# How do you feel about police?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 30, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309 "2019-06-30T18:56:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2019, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/141 "2019-07-11T18:02:22Z")
> [@fedman](#):
>
> You realize that with traffic stops, the cops are working for gov’t and required to enforce laws, not make them; probably many of them have assigned quotas so it’s not personal to them
It’s interesting how often police defense resort to something along these lines, ‘the police are there to enforce laws, not make them.’ Yet in practice, the police have wide discretion whether or not to follow the law and whether or not to enforce the law. For example, if you’re a queer person being threatened by some locals, in many places the police are unlikely to do anything but tell you to act ‘normal’ or leave, and won’t even write a ticket for the attackers, much less arrest them. There’s no law requiring one to be polite to the police and there are laws against police singling people out or just beating them, but if you are rude you can expect at best harassment and at worst torture and lethal violence from the police. In the case someone gave as an example of good behavior by detectives, when the bad cops decided to assault an innocent person the detectives failed to arrest them or file a formal report, they just informally talked to the other cops.
Police actions often do not comply with the law, and falling back on ‘they’re required to enforce laws’ is not a reasonable defense.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2019, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/142 "2019-07-11T18:24:23Z")
Oh look! Another (unidentified) cop [not getting free vacation](https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/10/us/california-teen-killed-by-police/index.html) after shooting an unarmed teenager! It’s crazy how people think the police get special treatment when it comes to slaughtering children.
---
### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/143 "2019-07-11T21:39:01Z")
Cops [like this one](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-florida-deputy-arrested-planting-drugs-drivers-during-traffic-stops-n1028991) who make a practice of frequently planting illegal drugs on innocent motorists are not building confidence in the system.
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/144 "2019-07-12T22:46:59Z")
So the 28-year old police officer who fatally shot the man in Arizona who was forced to crawl on the floor while pleading for his life is now getting a tax-free $31,000 disability pension for life. He was fired and is “ineligible to be hired again by Mesa” PD, but was inexplicably allowed to be temporarily rehired so he could apply for a disability pension. What’s the officer’s disability, you might ask? PTSD from shooting his victim. :rolleyes:
This is beyond f\*cked-up. :dubious:
[Police officer who fatally shot sobbing man temporarily rehired to apply for pension](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-officer-who-fatally-shot-sobbing-man-temporarily-rehired-apply-n1028981)
Talk about getting a paid vacation…this guy just got a paid vacation for life.
---
### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2019, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/145 "2019-07-13T05:14:56Z")
> [@robby](#):
>
> So the 28-year old police officer who fatally shot the man in Arizona who was forced to crawl on the floor while pleading for his life is now getting a tax-free $31,000 disability pension for life. He was fired and is “ineligible to be hired again by Mesa” PD, but was inexplicably allowed to be temporarily rehired so he could apply for a disability pension. What’s the officer’s disability, you might ask? PTSD from shooting his victim. :rolleyes:
>
> This is beyond f\*cked-up. :dubious:
>
> [Police officer who fatally shot sobbing man temporarily rehired to apply for pension](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-officer-who-fatally-shot-sobbing-man-temporarily-rehired-apply-n1028981)
>
> Talk about getting a paid vacation…this guy just got a paid vacation for life.
I watched the video, that piece of shit deserves to rot in prison.
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2019, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/146 "2019-07-13T05:43:28Z")
> [@robby](#):
>
> We had a local case where a mentally ill person off of his meds had a knife in his hand while standing in the middle of a field. He refused to drop the knife. The cops had him surrounded, but nobody was within 20-30 feet of him. He posed absolutely no danger to anyone other than himself. After a few minutes of this, the police opened fire on the man and killed him. ☹
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> I hear about cases like this all the time. It’s funny, though, how often details emerge that work against the narrative of “poor beleaguered schizophrenic just standing there with a knife he refuses to drop, not threatening anyone, and the cops just stood around for a few minutes and then shot him”.
>
> Not that I doubt you. It’s just that I am not quite willing to say “that’s so typical” unless I know that it happened as described first.
I mentioned this thread to my wife, and she found the story online right away.
As it turns out, I got some of the details wrong, likely because it happened over six years ago.
The man was not “off his meds,” just emotionally distraught after a bitter divorce. And he didn’t have a knife, either – just a stick he had picked up. There were two state police troopers who responded; neither were closer than **30 feet away** at the time of the shooting, according to cell phone video.
The trooper who shot the man fired four times. The fatal shot struck the man in the back as he was attempting to run away. :dubious: Despite the $950,000 settlement paid by the state to the man’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit, the trooper was found to be justified in the shooting under the criminal statutes.
[State To Pay $950,000 To Family Of Man Shot, Killed By Trooper](https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-state-police-shooting-settlement-20161208-story.html)
[Salem man’s family to get $950,000 in fatal police shooting](https://www.theday.com/article/20161208/NWS04/161209372)
> [@The Day](#):
>
> …The first shot missed Bergeson while he was facing Hawes and refusing the trooper’s commands to get down on the ground, according to Reardon. The second shot grazed Bergeson across the front of his chest as he began to turn away from Hawes. The third shot hit him in the back of his arm after Bergeson had turned away and the fourth bullet struck him in the back and exited his chest as he attempted to run away, according to Reardon. The fourth shot severed a major artery and was fatal, according to Reardon.
>
> …Two professors consulted by the Reardon firm concluded that Hawes and his partner had ample opportunity and an obligation to de-escalate the situation, Reardon said.
This story really bothered my wife. She just can’t understand why the police felt they had to shoot and kill an unarmed man standing 30 feet away in the middle of a field. The fact that the trooper shot the man in the back makes it even worse.
---
### Author:  [@Win\_Place\_Show](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Win_Place_Show)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2019, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/147 "2019-07-13T07:20:55Z")
For me it boils down to the hypocrisy you see between two identical cases…
A cop gets gunned down in a convenience store by some scumbag trying to steal $200 out of the register? let’s call in the local cops, the sheriff’s department, the state police, and let’s set up a roadblock and get it on the news 24/7.
A poor store-clerk making minimum wage for his wife and kids gets gunned down in a convenience store by some scumbag trying to steal $200 out of the register?
umm, herp derp “the police are seeking the public’s help in finding a person of interest, between 5’1” and 7’2", between 120 and 380 lbs, wearing a shirt and shorts"
The hypocrisy between the two situations is on my short list of things in this world that chap my ass.
---
### Author:  [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2019, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/148 "2019-07-13T12:02:30Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> There seems to be a very different culture among US police, and it resembles the culture among the Catholic priesthood: a bad cop gets protected by their brethren instead of expelled from the group. And this attitude results in people dying.
There’s actually another group that tends to protect their own : doctors.
As for cops, I’ve worked and do work where I do need to call them. Mostly they’re fine, though my employer did file a formal complaint when a cop refused to intervene in a domestic fight. Watching a cop lay into a college student who kept trying to walk past us into the store whenever we unlocked the door to let customers out was a thing of beauty, though. “They are closed. What aren’t you understanding? Why do you think you’re so important that they have to delay going home to serve you?”
---
### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2019, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/149 "2019-07-13T12:05:30Z")
> [@robby](#):
>
> This story really bothered my wife. She just can’t understand why the police felt they had to shoot and kill an unarmed man standing 30 feet away in the middle of a field. The fact that the trooper shot the man in the back makes it even worse.
Did you explain to her that they were scairt?
---
### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309/150 "2019-07-15T01:30:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Talk about getting a paid vacation…this guy just got a paid vacation for life.
Pretty sure this was a matter of what was cheaper, the disability pension or the lawsuits for his now questionably justified termination. Once found not guilty, much of the basis for his termination fell apart.
If anything this is a better case study for why you let the process run its course before taking decisive action that can blow up in your face later.
Granted, I don’t think the guy has much business being a cop anymore, but I can see where it comes out as more cost practical for the city to do this.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-police/836309.md?page=7)