Even if your job is dangerous, or you had a bad day, or if your buddy is the one breaking the law. Doubly so for the people with the power to enforce the law.

Let all the people carry guns too. Peace through overwhelming firepower.

But you’re missing the point. The problem is not that there are bad cops, per se — bluntly put, it happens. You get bad apples in the barrels sometimes. The problem right now is that nobody is taking action against those bad apples. The police close ranks, the offending personnel get slaps on the wrist, and nobody bothers to ask ‘Gee, is this a chronic issue?’.

What’s more, this sort of thing is permeating our justice system and corroding it like acid. Read up on the Duke lacrosse case, and realize that if the defendants hadn’t had good legal representation, they’d have been crushed underfoot. And as I commented to a friend, ‘That moron Nifong just guaranteed a review and appeal of everybody he convicted over the last twenty years’. And they’d be right to demand one, because of the sheer scale of what happened!

The rule of law does not mean ‘you have to play by the rules’. It means ‘EVERYONE plays by the rules’.

“horse shit” is a little strong. my post was anti-name calling.

but i will answer your statement with a question … even if the violence is inescapable because of where i live and my relation to drugs (please see my second post), how does a SWAT team put an end to the problem of “people get caught in the cross fire all the time” ?

do we put a shotgun armed police officer on every street corner?

that is called a police state. i doubt anyone here likes that.

To reiterate points already made here and elsewhere on this blog many times over . . .

No one here is saying that all cops are bad or bullies or anything else negative.

Speaking for myself, it’s the attitude in general that I have a serious problem with. Equating police officers to soldiers is indicative of how the LEO community has been viewing the general populace over the course of the last few decades. This is a very dangerous mindset and continues to lay the groundwork for future trampling of our rights as citizens. It will only get worse.

When you are likening yourself to a military organization but your job is to ‘Protect And To Serve’ (like it’s written on the fucking cars) – don’t you think that initial mission could get perverted into a mission like an occupying army would have? Say, ‘To Seek And Destroy’? That is more in line with the military does. Fuck that. Not the police. But that is happening and we are seeing the consequences of this frame of mind almost every fucking day now. Innocent citizens (police officers are citizens too) are dying because of it.

You folks who don’t see this as a big deal can’t see how disturbing this whole trend is? How fucking serious as a heart attack it is?

What will you do when the police break into your house by mistake and kill your dog, or God forbid, your spouse? No, no. That won’t happen. That shit only happens to other people. People in the news. People you don’t know. But it will NEVER happen to you because you’re a good citizen.

Wake the fuck up.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 10 most dangerous jobs in America are: 1 – Fisherman, 2 – Pilot, 3 – Timber Cutter, 4 – Structural Metal Worker, 5 – Waste Collector, 6 – Farmer / Rancher, 7 – Power Line Worker, 8 – Miner, 9 – Roofer, 10 – Truck Driver.

Police Officer isn’t even on the list…

Cops that indicate that they have to make, “split-second, life-and-death decisions” on a regular basis, are either delusional or watching entirely too much television…

According to Pshrinks, cops ARE in the highest risk category for Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, Divorce and Suicide…

It would also be helpful (in reducing the fear that citizens have for them), if the police would stop; 1) murdering unarmed citizens, 2) raiding the wrong addresses, and 3) shooting dogs that bark at them…

Learn from history; the last time Nazis were out of control, it took over 30 million human lives to rein them in…

I’m sure some cops are bullies. But i dont think it’s as many as you think. I’ve only had interactions with police a handful of times, mostly the ‘traffic ticket’ type interactions. ALL of the time they’ve always been polite and professional.

#37 Radley Balko: I’m not saying the analogy between police and solider is perfect. But i do think there are some similarities. I dont know anything about the PBA so maybe there are some other issues with them that make this bumper sticker worse if you know about those issues. For me, not knowing anything about them, i dont find the bumper sticker all that bad. Sure, it’s not a perfect analogy. But when i look at it, all i see is someone trying to say we have two guys wearing different uniforms and they are both supposed to protect me and they both might get hurt while doing that.

#38 clubmedsux: I never said anything about putting cops on a pedestal or not holding them to standards. It just seems to me people are more likely to complain about cops without considering anything that cops have to deal with sometimes. I’m not saying cops deserve special treatment. And i’m not saying any of those other jobs are less important or dangerous. (piloting is a more dangerous job then being a cop?) But it’s clear to me from some of the replies here that some people consider the cops to be nothing more then criminals with badges. Thats the part i disagree with. Sure some cops are bad – in any profession some will be bad – but for the most part i think most of them are decent.

Excellent point. My understanding is cops have less antipathy for criminals than they do the so-called “rat bastards.”

Hey dsmallwood (post #32)

This is horse shit. I’m not saying that there is a criminal around every corner, but depending on where you live, and the amount of money you make, violent crime of a random sort is very real. It might be “drug” or “gang” related, but people get caught in the cross fire all the time. In Chicago, for example, a huge portion of the people killed are 18 or younger. Are all those kids staying out of trouble? No, but some are, and the ones who aren’t may be in gangs, but in some areas that’s about the only option if you don’t want to be targeted yourself (that’s not a justification, it’s just a fact).

It’s easy to sit and say that most people who get killed put themselves in the situation when you probably live in a pretty comfortable area, at least relative to where most violent crime takes place. I’m making that assumption because you have the luxury of sitting around and commenting on the web, as do I (sorry if I’m wrong). But just because it doesn’t effect you doesn’t mean it’s not real.

And to be honest, the reason it’s somewhat contained is because of what these cops are doing, right or wrong. Again, that’s not a justification, just the way it is.

Then after you’ve watched ten or twenty of those, I want you to keep those firmly in your mind as you realize their fellow officers closed ranks to protect them. Nothing was done to these police for using “less lethal” weapons on a random citizen for the hell of it. (The word “less” is important by the way. People do die from being tazed down. I once got into an argument with a friend that a tazer wouldn’t stop a person as well as a gun. That argument ended in us buying a tazer and him popping me with it at my request. He won the argument. It’s agonizing. And used in anything but the heat of combat, it’s very much an instrument of torture.)

Want to know why people don’t like police in general? The Blue Code of Silence is why. Let’s say Bob and Bill are cops. Bob is a “Good” cop. Bill is a “bad” cop. Bill tortures someone because he likes the way they scream. Bob covers up for him. Bob is just as bad as Bill.

All that said, there are good cops. Though I worry about them less for the criminals they face than because of what their fellow cops will level at them the first time they speak out.

I agree. American cops are getting worse, but I think what you saw of Japan was pretty surface level, if I can assume that you’re non-Japanese and don’t speak the language. I even had my house raided at 6 a.m. by immigration and police who assumed that my roommates and I were illegal. The reason it works in Japan is that the people here have no respect for their own rights and let the cops walk all over them, so the cops don’t have to act like assholes to get their way. If the people would stick up for themselves it would be just like in America.

Guess no one here got the point.

That has got to be one of the most ironic posts I have ever read here.

Cops “bow to you on the street” in Japan? How long have you been in Japan?

The cops here are good at diffusing bad situations by staying calm, and don’t mind giving directions when you’re lost, but they’re also insufferable pricks like most cops worldwide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77tqaz_Vjuk

the people who support the police-as-a-form-of-soldier logic usually point to the violence inflicted on members of the police force as a justification of police militarization.

please remember, law enforcement is a noble job and that we are all sympathetic to the price the officers pay … but much of this cost could be eliminated if we got rid of our drug prohibitions … but groups like law enforcement seem to always oppose decriminalization … when is the last time a Budweiser rep shot a cop?

I can’t be sympathetic to their “WE’RE AT WAR” argument if they do all they can to prolong the war. one good piece of legislation and BANG, no more cops killed due to drug violence.

police officers … any takers on this?