Smart-A$$ to authority

[ParanoidAndroid]

Well, I try to treat people with respect. How would you like it if someone came up to you while you were trying to do your job and started being a complete dick?

 

[newwiseman]

I have to laugh at the quotation marks around the word authority, in the original opening post. Implying that those who wield the law are not proper authority is silly because they most certainly are. Also, judging the situation from your own personal experiences not only harms your ability to properly analyze it but will only make you come off as a douche.

Then again, you were being a massive one.

Unless you're an officer with functioning knowledge of procedure or have past experience attempting to apprehend an armed suspect, it's going to be very difficult to judge what, exactly, constitutes overkill. This situation reminds me of when I was in O'Hare and my flight was delayed for about thirty minutes. Most people bitched and moaned, but, really, there's no use to it. You will still be waiting for that airplane and I guarantee that the personnel remembered those of us who took it in good grace.

You had a long wait and that can be frustrating, but, the reason for the wait was a good one(Much like the delays planes or trains make to ensure safety and success of passangers and landings). You're just speaking from ignorance and, quite honestly, strike me as someone who goes against authority because it makes you rebellious.

I treat authority figures with respect. They've been given their positions through hard work or have proved their worth. No amount of resentment from me or anyone else is going to change that they went through what they needed to before they hit the desk or streets.

Respect your local police force and it will be better in the long run, for you.

There is usually a reason a flight is delayed, the taxi broke down, weather is bad, disorderly passenger, runway is backed up. This is more akin to the pilot not letting people on the plane because he doesn't want them to hear him taking a shit, but he still takes a webcam with him to the bathroom.

I speak out because when people don't get questioned they do what ever they want, usually to the detriment of those around them. If the situation was dangerous they should had cleared the street.

 

[newwiseman]

I dont buy your story at all. If you were actually mouthing off to a cop especially in a situation like that you would have been taken down and arrested. With that many cops they would not ignore you breaking the law.

No laws broken I can legally sit where they say it's "safe" and ask them if they're going to go get doughnuts to bring me one.

Well, I try to treat people with respect. How would you like it if someone came up to you while you were trying to do your job and started being a complete dick?

When I take their computer to fix something they did to it they usually are. That's kind of what happens when shit doesn't work right.

 

[Kasawd]

I have to laugh at the quotation marks around the word authority, in the original opening post. Implying that those who wield the law are not proper authority is silly because they most certainly are. Also, judging the situation from your own personal experiences not only harms your ability to properly analyze it but will only make you come off as a douche.

Then again, you were being a massive one.

Unless you're an officer with functioning knowledge of procedure or have past experience attempting to apprehend an armed suspect, it's going to be very difficult to judge what, exactly, constitutes overkill. This situation reminds me of when I was in O'Hare and my flight was delayed for about thirty minutes. Most people bitched and moaned, but, really, there's no use to it. You will still be waiting for that airplane and I guarantee that the personnel remembered those of us who took it in good grace.

You had a long wait and that can be frustrating, but, the reason for the wait was a good one(Much like the delays planes or trains make to ensure safety and success of passangers and landings). You're just speaking from ignorance and, quite honestly, strike me as someone who goes against authority because it makes you rebellious.

I treat authority figures with respect. They've been given their positions through hard work or have proved their worth. No amount of resentment from me or anyone else is going to change that they went through what they needed to before they hit the desk or streets.

Respect your local police force and it will be better in the long run, for you.

There is usually a reason a flight is delayed, the taxi broke down, weather is bad, disorderly passenger, runway is backed up. This is more akin to the pilot not letting people on the plane because he doesn't want them to hear him taking a shit, but he still takes a webcam with him to the bathroom.

I speak out because when people don't get questioned they do what ever they want, usually to the detriment of those around them. If the situation was dangerous they should had cleared the street.

The reason they created a perimeter was likely due to a dangerous aspect of the suspect. They were worried about possible scenarios that they'd likely not share with the public. The police in my area join the force to keep people safe and uphold the law, so I've never had anything but good interaction with them.

There's a difference between speaking out and being a loudmouth. There is absolutely no advantage to being the second. In being a loudmouth, one tends to completely defeat any point they may have been able to have.

Respect doesn't necessarily mean being silent.

 

[guitarsniper]

maybe it's because my first being pulled over experience was Coast Guard, not Police, and they have friggin' M240 SAWs on the front of their patrol boats, but i tend to try to cooperate with cops as much as possible. I would have called a friend and gone "hey, there's a police situation in front of my house so i can't go in. wanna go see a movie or something?"

 

[Blunderboy]

You sound like a complete asshole. Your whole stance is invalid on the basis that they were doing their job and you decided to be a gigantic asshat because of it. Per department policy, if they block the street off, they have to block it off for every single person, and the people around you were just following policy. All you did was make their day harder by being a jerk, rowing your douche canoe down your ignorant river. Good work.

To answer your question, I deal with them like they are actual people...because they are. I've only had one rude police officer and I just shrugged it off. Everyone has bad days (in any profession). I've had far more nice officers than rude ones in my encounters.

You, and most other people have summed up my thoughts rather nicely. So cheers.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I dont buy your story at all. If you were actually mouthing off to a cop especially in a situation like that you would have been taken down and arrested. With that many cops they would not ignore you breaking the law.

No laws broken I can legally sit where they say it's "safe" and ask them if they're going to go get doughnuts to bring me one.

Well, I try to treat people with respect. How would you like it if someone came up to you while you were trying to do your job and started being a complete dick?

When I take their computer to fix something they did to it they usually are. That's kind of what happens when shit doesn't work right.

Do you enjoy it when people treat you like that? Does it make your job any easier?

 

[MetroidNut]

Based on your comments throughout this thread, you were being an annoying asshole to people for doing what they thought was necessary to protect you.

It's one thing to file a complaint about the situation, or to ask them about their seemingly overprotective orders. It's another to spent three hours trying to annoy them for doing what was, as far as they knew, needed to keep you safe.

I'm respectful to the authorities because I understand that, even if they have stupid orders or false information, they're usually trying to protect people. But who cares? Fuck the po-lice, right?

 

[ace_of_something]

As one of the resident police officer escapists I just want to say:
I'm so very proud of many of you for realizing what a poor reaction OP had to the situation. The best thing you can do is be patient like a grown up and realize there are some things about the situation that you might not be getting.

I've had to deal with suicide standoffs (as one of the faceless cops just "hanging around and doing nothing") I promise you there is a lot more to it than you realize.

 

[ediblemitten]

Wow, you were being an asshole. Whether you were correct or not, those cops were just doing their jobs, and from what I can tell following police procedure. You come off as a bit of a attention craving child.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

I do wish I was quite as cool as the OP. Sadly I'm unable to hate people for the shitty jobs they have to do.

 

[newwiseman]

I have to laugh at the quotation marks around the word authority, in the original opening post. Implying that those who wield the law are not proper authority is silly because they most certainly are. Also, judging the situation from your own personal experiences not only harms your ability to properly analyze it but will only make you come off as a douche.

Then again, you were being a massive one.

Unless you're an officer with functioning knowledge of procedure or have past experience attempting to apprehend an armed suspect, it's going to be very difficult to judge what, exactly, constitutes overkill. This situation reminds me of when I was in O'Hare and my flight was delayed for about thirty minutes. Most people bitched and moaned, but, really, there's no use to it. You will still be waiting for that airplane and I guarantee that the personnel remembered those of us who took it in good grace.

You had a long wait and that can be frustrating, but, the reason for the wait was a good one(Much like the delays planes or trains make to ensure safety and success of passangers and landings). You're just speaking from ignorance and, quite honestly, strike me as someone who goes against authority because it makes you rebellious.

I treat authority figures with respect. They've been given their positions through hard work or have proved their worth. No amount of resentment from me or anyone else is going to change that they went through what they needed to before they hit the desk or streets.

Respect your local police force and it will be better in the long run, for you.

There is usually a reason a flight is delayed, the taxi broke down, weather is bad, disorderly passenger, runway is backed up. This is more akin to the pilot not letting people on the plane because he doesn't want them to hear him taking a shit, but he still takes a webcam with him to the bathroom.

I speak out because when people don't get questioned they do what ever they want, usually to the detriment of those around them. If the situation was dangerous they should had cleared the street.

The reason they created a perimeter was likely due to a dangerous aspect of the suspect. They were worried about possible scenarios that they'd likely not share with the public. The police in my area join the force to keep people safe and uphold the law, so I've never had anything but good interaction with them.

There's a difference between speaking out and being a loudmouth. There is absolutely no advantage to being the second. In being a loudmouth, one tends to completely defeat any point they may have been able to have.

Respect doesn't necessarily mean being silent.

If a perimeter was necessary they should had cleared the street. Where they told us it is safe is at least 40 feet closer than my house. My house also has fences and walls, across the street just had a nice view of the action in the upstairs window.

I dont buy your story at all. If you were actually mouthing off to a cop especially in a situation like that you would have been taken down and arrested. With that many cops they would not ignore you breaking the law.

No laws broken I can legally sit where they say it's "safe" and ask them if they're going to go get doughnuts to bring me one.

Well, I try to treat people with respect. How would you like it if someone came up to you while you were trying to do your job and started being a complete dick?

When I take their computer to fix something they did to it they usually are. That's kind of what happens when shit doesn't work right.

Do you enjoy it when people treat you like that? Does it make your job any easier?

Actually Yes, people who can vent usually will admit what they did to screw up their machine, and that really helps with fixing a computer.

 

[CobraX]

Dude your an asshole. The Policemen and Swat Members are just there to do their jobs and everything they did was done in order to try their best to keep YOU, not them, YOU safe. Not to mention you point out you had an Ipad with movies on it so it's not as if you didn't have some entertainment! You acted like a spoiled little kid having a meltdown, not a full grown adult. Then after all of that you come onto the Escapist thinking what exactly? That we'd all be impressed? Grow Up.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I have to laugh at the quotation marks around the word authority, in the original opening post. Implying that those who wield the law are not proper authority is silly because they most certainly are. Also, judging the situation from your own personal experiences not only harms your ability to properly analyze it but will only make you come off as a douche.

Then again, you were being a massive one.

Unless you're an officer with functioning knowledge of procedure or have past experience attempting to apprehend an armed suspect, it's going to be very difficult to judge what, exactly, constitutes overkill. This situation reminds me of when I was in O'Hare and my flight was delayed for about thirty minutes. Most people bitched and moaned, but, really, there's no use to it. You will still be waiting for that airplane and I guarantee that the personnel remembered those of us who took it in good grace.

You had a long wait and that can be frustrating, but, the reason for the wait was a good one(Much like the delays planes or trains make to ensure safety and success of passangers and landings). You're just speaking from ignorance and, quite honestly, strike me as someone who goes against authority because it makes you rebellious.

I treat authority figures with respect. They've been given their positions through hard work or have proved their worth. No amount of resentment from me or anyone else is going to change that they went through what they needed to before they hit the desk or streets.

Respect your local police force and it will be better in the long run, for you.

There is usually a reason a flight is delayed, the taxi broke down, weather is bad, disorderly passenger, runway is backed up. This is more akin to the pilot not letting people on the plane because he doesn't want them to hear him taking a shit, but he still takes a webcam with him to the bathroom.

I speak out because when people don't get questioned they do what ever they want, usually to the detriment of those around them. If the situation was dangerous they should had cleared the street.

The reason they created a perimeter was likely due to a dangerous aspect of the suspect. They were worried about possible scenarios that they'd likely not share with the public. The police in my area join the force to keep people safe and uphold the law, so I've never had anything but good interaction with them.

There's a difference between speaking out and being a loudmouth. There is absolutely no advantage to being the second. In being a loudmouth, one tends to completely defeat any point they may have been able to have.

Respect doesn't necessarily mean being silent.

If a perimeter was necessary they should had cleared the street. Where they told us it is safe is at least 40 feet closer than my house. My house also has fences and walls, across the street just had a nice view of the action in the upstairs window.

I dont buy your story at all. If you were actually mouthing off to a cop especially in a situation like that you would have been taken down and arrested. With that many cops they would not ignore you breaking the law.

No laws broken I can legally sit where they say it's "safe" and ask them if they're going to go get doughnuts to bring me one.

Well, I try to treat people with respect. How would you like it if someone came up to you while you were trying to do your job and started being a complete dick?

When I take their computer to fix something they did to it they usually are. That's kind of what happens when shit doesn't work right.

Do you enjoy it when people treat you like that? Does it make your job any easier?

Actually Yes, people who can vent usually will admit what they did to screw up their machine, and that really helps with fixing a computer.

Congratulations. You have bested me.

 

[Nemesis729]

Well you're a complete and total asshole to start, Seriously some of these guys were probably worried for their lives and you were sitting there like a little kid making remarks. Obviously nothing would've happened if you went into your house but you could have sucked it up and acted like an adult instead of whining and trying to look cool by talking about weapons. Really if I was there I probably would have beat the hell out of you for being such a disrespectful little *****

 

[gallaetha_matt]

I'm pretty sure most coppers are decent people who do a hard job. Regardless of how you feel about the police, I'm pretty sure they probably have to dodge more puke and drunken haymakers than you have to in a day (unless you live in the American south in which case I've just described a typical Christmas).

But that doesn't mean that every police officer deserves a 'yes sir, no sir, thank you sir, up my bum sir' every time you see them. Police officers like most people make mistakes, abuse their authority and break the law. I've met awesome police officers who do their jobs the best they can and treat people fairly, on the other hand I've been detained by the police for a day and a half because I matched a description of someone else. There are cops out there who'll let you off with a warning when you're going ten over the speed limit in an area with no clear speed signs. There are cops that'll fine you for having a broken tail light. There are police that stand by and do their jobs stoically while drunken arseholes scream in their faces, there are police that will tazer you and smash your head in with a club for trying to film them at a peaceful protest.

You can't say 'fuck da police' or 'but they're the AUTHORITIES and that's the LAW' on this. It works both ways. All you can do is let them do their jobs and do your best to stand up for your rights, legally, if they're infringed. I, like the OP, have been stopped and searched for matching a description a few times too. When they tell me why it's usually for a shit crime like indecent exposure (the aforementioned day and a half in jail) or suspicion of terrorism (I had a backpack full of dirty clothes at a train station, embarassing). So I can sympathise with wanting to mouth off at the police when they stop you unnessecarily.

From the way the OP describes it, this sounds like a total bureaucratic fuck up on the cops end. It's as if they've gone to serve a warrant on someone who may or may not be armed (remember the OP's post described that they didn't know this for sure) and some bureaucrat at the station, who may or may not have the mayor on his ass, kept pushing for more and more officers to stand by on the scene.

Remember as well, this was whole situation looks like it was caused by a guy skipping out on an arrest warrant. I'm going to go with the old stand by here - how many rapes, murders and thefts were going on while a bunch of coppers were standing around blocking off a road? How many burglaries were still unsolved at the time?

Yes the OP's actions didn't help anybody. Yes he probably could've been a little more respectful. But have circumstances beyond your control ever delayed you from getting home from a tough day at work? If so they you can probably imagine the frustration here. Especially since this sitaution looked like, as I said before, a bureaucratic fuck up.

And hell, there were probably police officers there just as pissed off about this situation as the OP.

The solution is not to be Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil, just be Neutral. Keep cool, watch some movies, wait to get back in your house. But then it's easy for me to say that because I'm sitting an ocean away from the situation.

TL;DR: Coppers do a hard job but the uniform doesn't entitle them to any special treatment. They're just ordinary people. OP sounds like he was on the receiving end of police stupidity in this case, his comments weren't justified but I understand where they came from.

 

[DoubleTime]

Dude, seriously, this is why the Portland police are so edgy around people. snip.

The Portland police are edgy because the gang in town is known to kill cops, this is Eugene.

Whoops, didn't know there was a Voodoo in Eugene. It makes sense though, especially with their recent remodel/expansion.

Regardless, it still doesn't make their job easier. At the very least being polite gives them one less person to have to worry about whether they're going to fly off the handle.

And yes, I'm aware you can be polite and be a complete nut-job, it's just basic psychology people make judgments based on what they can see rather than second guessing all the time. Those people we call paranoid.

 

[DanielDeFig]

I don't get the point of this thread.
But what we can all take away from this story is that we should all continue to be as kind and polite to people who work in jobs that consistently involve having to deal with unhappy people (anything from store clerk, to customer service, to Police), as they have to deal with enough crap without us making it worse.
OP here seems to be part of the source for that crap, and should really take said lesson to heart, instead of being part of the problem.

EDIT:
To answer the "Question":
Do I respect authority by virtue of being authority? No.
Do I respect people by virtue of being People? Yes.

 

[Catechumen]

The OP has a point. Little harm could actually have occured had he been allowed to return home, and a crowd of police in attendance on a single fugitive is certainly a waste of time and money. It has been said here that the cops are human, but newswise is also human, and spending three hours in the cold, with his house in sight, must have been a real trial. In my country the police are lazy, corrupt and inflated with self-importance; I am sure the same applies in America. If the OP wished to warm himself by being a 'smart-ass', that is an understandable reaction to an infuriating situation.

 

[Sparcrypt]

I always follow police instruction, I backed up to the curb when they told me too. Fortunate for me I still have freedom of speech in this country and can publicly ***** about an ass in a suit keeping me out of my home.

I love how you have no idea whatsoever what freedom of speech actually means.