Originally posted by: freakflag
You know...whenever someone says to me "Man, the cops are a$$holes!", 9 times out of 10 the person I'm talking to is a dirtbag who was doing something wrong anyway. If you have a bad attitude about cops, chances are it's because you are freakin' GUILTY!
Frankly, most of these people need a good smack in thier collective pointy head.:disgust:
Honestly, if it were me, I would give you a good smack back, and perhaps more besides.
Let me tell you a little story. It partially explains my feelings towards police.
For several years, I lived in a somewhat quiet, generally rich and predominantly white suburban town. I lived there, because my parental(s) moved, because I was in HS, and supposedly this town had a better HS than the one I had lived in prior (mostly true).
Well, having graduated from HS, and still living in that town, I went for a walk, in the late summer. It was a warm evening, about an hour before midnight. On my walk, I saw a policeman, and for some strange reason, chose to actually attempt some sort of a greeting, so I waved and said hi, and walked on to the center of town.
I went to the gas station, which also had a fast-food franchise, and got a sandwich. I sat on this sort of landmark near the intersection at the center of town, where I had seen many kids often hang out (during the day) while I was in HS, although I never had myself before. I sat and ate my sandwich, while watching the traffic pass through the intersection. At some point, after finishing my sandwich, I walked to a convenience store catty-corner to the light. I bought some cookies. I left the store, and walked up to the corner, at the light, waiting for it to turn green. See, I actually don't cross against the light. I guess I was just brough up that way. Anyways, there was a cop also waiting at the light. I waited for a few seconds for the light to change, but before it did, the cop called me over.
Basically, he asked me who I was, where I was going, did I have ID (I gave him my driver's license), and then after entering all this stuff into his laptop computer, proceeded to tell me that if *anyone* knocked over that convenience store that night, that he would be coming after *me*. I was quite frankly shocked. I felt violated, that my rights to be iinnocent until proven guilty were taken away. I was wondering if perhaps I should actually hang around, to make sure someone else didn't actually try to knock over the store. Like it was somehow my job to protect it, to protect my own good name. I guess after getting over my anger at the cop for the situation (cop long gone by now), I finally went home, after crossing the street and sitting down again and eating some of the cookies. That was the first, and most definately the last, time I was every friendly/neighborly/whatever with a police officer.
I had also, previously while in HS, been harassed by the police, walking home from school late (dusk/early evening - I often stayed late in the "computer room", being friends with the sysadmin, and liking hacking on a minicomputer). I thought that was disturbing as well. I mean, I was just walking home from school. Why should be harassed, and asked for ID? I was on foot, with a bookbag, no less.
Not to mention, one night while driving home, at about 2am, was followed along the road, up until I turned into my driveway, tailgated by some a** with his brights on. After turning into my driveway, realized that it was a cop car that was tailing me.
There was also someone who actually self-published their own book about how bad the police were in this town, and one of the small local bookstores was selling it.
I also know of someone actively suing the police dept in this particular town.
Not to mention, I believe that I actually witnesses a police-protected drug deal go down behind one of the buildings in the center of town. That may also have been a reason why I had been harassed as much as I was in this town. Thankfully, I don't like there any more, and I try to avoid driving through that town late at night.
Lets just say, that bad cops, exist in places other than just small midwestern hick towns. (Actually, I've run into authorities in that sort of scenario as well, and they were actually rather nice to me, but that's another story for another time. And no, I didn't do anything wrong in that case either.)
As for firefighters... well, I respect them. A lot more than the donut-eating species of uniformed human, if they are even that. The one thing I learned about police is, clearly, their job is not to protect, but rather to intimidate.
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