Poll: How do you feel about cops?

[SoftballchicK3]

some people say they have a problem with cops, i personally dont. my best guy friends dad is a cop, and i swear he is one of the nicest men i have ever met. i've heard people say, "oh i hate cops, all they do is cause trouble." if you think about it, there just doing there job. there trying to make this a better place. by doing their jobs the way they do them, their just helping you in the end. think about that next time you try to criticise a cop, bitchesssss!

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

Which is exactly why I said what I said in my edit, concerning the assumptions. I wanted to know why people feel the way that they do. I can understand where you're coming from as well, seeing from your experiences with the few you've run in with.

The issues with the 12-15 year old kids sounds like a parenting problem, not a police problem. Quite often it's actually better for a child to be incarcerated for their own safety from their parents in that kind of a situation. Although, i don't have all the information so I can only say that with a grain of salt.

The situation with the domestic abuse falls on the victim to actually press charges against the perpetrator. If they refuse to give the individual another chance, and instead press charges against them for assault, then something will be done.

The situation with being harassed for being black I can completely understand being outraged for that. Unfortunately, as was stated before in this post, police are humans. Many humans have bigoted points of view. I'm sure there are plenty of individuals who aren't police who are bigoted in your area. The values of the police tend to follow the demographics of the region. It would be beyond wonderful if this wasn't the case and that they could be 100% ethical 100% of the time, but that's not the case. So yes, I agree that the racist harassment is completely in the wrong.

That does not mean, though, that most police officers join the force to feed a desire for power and control.

I empathise with you about the long hours. I regularly work graveyard shifts of 8-12 hours and am regularly up 24-32 hours myself (such as today). It can be a real pain in the ass.

These kids were not arrested for their own safety. They were whisked off the street, slammed into walls, cars, you name it, and then had to stay in a cell until their parents sobered up and collected them, often refusing to believe that their own child had been doing absolutely nothing wrong.
To be fair, they had a record of delinquency. Underage drinking, possession of marijuana, etc.. But I'm pretty sure breaking a teenager's arm because they were "resisting arrest" (i.e. telling them to fuck off because they weren't doing anything) is a gross abuse of power.
Unless there is a law I have not heard of somewhere that says speaking profanity to a police officer requires them to injure you.

And yeah, I am entirely aware police officers are human. That is why I have said what I did.
I have a low opinion on people in general. For all the pretense to the contrary, we are not much better than any other animal.
But I suppose that will pass with adolescence.
Or, at least, I hope it does.
It'd be great to turn twenty and suddenly not be filled with disgust all the time.

I would address everything else you've said, but I've just skipped over the point of tiredness where you feel positively dandy for no good reason straight into the part where you feel like someone placed several trains in your brain just before they were about to crash.
So, it'd probably all make very little sense.

 

[Rakkana]

They abuse their power, get payed for doing less then any other job, the majority of them are huge dick heads. ya, i pretty much hate them.

 

[Kiefer13]

Like any group of people, there are the good ones and there are the bad ones. Generalising the entire profession of law enforcement because of a few select cases is neither accurate nor reasonable.

Personally, I've never had any problems with the police. Only crime I can say I commit is on occasion, is under-age drinking (which my parents know about and are fine with, so I don't see the problem). I do have mixed feelings about the police, though. I can see why it is necessary for them to exist, and it's true, there would be anarchy without them. I can certainly appreciate all the stick they have to put up with from the brainless "FUCK DA POLICE" types.

On the other hand, in terms of D&D alignment, I'm most certainly Chaotic Good [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.ChaoticGood]. I'm not a huge fan of the idea of a relatively small group of people being in charge of telling other people what they can and cannot do. I can't say I've witnessed it personally, but I've heard plenty of horror stories about corrupt cops abusing their power and that kind of thing sickens me. As I said, I don't believe in generalising entire groups based on a minority of bad individuals. I hate the way the police seem to think it's ok for them to generalise though. I've seen it happen before. My friends and I will be out, up to nothing sinister or unlawful and yet, if a police car passes us, it will invariably end up turning around and passing us again looking extra close for any suspicious behavior. Now perhaps I'm just being paranoid, but I hate the feeling that they're deliberately picking us out as potential criminals because we're younger. Not all teenagers are uncouth hooligans, donchaknow, and I hate it when people think it's perfectly acceptable to treat us all as such.

So yeah, I'm going to go "neutral" on this one.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I hate the fuckers. Not because I'm a teenager or anything like that, but they are not what they are supposed to be. They were supposed to be there for your protection, and now they sit there and try to find stuff to pull you over for (probably for ticket quotas). What really made me hate them are the pricks that think they are better then everyone else. I've seen so many cops turn on their lights and sirens just to go through lights because they don't want to have to obey the law and wait like the rest of us. One even turned it on for literally only half a second in the middle of the intersection. I really want to walk up to the next one I see do that and ask them if they knew it was illegal to break the law.

 

[infinisynth]

Never around when you need them. Always around when you don't.

 

[YoUnG205]

I don't mind cops, but then I have never done anything for them to care about me.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Shit Happens

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Its important to have some sort of police force within a society. Unfortunately, in my experience, most of that police force are corrupt asses.

 

[derelict]

Don't really have a problem with cops in general, but rather what the police force is trying to be: an umbrella of protection because I supposedly can't (not allowed to) protect myself. Apparently I'm supposed to call the cops if someone breaks into my house, well that's all fine and good, but what about the stuff they steal and make off with, what about the wife or daughter they raped, or kidnapped, or what about my funeral? The cop gonna show up for that if he's late, lazy, or too far away to help?

I have a perfectly functional shotgun. I can defend my own peace if necessary.

 

[Rific]

Where I live the Police are quite lazy and do not really care. The only thing the police are good for are gestapo speeding fines or waiting around hiding in streets to arrest you for drunk driving. There is more emphasis put on psychological fear than there is actual presence. If there was a state of emergency or a revolution they would crumble quite quickly due to them being so unorganized.

They also have a more sadistic and tougher penalties to discipline the people and put more punishment then what fits the crime so they don't have to be bothered to keep the peace.

 

[AngloDoom]

Judging from your experiences, you got the corrupt minority. Think what life would be like without any justice at all.

Pretty much this. The majority of the police are not like this, if anyone tells you this is general police behaviour then they are talking out of their arse. If the majority of the police were as bad as the ones you have encountered (for which you have my sympathies) then there would be no kind of justice or control.

I know people in the police, one of my distant relatives is a policeman if I remember correctly. While they have encountered the odd racist cop, they've never truly had anyone on their force quite as disgusting as the ones you've been unlucky enough to encounter. The majority of the police want to help their area, community, and culture more than they are now. Indeed, I have myself considered joining the police once I've researched it a little more, just so I know I am indeed making a difference.


Generalising people based on anything is often ignorant, and basing someone's perceieved personality on their career-choice is one of those ignorant assumptions.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

Meh. They keep the criminals from breaking into my house and stealing my apple juice.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

At the end of the day, they're there to protect. They're not exactly out on the streets looking to shit on peoples' fun. Also, a lot of the people who say 'FUCK THE POLICE' like it's cool are forgetting just how quickly their attitudes would change if somebody stole their fucking iPod or something.

 

[Liberaliterr]

The Police where I live are good, friendly and do their jobs well. I have no complaints.

 

[Mechanix]

I appreciate what they do, sometimes. I'm well aware they are necessary, or else we'd all be in anarchy and I'd be leaving my house every day with a shotgun. However, cops need to focus on their damn job sometimes and stop doing stupid shit that pisses people off.

For example, speeding. There is a county near where I live that is so small, the police use speeding tickets to make money. There's this road that is 25 mph, and I swear to you, if you are driving 26, you will get pulled over. Thanks officer douchebag, but shouldn't you have been doing something more productive?

 

[Kud]

I was just walking down the street once and i saw a bunch of kids jumping on some random guys roof, and then the cops pulled up and arrested me for break and enter, and destruction of property, when i had done nothing.

so yeah, I love the police.

 

[Marik2]

Can't live with them, can't live without them that's all I'm going to say.

 

[bioshockedcriticjrr]

Meh. They keep the criminals from breaking into my house and stealing my apple juice.

wow, and i thought that I was the one in a hundred teens who drink apple juice.
OT, a family friend of mine was a cop, and he was a decent enough guy. but I don't like the cops who seem to assume that anyone who was in a car accident is an alcholic

 

[esperandote]

the one i know all take bribe and favor people they know but they also help most of the time you need them