Originally posted by: fisher
wow that's incredibly ignorant.

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:thumbsup:
First of all, I'm not denying that .. In fact, I believe I made some obligatory pseudo-self-deprecating comment to that effect in another post.
I do however, find it interesting the nature and vehemence of the reactions to that post, given that it is, IMO, largely accurate. Notably, the reactors failed to parse it properly even when requested. Maybe these people are not intelligent enough or familiar enough with the language ... perhaps they took umbrage at my sig and thusly lashed out. Perhaps I'm mentally ill, and my writing is inscrutable. [expect to see that last sentence quoted and bolded as a "legitimate" reply to this post]
Let me break it down, and give me some feedback on this:
You misunderstand the nature of policemen.
From the majority of posters' responses (particularly the ones that took offense at my post), it can hardly be said that they had a different reaction to the OP
Disagreeing with in the slightest, suggesting that anything might have possibly happened even slightly different than he believes, or trying to describe something in shades of gray ... These are all disrepecting the policeman.
Again, I believe I am correct in stating this. Never mind the old but accurate adage "Never argue with a man who has a gun" ... even the policeman here (not to exclude any policemen in this post other than bradruth) didn't bother to respond with even their opinion or observations as to the relative truth of this statement.
Aren't there a dozen posts saying "you dumbass. you shouldn't have argued with a cop"?
Are there a dozen more posts that suggest the only way out of a confrontation (and a ticket) is admission of guilt, humility, and apology, rather than trying to use semantics to explain *why* the infraction or perceived infraction was perceived incorrectly?
Policemen are not terribly intelligent,...
Zing! I didn't specify what I meant by "terribly" or "intelligent". I didn't day policemen have a sub-xxx IQ, or call them "dumbasses". In truth, I was thinking of cognitive spontanaety, in line with the previous paragraph. But wait ..
...they don't have a law degree, and they don't like people who give them brain cramps.
Okay, so "brain cramps" wasn't the best use of the English language. Nonetheless, it is the second half of a *single* sentence that returns to the original thought: policemen don't "do" semantics. [what do I mean, "do"?]
I'm not saying it should be any other way - they generally get the job done, and I do think they are necessary for society,
Is someone here disagreeing with me? This must be what bradruth was upset about. I guess if you disagree that a rigid mentality is necessary to be a policeman, you think that anyone off the street could be one.
but if he thinks he saw it happen, it happened...
Again, goes to mentality. Has anyone here ever convinced a policeman that his inital reaction or assessment of a situation was wrong? Any policemen here that realized in the middle of their "incident" (for lack of the correct terminology) that their initial observation was incorrect? Or, more significantly, been talked into believing the exact opposite of their observation by the party they were observing?
How about bradruth, who goes around knocking on all his neighbors doors, so that he can instinctively assess which ones are "scumbags"? Bradruth, you ever met a scumbag who turned out to be a decent guy? [edit: behavior misattributed to bradruth, orig. source unknown]
.. and the only thing you can do about it is hope you get a good laywer and a friendly judge.
merely the obvious conclusion given the aforesaid.