COPS: Rudeness Is OK?

The BBQ Pit
41

I think my wisdom is fine, thanks. I have friends on the police force (on in my former hometown and one is a street officer in Baltimore) and they BOTH treat people with dignity and respect. I am perfectly aware of the stress they both go through.

FYI, the second person spoke to WAS a police officer and identified himself as such. He was completely exasperated and rude to me for reporting a nasty accident to him (and he was <b>dispatch</b> at the highway patrol- Is it not his job to take accident reports?)

I seriously doubt 30 more people reported it- it happened right in front of me and I was on the phone within a minutes time.

I understand stress, but cripes- it’s not too much to ask for some basic respect when I’m trying to do the right thing. I don’t ask for a pat on the back and a free fucking lunch, but a “Thank you for reporting it, we’re on our way” would have been just as easy as the condesending attitude I got.

That is just a recent example of rudeness I’ve experienced from some cops. Another was when I got my FIRST TICKET EVER at age 30 for doing 51 in a 35 (the speed limit change to 55 was about 50 feet away, and this was on a road that changed speed from 30-55 6 times in a 10 mile stretch). It was an honest mistake, I was polite and cooperative, and he treated me like he’d found a goddamned body in the trunk of my car. He was a complete fucking asshole over a FIRST TIME speeding violation.

On the other hand, I will say I’ve had fantastic, compassionate treatment from cops, most notably the one who responded to my husband’s motorcycle crash. He could not have been any nicer and understanding to us both and even came to the hospital that evening to see how we were doing.

I don’t expect that above and beyond treatment all the time, but a happy medium would be nice. We’re not there to make their lives difficult, and there’s no need to treat the public like they’re all crimminals or a pain in the ass.

42

Well then, I feel violated, when I was 18 (I’m much older now) the cops used to go through my truck at least once a week.

They’d check my shotgun to make sure it wasn’t loaded,call the serial #'s in, then let me on my way. All this without my permission.

I found out later they thought I was a drug dealer because I had a new truck,motorcycle,ATV…(small inheritance I squandered)

Please…

43

So when are you signing up?

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According to this site, a cop is killed in the line of duty every 39 hours. Is a retarded child accidently shot every 39 hours?

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Thats more a problem of human nature, then of being a cop.

44

In the very few times that I’ve met cops in Virginia, they’ve been mostly unpleasant. I’ve never met a pleasant cop in NYC. Then again, I haven’t met many officers, but the majority of my experiences have been unpleasant - and aside from two speeding tickets, I wasn’t even in trouble for anything.

What gets me is that my sister-in-law (actually, my SIL’s sister) was pulled over and arrested for possession of marijuana. Yes, she had pot in her car. No, she shouldn’t have had it there. But what got me was why the cop pulled her over - she wasn’t speeding, she didn’t have a light out, etc. He pulled her over because SHE HAD A JANIS JOPLIN STICKER ON HER CAR! She wasn’t doing anything to noticeably break the law, he just pulled her over because of a sticker on her car! And he addmitted this to her—she took it to court and had the charges dismissed because of it

Ava

45

Cops are really the bullies you knew from your school days, but now with badges. When the guidance counselors are trying to figure out what to do with the bad seeds, they try to get them into military or police services as a “positive” way to divert their aggression.

46

IIRC the “Good samaritan act” protections do not extend to MD’s.

[lil hijack related to QtM’s post]
Not to mention (with all due respect to Quadgop who I know has the skilz) many MD’s are not all that well equipped and or trained for major trauma. Without the proper tools even an MD can only do the basics. The couple of times I was on a scene with MD’s they mainly just acted as another pair of hands.

I have never seen it but I have heard stories of MD’s showing up and trying to take charge of the scene and making a mess of things while demanding that their licence grants them the authority to demand control of patient care on scene. It kinda does…but…messy legal grey area. Paramedics have a hell of a lot more practical experience with emergencies than your average GP. Everything usually works much better if everyone plays nice and the Docs let the paramedics handle most of the care issues and help where they can.

47

You really believe this?

<Shudder>

48

I agree with the negative things that people have said. I would like to add that:

  1. The police are not your friend and they never have been anyone’s friend - except for young children and the elderly. They generally hate everyone because they see the underbelly of society.

  2. Don’t ever try to help out the police because they don’t want it. Understand that it is a blue collar job (and I have a blue collar job) and the last thing they want is more work. Also it is really, really wrong to rat someone out such as what happened here in Cookeville TN and the dog shooting incident. So don’t call people in for speeding - just use defensive driving. If that “concerned motorist” had just minded her own fucking business, an innocent family would still have their pet and wouldn’t be permanently scarred. The cops are there to do their job so don’t fuck it up and other people’s lives by trying to make society into “1984”.

  3. The police nowadays do something that I think is reprehensible and that is hire ex-military. These fucking jarheads just want to fight a war that they never got to experience and John Q. Public is the only “enemy” they have. There should be a 3-5 year waiting period before these goddamned “trained killers” get out into the real world.

  4. Police should never be allowed to wear paramilitary gear while on patrol. They are attempting, with success, to intimidate the general public with the idea that they are a military unit. This is just plain wrong and I believe it makes people hate them more. Let’s drop the 6 pocket pants and Hi-Tec assault boots.

49

We’re trying to fight ignorance on these message boards. Obviously ignorance is infiltrating our ranks in retaliation.

50

Indeed, when did this place become the cop-haters board?

51

Probably about the time cops started referring to citizens as “civilians” and treating us all with contempt.

52

For another answer, go back and read all of Brutus’s posts.

53

I believe that TECHNICALLY the cops need your permission to search your car, but if you do not give consent it will just intrigue them to the point that they have (or make up) a “reasonable suspicion” and then they will search, the point being that they do not REALLY need your permission.

unclviny

54

I’ve dealt with nice cops and rude cops, so I don’t think it’s just a matter of ‘cops are always rude’.

I think that some of them really genuinely care about helping the public, such as those who responded to my 911 call when I witnessed a man beating a woman’s head off the pavement in front of my house. He had her by the hair and he was slamming her face off the street. Where I live, I’m licensed to carry a pistol, so I went and got it just in case fucktard didn’t stop, and I called 911. I apprised the dispatcher of what was happening, where I was in relation to it, and that I would like the cops to know that I have a concealed carry permit. I made sure not to say ‘I have a gun’.

Cops arrived, talked to me, were very polite and never said anything about the pistol visibly on my hip. They arrested the man, had the woman taken to a hospital, and thanked me for my help.

Conversely, while I was in college, I had a cop insist on seeing identification and knowing where I was going because in his words it was ‘Just a little bit late for you to be out here walking around, missy.’ As I was doing nothing illegal and nothing that would arise probable cause, I refused to tell him where I was going, what I was doing, or go anywhere with him. I had not been drinking, I hadn’t been imbibing in any illegal chemicals, and walking down a public sidewalk certainly isn’t that unusual an activity for midnight on a college campus. He threatened to arrest me, harassed me for two blocks, and finally left me alone when I told him my lawyer was going to want to know what I was under arrest for.

So, some cops are bad, some cops are good, some really shouldn’t have badges, and some go out of their way to help people. Kind of like every other job filled by people.

55

Cite?

I’ve known quite a few cops and from my anecdotal experience not one of them is like this. I think this is a very simple view of things.

56

While I certainly don’t believe that all cops come from the high school bully pool, I do know that suggesting police work or military service to the “agressive” kids does happen. Many of the boys I skagged around with in HS were nudged in this direction by exasperated counselors when career discussions came up and they exhibited zero interest in college. They were nice enough guys, hell–they were my friends–but even as a sixteen year old, I myself questioned the wisdom of giving them guns and training them to kill.

57

Wow

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If no one had called, perhaps those cops would have gone on to do something worse then shoot a dog

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Are you actually reading what you are typing?

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I agree with you, because we all know that flip flops offer the same amount of protection, but are far less intimidating.

58

Can’t give a definitive citation, but I’ll offer my anecdotal experiences.

There are two guys from my high school who became cops. Both of them were total raging asshole bullies of the worst kind in high school. I never had any run-ins with them as they were a couple of years younger than me, nor did I know them personally. I was just aware of their reputation, and had seen them involved in fights before, often against people they grossly outweighed or were otherwise not even close in terms of physical strength or fighting ability.

They both apparently became police officers in other cities. Last I heard about about one of them, he had gotten in trouble for beating his pregnant wife when she had the gall to get upset with him for cheating on her. Never heard about the other one.

My brother-in-law is friends with a cop who was a total bad seed in his younger days - vandalism, fighting, theft, whatever you could think of. Never got in enough trouble to exclude him from police service, and now he’s an officer of the law. This guy’s only 22 or so, it’s not like he was a bad kid 20 years ago - more like four or five.

That being said, I have had some good experiences with police officers, but it’s been about 70/30 bad/good. I’ve been cursed at, accused of things I’d never do, been treated rudely, threatened with arrest, pulled over on obvious “fishing” expeditions, etc. I’ve always been extremely polite, did everything by the book, and have never gotten my ass kicked or anything like that, but I’ve not come away impressed with the attitude of the average police officer.

The funniest time is when I was legitimately pulled over because I had a tail light out. It was in a small, rural town so I pulled over, turned off the car, turned on the interior light, opened the window, and put both hands on the wheel of my car (as I had been pulled over in big cities before and realized this is the best thing to do). The officer came to my window, informed me I had a taillight out, then went to the back of the car and started looking at it. Twenty seconds later she came back and asked if I was going to get out and check it was I just going to sit there?

I asked if I had her permission to leave the car, and she looked at me like I was crazy. I told her the last time I was pulled over was in a seedy part of a big city late at night and I probably would have gotten shot if I had just jumped out of the car, and she looked at me like that was the most insane thing I could have said, then laughed and said it was alright to get out.

59

I hear ya buddy, we should roll this into the other thread.

Cops that drive SUVs!

:eek:

60

I’ve already said that most cops are fine, but what bugs me isthat the bad ones get a free ride, and if anyone complains about poor treatment they are accused of being trouble makers or “anti-cop.” Not only are the bad cops protected by the code of silence, they get much easier legal treatment when they flat get busted.

Here’s a nice story for you, a college friend of my wife’s was pulled over several years ago on some pretense which I can’t remember. The officer put her in his car, drove her to a secluded area, raped her and then stabbed her multiple times before dumping her out on the street and leaving her for dead. Unfortunately for him, the girl did not die. She stopped another driver who brought her to the hospital and called the police. My wife’s friend was able to give a good description of the officer, and I think even his badge number (or maybe it was numbers from his car, I don’t remember the details that well, this was in the late 80’s).

There was good forensic evidence (semen, hair) and the guy went to trial. He actually claimed at trial that the girl had “wanted it,” and that she had told him that being cut with a knife “turned her on.” He was convicted of some sort of assault (not attempted murder) and presented his good police record before sentencing. Because of hi so called “service to the community” before this he was only given five years and got out in two.

What would have happened to some random African-American off the street who had done the same thing? I’m not saying all, or most cops are bad. I just want the ones who are to be treated like any other criminal.

(BTW, the police who were called to the hospital and who investigated the crime, were completely compassionate, respectful, sensitive and outraged that another officer had done this)