My blood is boiling. Nobody got beat up but its the subtle use (abuse) of the power of indimidation that gets me so mad. These cops have incredible power to intimidate people. I was getting intimidated just watching them work, imagine how you would feel if any of these cops were doing it to you or your family?
Watch part 2 if you can stand any more. At least there are organizations and citizens groups out there exposing this behavior.
That’s the worst part about all this. You just know that this is typical behavior and that nothing substantial will come of it. I wonder about the people responsible for doing the taping and airing of the segment. Will they start getting harassed by the cops for doing all this?
Most cops aren’t like this, but these are the kinds of cops that make people hate and fear cops. Cops scare the crap out of me because I’ve only seen them be mean and ignorant before (IRL), minus the ones that used to come in to my work for pizza, they were nice because we gave them free food.
TO be fair, I didn’t get that sense at all from the Miami Chief, and I think the cop that unsnapped his holster is probably in a world of trouble at work.
But the others?
Like the Miami chief said. Those chiefs need to be fired.
No, it is NOT typical behaviour. Quite the opposite. But as always in a large group, when you look at the bell curve, you will always have those few on the left side that are the bad ones, the ones that pee in the pool and ruin it for everyone.
And when you look at the bell curve of the overall population, you will always have those few on the left side that take those actions as being indicative of the entire group.
Yet out of 38 police stations, only three had a complaint form, and 14 out of 38 (that’s 37% for those playing at home) were rude, aggressive, unhelpful, and belligerent. Bell curve my ass.
Arrest records are public information, yet when a newspaper in my state did a similar test the reporter found that about a third of the police departments he queried refused to release any records about any inmates in their jails.
While I do agree that many people go into law for good intentions, only a fool would say that police departments don’t close ranks over out-of-the-ordinary requests.
Personally, if I had a complaint about a police officer the LAST place I’d go is his/her police department - I’d go to my city council member or my state legislator. But most people aren’t me, and they shouldn’t be threatened with an unholstered gun for requesting a form.
Why wouldn’t the 38 be indicative? It looked like a fairly wide socio-economic sampling range. To that end, 14 out of 38 might be indicative. Until you can prove that the sampling was flawed, I suggest that the bell curve fits, but that the “few on the left side” are not so few. (referring to depts./precincts/stations, not individuals)
I will freely admit that those 14 or 15 cops do not represent the entirety of cops in the system. However, my interpretation of these numbers are that a good number of stations in the country do not have a specified method of taking citizen complaints. Thus, the officers/supervisors are left to their own devices on how to deal with complaining citizens. With no training to guide them, it could be very easy for the cops to fall back on the “us vs them” idea. In areas where there are clear procedures in place, I am sure that these kind of events are non-issues.
Alternatively, why don’t you point me to a body of evidence that demonstrates that a significant portion of cops aren’t, in a word, douchebags?
I’m sure that the majority of cops are fine and I’m personal friends with a fair number. Additionally, I have a great deal of respect for most of the agencies around here, but reports from the Department of Justice related to the outcomes of minority and non-minority suspects in addition to the reporting of cop-watch organizations and news-media such as this suggest to me that on the whole law enforcement is a profession in need of much improvement.
As it stands, out of 38 stations chosen, the majority simply didn’t have complaint forms. While not, “up to standard,” there were three or four situations which too me were simply beyond the pale, including you’ll doubtlessly agree moving towards a weapon to chase the complaintant off and threatening tickets.
One thing I should have said right up front is that we can’t possibly pass judgement on all cops based on what happened in Florida. That said, does anyone here really think that cops reactions would be so completely different at the majority of stations under similar circumstances? I’d like to think that we’d have a mixed bag, some will be complete asses and others will even be helpful. But all it takes is one or two to color the whole group and that is what is happening here.