the aberrations because

cities, towns, and counties are looking for paramilitaries--not people to preserve the peace and defend human rights, but people to protect property values by running off undesirables. And you'll find those special spots in every town where they just relax the laws and send everything and everyone that the better-off don't want to see.