# Confessions of a ‘bastard cop’, his words. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 10, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365 "2020-06-10T15:21:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/21 "2020-06-11T02:28:24Z")
There is no doubt in my mind that this cop is legit. I have family members on my dad’s side that are cops. I haven’t seen any of them in many years. But I do remember over holidays when the whole extended family was together, they way the joked around with each other. Racist as fuck. Especially my uncle. I remember riding with him and his wife in the car once. He looks over at his wife (from out of nowhere. There was nothing we were previously talking about that would have promted this): “You know what’s great about having big hands? When I’m in my patrol car, I can just reach around and choke the guy out with one hand” (Wife quickly had an appalled look on her face). And then I remember one time he was reminiscing about the one time a black couple from a government house project, asked him to marry them. For whatever reasons, these people thought LEOs had the authority to marry people. So he asks the couple to place their hand over his badge, and had them recite some ridiculous nonsense, and then told them they were officially married. Yeah, dude is definitely a cop. So way could a person know all those nuances written in the essay, if he wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/22 "2020-06-11T02:35:44Z")
That is an important read. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/23 "2020-06-11T03:13:45Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > There is no doubt in my mind that this cop is legit. > > I have family members on my dad’s side that are cops. I haven’t seen any of them in many years. But I do remember over holidays when the whole extended family was together, they way the joked around with each other. Racist as fuck. > > Especially my uncle. I remember riding with him and his wife in the car once. He looks over at his wife (from out of nowhere. There was nothing we were previously talking about that would have promted this): “You know what’s great about having big hands? When I’m in my patrol car, I can just reach around and choke the guy out with one hand” (Wife quickly had an appalled look on her face). > > And then I remember one time he was reminiscing about the one time a black couple from a government house project, asked him to marry them. For whatever reasons, these people thought LEOs had the authority to marry people. So he asks the couple to place their hand over his badge, and had them recite some ridiculous nonsense, and then told them they were officially married. > > Notice he pointedly neglects to tell us the name of “the city I worked”? > > Yeah, dude is definitely a cop. So way could a person know all those nuances written in the essay, if he wasn’t. What nuances? It’s as ham-fisted as they come. And he totally screwed the pooch on Article 27700 (a) (1). I guess he figured that nobody would bother trying to verify it. He also mischaracterized 369i as “remaining too close to railroad property”, when it is in fact about being _on_ railroad property without permission. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/24 "2020-06-11T03:17:58Z")
I found it very enlightening, less for what it says about the problems and more for the way it talks about the potential solutions. I have no problem believing that the current system is broken, but wasn’t sure how it could be fixed, or how abolishing the police could work. This article gave me a good sense of how the system might be changed for the better. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/25 "2020-06-11T03:47:52Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > What nuances? It’s as ham-fisted as they come. And he totally screwed the pooch on Article 27700 (a) (1). I guess he figured that nobody would bother trying to verify it. > > He also mischaracterized 369i as “remaining too close to railroad property”, when it is in fact about being _on_ railroad property without permission. Would you back this up with some links please? (no hurry, I’m off to bed) ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/26 "2020-06-11T04:24:23Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Where’s **pkbites** , assuming he feels like diving into this? I really don’t. Can’t you call out **Loach** or some of the others on these boards who are/have been on the job? But if I must, it does not look like something that was written by someone who was ever an actual police officer. Especially for a decade at that. It doesn’t even look like something someone with under two years on who bombed out of their probationary/FTO time would write. I’m calling bullshit on this one. I’m also calling bullshit on several members of these boards and another [[opencarry.org](http://opencarry.org)] who chastised me over my criticisms of [now former] Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. He was the last Sheriff I served under during my 25 year career there. I retired honorably with full pension before starting a second career with another agency. I have consistently pointed out the corrupt manner that office was run. That corruption eventually lead to an inmate being murdered via dehydration by the decisions made by a Major that was only on the job because of the crooked operation that took place under Clarke. I pointed out a gazillion things that were going on only to be told I was a “disgruntled former employee”. When I point out the things the general population is wrong about regarding law enforcement I am told I am wrong, when I point out the things that is wrong in law enforcement I was told I am wrong. Almost all of you have no clue how ignorant you are about law enforcement, what needs to change, what is actually working, and how screwed up things will get if the changes you want actually happen. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/27 "2020-06-11T04:43:23Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Would you back this up with some links please? (no hurry, I’m off to bed) [Straight from the horse’s mouth:](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=369i) > [@](#): > > (a) Any person who enters or remains \*\*upon \*\*the property of any railroad without the permission of the owner of the land, the owner’s agent, or the person in lawful possession and whose entry, presence, or conduct upon the property interferes with, interrupts, or hinders, or which, if allowed to continue, would interfere with, interrupt, or hinder the safe and efficient operation of any locomotive, railway car, or train is guilty of a misdemeanor. > > As used in this subdivision, “property of any railroad” means any land owned, leased, or possessed by a railroad upon which is placed a railroad track and the land immediately adjacent thereto, to the distance of 20 feet on either side of the track, which is owned, leased, or possessed by a railroad. > > (b) Any person who enters or remains upon any transit-related property without permission or whose entry, presence, or conduct upon the property interferes with, interrupts, or hinders the safe and efficient operation of the transit-related facility is guilty of a misdemeanor. > > As used in this subdivision, “transit-related property” means any land, facilities, or vehicles owned, leased, or possessed by a county transportation commission, transportation authority, or transit district, as defined in Section 99170 of the Public Utilities Code, that are used to provide public transportation by rail or passenger bus or are directly related to that use. > > (c) This section does not prohibit picketing in the immediately adjacent area of the property of any railroad or transit-related property or any lawful activity by which the public is informed of the existence of an alleged labor dispute. (My bolding) All about trespassing. Nothing about being “too near”. [And tow trucks:](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=27700) > [@](#): > > (a) Tow trucks shall be equipped with and carry all of the following: > > (1) One or more brooms, and the driver of the tow truck engaged to remove a disabled vehicle from the scene of an accident shall remove all glass and debris deposited upon the roadway by the disabled vehicle which is to be towed. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/28 "2020-06-11T05:16:34Z")
Ok. Part of what was written in the article coincided with one of my personal beliefs on criminal justice reform, which may bias me towards believing it to be genuine. That belief being that we need to significantly reduce punishment for non-violent crimes while significantly increasing punishment for violent crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/29 "2020-06-11T07:17:57Z")
Reads like an avid fan of Brooklyn Nine-Nine wrote this after snorting whatever was in daddy’s medicine cabinet. I’ll believe some of these stories, like the recycling one about arresting homeless people essentially for money, but only if I can see some arrest records that pertain to it. For BS like, (paraphrased) I outed my fellow officers at the Academy, but was screwed by my instructor and my outings of fellow officers were read aloud and I was accosted over and over at the Academy so that’s how I know there’s no whistleblowers on the inside is just way too generic and sounds like it came from a really bad TV series. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/30 "2020-06-11T07:25:08Z")
And for stuff like this, hell, I learned all of this watching CHiPs, well before Law & Order or the local news: > [@from article](#): > > Police officers will lie about the law, about what’s illegal, or about what they can legally do to you in order to manipulate you into doing what they want. > Police officers will lie about feeling afraid for their life to justify a use of force after the fact. > Police officers will lie and tell you they’ll file a police report just to get you off their back. > Police officers will lie that your cooperation will “look good for you” in court, or that they will “put in a good word for you with the DA.” The police will never help you look good in court. Really? So the cop lied to me about that jaywalking ticket and putting in a good word for me? Those clever guys… Five Doper dollars says this guy’s just a Cagney & Lacey fan. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/31 "2020-06-11T08:37:37Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > Five Doper dollars says this guy’s just a Cagney & Lacey fan. Maybe, but really… isn’t everyone a fan? ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/32 "2020-06-11T08:39:54Z")
I think it’s fake. It’s too on the nose, it matches all the talking points I’ve been hearing from police-brutality activists. And there’s the fact that he claims to have received training from “Killology expert” David Grossman, who has received a lot of negative attention lately and whose name has been blasted all over Reddit in the past few weeks. It’s not like Grossman lectures _every_ police department in the country, so it seems awfully coincidental that the author just happened to have been trained by the one most infamous police trainer of all, the only one most people have heard of. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/33 "2020-06-11T11:13:24Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I’m kind of surprised to hear you say that you think most cops are good, and then to follow it with a bunch of bullshit interactions with cops that are them hassling you for no good reason because of how you looked. That’s what bad cops do! > > I’m also a white male, and I’ve had very few interactions with cops in my life. I can think of 7 total. Three of those seven were actively bad. Total assholes. Three of them were fine/neutral (stopped at the side of the road for car trouble, and they checked to see that I was ok but basically did nothing). One of them was me being a dumbass teenager up to dumbass teenager shit and they gave me a justifiably stern talking-to and could see from the fiery look in my Mom’s eyes that that was all that was needed. > > 3 out of 7 is a pretty bad ratio for someone with as much privilege as I have. There don’t have to be a lot of bad cops to create bad experiences. All it takes is one. The police hassles of my youth happened in a time and place of ridiculous paranoia over drugs and the counter culture. The paranoia was accompanied by equally obtuse methods of identifying law breakers. Invariably, my friends who did smoke grass were able to avoid police scrutiny by simply staying clean-cut. I’m fairly confident that the cops who were disappointed to find nothing on me were sincerely trying to combat the drug menace, and were genuinely surprised that their razor-sharp instincts were wrong. (Keep in mind, this was in the hometown of Don Knotts). These weren’t bad cops, they were dumb cops. Bad cops would have planted something on me. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/34 "2020-06-11T12:56:04Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > I do. I’m not convinced it was really written by a former LEO. It’s written under an obviously phony name, and looking at the author’s profile shows that it’s the only thing he’s written. It reads like an anthology of every anti-police conspiricy theory I’ve ever seen. I certainly hold out the possibility that this could be a well-written fake. I can’t say that it’s not. I’ve never been a big fan of anonymous essays, regardless of what they say. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/35 "2020-06-11T12:58:03Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > [Straight from the horse’s mouth:](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=369i) > > (My bolding) > All about trespassing. Nothing about being “too near”. > > [And tow trucks:](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=27700) Playing devil’s advocate - it’s possible that that was his way of mocking the use of the trespassing statute. Even so, you raise some valid concerns. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/36 "2020-06-11T15:40:12Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > I’m fairly confident that the cops who were disappointed to find nothing on me were sincerely trying to combat the drug menace, and were genuinely surprised that their razor-sharp instincts were wrong. (Keep in mind, this was in the hometown of Don Knotts). > > These weren’t bad cops, they were dumb cops. Bad cops would have planted something on me. What an incredibly low bar you’ve set for them. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/37 "2020-06-11T17:40:15Z")
Here’s some more about Col. Dave Grossman from a Some More News video. The host, Cody Johnson, shows video of Grossman talking exactly about the wolves and sheepdogs. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tuzQrbio2Qw/maxresdefault.jpg "How Cops Are Trained To Shoot You In Your Home - SOME MORE NEWS") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuzQrbio2Qw) This was posted in November 2019. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/38 "2020-06-11T18:42:50Z")
And Grossman was also brought up in the much-ballyhooed Last Week Tonight episode this past week. [That part starts around the 11:30 mark](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4cea5oObY) ---
**Author:** ![Embraceable\_Ewe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/embraceable_ewe/32/3810_2.png) [@Embraceable\_Ewe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Embraceable_Ewe)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/39 "2020-06-11T23:20:16Z")
At one time, I had a job that involved giving training classes in a program that had a substantial number of cops. (not police-related classes, just to be clear). I became friendly with some of the students who came back for additional help and . Some of those were police officers who gave me gifts of police benevolent association cards. Those cards were freaking magic. I had a long commute and a lead foot. Before getting these cards I would always stress over traffic tickets so being ‘immune’ was big deal for me. When I showed one of the cards, I never got a ticket. My driving did not change and I still got pulled over, but all I got were gentle warnings when the card was discreetly peeking out next to my license. I had not been treated particularly badly before (b/c race, class, privilege…), but now I was treated very nicely indeed. The cards worked not just for officers on the city force, but with in the suburbs and the next state. There seems to be culture among cops that they won’t bother the families or friends of other cops, at least not for minor infractions. (I’d been warned not to expect the cards to help if I committed a serious crime.) I have no other relatives or friends who are police, so the pba card thing was a real eye-opener for me. And while I am selfish enough to use the cards when I have them, I truly believe that these sort of privilege should not exist at all. “Equal under the law” means that no one, not cops themselves nor their families nor their friends should be exempted from the law. Cops have been given a lot of power and a lot of discretion to enforce laws which almost never apply to them. And I realize that getting a traffic ticket is petty compared to losing your life or liberty, but there is a slippery slope and I think that our society has already rolled down it quite a ways. Police can get away with killing and maiming people without any legitimate provocation, and rarely do they get any serious punishment for this. No wonder they have a sense of entitlement. Which is to say that IMO, police reform is long overdue. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/40 "2020-06-11T23:46:40Z")
**Embracable Ewe** You say “cards” plural. Did you have to give one up every time you got pulled over? I’m just currious, I’ve never heard of these before. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365.md?page=3)