Originally posted by: Fritzo
This is fine advice if you actually did something wrong. That doesn't apply to cases where you know they just didn't like the look of you and decided that messing with you is something that they can get away with.
I'm going to hand this one over to my wife, who has been an officer for 12 years now:
Hello,
I read your story and have heard it 20000 times before. I'm sure you're leaving out a few details:
1. You keep saying "I did nothing wrong." That is not for you to determine. If you were pulled over, it was for a reason. Most of the cop hating people in this post are probably one's that have been caught doing something wrong. They're the same ones that got caught throwing spitballs in grade school and would cry "I didn't do it!" on the way to the principal's office.
...
So there are two sides to every story. Don't make judgment calls based on a one sided account. Keep in mind that Hitler's side of the story was that he was only trying to make the world a better place.
Police have a dangerous job. They go to work with the threat of being murdered EVERY DAY. If one pulls you over, just go with the flow and be nice, 9/10 times you will be let go. If you're a jerk, the officer is going to be edgy around you, and more than likely get into a situation like the one described here.
This wasn't my story even though you quoted me, but I'll respond anyway.
One line that strikes me is this "I read your story and have heard it 20000 times before. I'm sure you're leaving out a few details"
What makes you sure? Is it your belief and assertion that police only pull people over because they've done something wrong? That there are no cops who abuse their power? As anyone who read my posts has probably guessed, my disgust with cops who abuse their power isn't because of this one account, it's based on personal experiences.
After my parents divorced I moved into a 1 bedroom apartment in a bad part of Chicago. There was once a gang war scheduled in the alley behind my apartment. Over the course of 4 years, I had 3 different drug dealers living next door or above me. My life consisted of taking the bus across town to high school, going to the library, and going to the basketball court. I was terrified of the gang members, but I soon became more scared of the cops. I was state-class in track and felt I could out-run and avoid gangsters, but there was nothing I could do when the cops got me in their sights.
The summer before my junior year, I was stopped and searched more than 10 times, 6 times within a block of my apartment. This was always walking, I didn't have a car. I didn't dress in gang colors, didn't hang out on the street, and always carried my bookbag with me. I was so conditioned that every time I saw a police car, I expected to get searched, and was rarely disappointed. I have been hit with a club when I didn't answer a question with "sir". I had seen them strip search a friend on the street who also wasn't in a gang, and was terrified they would humiliate me the same way. They also took one guy on the block for a ride and then dropped him off in rival gang territory and left him there. He made it back alright, no thanks to them. They once put me into the car when I was at a fast food place two blocks from home when it was almost curfew time. They said they were driving me home, but took some long out of the way route that took 10 minutes. I almost had a heart attack thinking they were going to just drop me off somewhere. I was obviously scared, and those bastards must have kept me that way for their own enjoyment.
Every time I was stopped, it was a different policeman with the same MO. Stop me for no reason, be really aggressive physically, insult me a couple of times, rifle through my pockets and bags without respect(throwing stuff around, and then leaving it for me to clean up), make me wait around for no reason(a lot of times i didn't even have i.d., so they weren't checking that), and then let me go without apology when they found nothing. These things were so common that I would just go inside and be really mad and feel violated, not aware of anything I could do. I led a crime free life, and knew I was one of the smartest people in Chicago in my age group, yet to the police I was an object that they could manhandle at will.
Somehow, with all their searches, the same guys sold drugs for years on end without getting caught. I even made anonymous calls from pay phones to the police with descriptions and apartment numbers, and those guys were always there the next day. One drug dealing neighbor was shot down in his car a few blocks away.
So when you start an argument with "the police must have had a reason", I know for a fact that you aren't dealing with reality. Reality is that police do single people out for no valid reason and go on fishing expeditions. That may or may not apply to this case, but it definitely happens all the time. Somebody who got stopped for the first time in his life may just let it go and be passive, but I know if it happens to me again, I won't. I don't think anyone should be treated like a criminal because of age, race, or location, only because of criminal actions. So if I know i've done nothing wrong, the cop who decides to make assumptions about me isn't going to do so without repercussions, and I definitely won't "be nice" as if I enjoy their violations. Police, like you, refuse to even acknowledge there is a problem, so it's highly unlikely steps are being taken to solve it.
I would think that being a Cop would be a thankless and rather disheartening job. I can totally understand why they wouldn't take any grief from a beered up punk passenger in a car they pulled over for a traffic stop. Like I said earlier, brxndxn actions were foolish and you should be thankful you didn't end up in jail.
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