Flex Your Rights

[Ranylyn]

All of my encounters with police so far have been sympathetic, professional and respectful. The people in my life who are most vociferous in their disliking of police have extensive criminal backgrounds (mostly for drugs). Make of that what you will.

Minus the second part, my experiences have been the same.

My cousin, though, let's call him Tom... He's in a punk rock band, mid 20's, has a funky beard going on. He's cool and all, but he's hardly the clean shaven suit wearing "ideal" office worker or whatever. The cops harass him to no end simply because he "looks scummy" in his sleeveless tops and tattered cargos (whereas I'm generally safe because I wear nice suits, probably?)

So one day he was out on the front porch with his son. A cop comes up and starts cursing him out. Full on swears. In front of his son. For plaguing society and abusing the system. Just because he LOOKS ratty. But he actually makes decent money at his gigs and can pay for a 2 bedroom apartment and support his son all on his own. But NOOOOO, because of the type of beard he has, surely he MUST be abusing welfare!

You will never convince this guy that "all cops are bastards" is false. And I've seen these stories happen with my own eyes as well. I've actually been threatened with charges for asking the cop to leave my cousin alone because he didn't do anything wrong. Yes, this guy was once a high school dropout, but he went back and finished. He turned his life around. And because his band doesn't wear nice suits, he gets targeted. It's sickening.

 

[Faladorian]

The police are your enemy. They don't represent you. They rarely protect you. They're more than happy to fuck around with your head and try to screw up your day. They serve to protect the state's monopoly on violence and enforce it.

Screw 'em.

Everything enclosed within is true.

Fuck the police. They're power-hungry ego-tripping megalomaniacs who feel like they're not doing their job if they don't throw a petty criminal in jail with a rapist over the weekend so they can get the pulp beaten out of them by Monday. Our justice system is a pile of crap.