Poll: Cops: Love Em' or Hate Em'?

[Vault boy Eddie]

The problem with police is the general lack of education you need to become one. How can you give someone with a high school education so much power? People out of high school are generally ignorant and have no true experience in life, so giving them so much power over people is a recipe for abuse, force all police to at least have an asociates degree and you will eliminate alot of the riff raff that are just there to collect a decent check without having had to bother with an education.

 

[ender214]

I hate them. Yes, I know they make society safe and everything, but being an anarchist, that doesn't really do much to raise their rep for me. The main thing that bothers me is their attitude, the confidence of authority. That attitude just makes me want to light them on fire.

 

[dodo1331]

The majority of them are good and decent people.

 

[hailmagus]

Due to the recent Gates scandal, there have been many people voicing there opinions on not only that situation in particular, but also on police in general, so I thought a thread would be appropriate, and yes, I did use the search button for "Cops" and "Police" and got nothing.

I find it odd. Because it's been "in" for so many years to bag on Cops "fucking pigs!" and all of that hip cool stuff. But who do you call as soon as some shit goes down? ____ that's right. Mostly all of my experiences with Cops have been okay... except this one guy on hospital property that I thought was going to shoot me... but that's besides the point. I've been pulled over at least half a dozen times, for whatever reason, speeding, tags... whatever. And do you know what you do? Talk to them like a person, don't necessarily show "respect" but cooperate. I got pulled over one time for speeding, the guy said I was doing 35 in a 20... and like a smart ass, I told him, "actually it was 40." The guy let me go and said just drive safe because I told him I had just gotten off of work and I was eager to get home (which was true) Now THAT guy is fucking bad-ass.

 

[Kollega]

On one hand,there's our post-soviet flavor of cops (Miliciya),who bear surprising resemblance to criminals they're supposed to fight. Drunk driving,police brutality,bribes,etc,are considered normal.

On the other hand,there's a British or American flavor of policeman,who try to make the world a better place,arrest criminals on a daily basis,almost never take bribes,and try to be genuinely nice to people in the streets.

So,despite being Chaotic Good,i like police,but only if i can trust them and hope for their protection. Unfortunately,that's not the case with police in my country.

 

[Eatbrainz]

well, when i play games like GTA4 i am known to shout "COPS! I FUCKING HATE COPS! GODDAMN LET ME USE MY PHONE-CHEATS!" so that should be self-explanatory

but the cops in those games are put there for you to hate so im perfectly fine with the police in real life.

 

[Shihan2]

You risk your life, you get paid shit, if you are a cop you probably have trouble making friends who aren't cops - so most of your friends are other members of the force (which is dangerously insular)

The problem is that this results in them taking out a good deal of their resentment on the very people they are supposed to protect - especially the very poor (cough, Rodney King, cough). They tend to prey on citizens, rather than actively protecting and helping them, and send people away for petty crimes like drug possession (which should be treated like a public health issue, if even a crime at all), so that America now locks away more of its people per capita than anyone else in the world (even China). Not to mention the general level of brutality shown to peaceful protesters (RNC 08, cough, Battle of Seattle).

Now, they aren't all bad of course, but I'd say that the good ones are the minority. If your white and rich and in the suburbs, yeah, of course they wont bother you. If your black, or poor, living in the poor part of town, they can make your life a living hell.

Could I ask how many cop movies you watched to make that first point? City cops do get paid poorly, but small town cops get paid the most around my town, getting just under 95K a year. Cops aren't as anti-social everyone thinks, and a lot of them know the populace.

Now, I'm not saying all cops are great people, but the reason behind their negative behavior is because they feel like doing it. Inner-city cops generally have a bad look at the poorer districts because of lots of crime and gang activity, so rather than stay objective they tend to see everyone as guilty of something.

What I'm saying is we need to stop looking at cops as a whole, but rather individuals. Different people have different outlooks on life that can change how they do their job.

 

[night_chrono]

I've had my fair share of cop troubles and plenty of times when they ave helped.

Back in my high school days there was a group of stereotypical jock/douche bags that would occasionally trash my front yard. I called the cops on them, and they would always go to their houses and charge them with vandalism.

However there is on instance that sticks out in my mind as to how cops can abuse their power. On one warm Saturday evening a few of my friends and I were goofing around in a park. My one friend went into the library next door to use the bathroom. We were waiting out front when 3 SQUAD CARS pulled up out front and started giving us a hard time. Apparently a librarian had called the cops saying that 3 teenagers were "acting suspicious" out front. After aggressively defending myself for a few minuets my friend walked out and asked what was going on. I replied nothing and we just all walked away.

 

[annoyinglizardvoice]

I support the cops. Whilst I don't always agree with them, they are doing a thankless and valued job.
To me, the problem is often the laws they are inforcing rather than the cops themselves.
Corrupt and/or moronic cops are an insult to their job and to the civies they're supposed to protect, but were I am those sorts are thankfully in the minority.

The big problem in my opinion is the politicians.

 

[Ranis]

to a certain extent i hate them because I don't tend to be on their side of the issues

but if it wasn't for them there would be either mass chaos or vigilantes taking law into their own hands and I prefer cops over both

 

[AnarchyBurger]

I would like to make a revision to ZZoMBIE13's post.

The police risk their paycheck every day in an effort to make the world a worse place. While there are MANY bad apples, that should certainly color my opinion of the whole bunch. For the most part they are cowardly, power tripping men and women working in an already unfair and one-sided environment where they have to witness some of the best donuts and coffee humanity has to offer on a daily basis and I try to stop them at every opportunity for their uselessness.

I believe cops are all complete tools, they are some of the worst people on Earth. If you want to make a difference, and "Serve & Protect", be a fireman, NOT a pig.

 

[Julianking93]

Some risk their lives to save people.

But, unfortunately, most of them are corrupt, abuse their power, and make arrests that make no sense. Just type in Police brutality on Youtube.

There's a reason they're called pigs.

 

[Davey106]

The majority of them are good people doing good work
and a few idiots should not tarnish the entire
police force

 

[similar.squirrel]

The Irish ones seem to be okay. Not corrupt or anything. The Hungarian ones, on the other hand..They're universally hated.
KGB leftovers.

 

[stabnex]

Cops are people just like everyone else, some are narcissistic pricks.

For the most part I feel relief whenever I see them. Probably because I live in a city with upwards of 7x the crime rate of America's average.

 

[Baby Tea]

Copy are only a bad thing to those who would break the law.
I've never had any problems with police, ever. I've always been respectful to them, since they have to deal with the dregs of society day in and day out, and I don't do anything that would have them knocking on my door.

I find a lot of people don't like cops because they were caught doing something illegal.
To them I say: That's not the cops fault. It's your own fault for doing something wrong.

 

[asinann]

Where I live, the cops are overpaid (make almost 20k more a year than the county average as a new hire) and for the most part could use a good beating. They don't even have to pull people over any more, they just take a picture of your license plate and send the ticket to your house.

That said, the job turns them into what they are.

They generally have to deal with the most moronic members of society more than anyone else and it destroys their outlook on the rest of us.

 

[Dr Ampersand]

I like them since the police in my area are quite nice and friendly and the job seems quite thankless. Though it seems in areas with high crime the cops get more easily annoyed.

Le snip snip snip

Welcome to the Escapist son!/joke
Read the sticky threads, be nice and have a good time.

 

[Oolinthu]

While all the cops I've dealt with personally have been nice people, I'm very disturbed by what I hear about the police doing elsewhere. People keep referring to these incidents of brutality, abuse of power, and corruption and think that these people are in the minority, just a "few bad apples". This may very well be the case, but I've noticed that cops always, always support their own. The so-called good cops, even if they aren't guilty of abuse of power themselves, will invariably close ranks to protect their fellows who are. I believe it's called the Blue Wall of Silence. Ironically enough, that's the same sort of "no snitching" mentality that gangs try to imprint upon their members.

 

[Padfoot13]

i was at a protest against the westboro baptist church. the cops were there and they were very helpful. kept the westboro people from telling us to leave, and we genuinely had a good time. They laughed at our signs (mine read "Bring Back Crystal Pepsi") they didnt even ask us to turn off our boom box which was playing Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up. Thats right we rick rolld the westboro baptist church. When they asked who we represent we said "no one" they asked "so your here to just annoy baptists." "yep" "haha, ok" they didnt act like cops, they acted like police officers.