What is it that makes American cops invincible?

Great Debates
41

QUOTE]*Originally posted by 1967GTO *
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We live now in a situation where any disgruntled citizen can obtain military style weapons, explosives, bullet proof armor, and instructions on any form of guerrilla warfare they desire and most police departments are not equipped to handle such power. Few, if any, police patrol cars are bullet proof and vests only cover the chest and back, but are useless against easily obtained Teflon coated slugs. Few, if any, patrol cars carry weapons more powerful than a shotgun. Most police departments provide the officers only with a .38 as a fire arm, leaving it up to the officers to buy their own higher powered weapon.

The shotguns and .38’s seem to be really sucesfull at killing people not armed with wallets. Chalk up another victory for the american wonder cops.

1967GTO, unfortunately cops are ordinary people. like ordinary people no matter what country they are from, some are just evil. A shiny badge does not protect them from the same vunrabilitys that the rest of us are exposed to. I’m curious where you get your information from when you proclaim that corruption is boredering on extinct as well as the vast majority of other problems. To me you come across as another american who is unwilling to see outside the world you are fed by manipulative politcal and corporate bodies.

people tend to buy more when everythings just fine and dandy as you suggest.

p.s. hope you get to enjoy that car

42

Loved that car!!!

I know several officers and their families who work in a neighboring town where the crime rate is much higher than in mine and they go to work expecting trouble in certain areas. Over the years, their force has weeded out the majority of the really corrupt cops and the guys I know will not even take and appreciatory gift of half a case of whiskey left out behind a bar in response to their discouraging frequent fights there.

Some years earlier, other officers I knew would have gladly accepted this token of appreciation.

There is still a lot of corruption at certain levels because the job lends itself to abuse of power, but new regulations, restrictions, laws, technology, psychological tests, and education have cut down on this tremendously. Toss in the car cam and the body microphone, and that helps cut down on illegal activities, plus you’ve got citizens walking around with video cams not only eager to catch some police action to sell to the news networks, but to catch a cop doing something bad.

Now, you get a group of cops who chased a guy through the highways for an hour at high speed, watched him nearly wipe out innocent people, bounce off of other cars, plus car jacked the van he is in, cut across public parks and deliberately drive the wrong way on a highway and they tend to get emotional. So, when they get the guy, if they pound on him a bit while subduing him, that is understandable.

If they deliberately pause to kick the crap out of him, it is no longer understandable because they are supposed to be trained to handle such incidents. Officers caught doing so can quickly be fired. (Myself? I’d probably break both his legs and arms.)

Many new officers joining the forces have different attitudes than those signing up as early as 10 years ago because of public involvement in getting heavy corruption among the cops exposed and cleaned up. One will always find the officer who crosses the line, but whole forces being on the take are being eliminated one after another thanks to public disclosure by the news, documentaries, fellow officers and Joe Doe with his insta-cam lurking in the bushes hoping to get on the news with bad cop pictures.

We want cops to be brave, aggressive, strong, just, incorruptible, smart, tireless, compassionate, understanding, lead exemplary lives, and be human. We want them to go out and wipe out the Bad Guyz who scare us and be superhumanly able to determine exactly who is a bad guy and who is just an obnoxious citizen. We want them to not only correctly administer civil rights, but to take enormous amounts of abuse from crooks and citizens alike. If we get caught speeding by them, we want them to understand and not give us a ticket big enough to pay the national debt with, but we want them to throw the book at that ‘scumbag’ low rider with the greaseball ‘spick’ driver who got stopped for the same reason.

An officer not only has to protect the civil rights of Jack and Jane Average Citizen, but Jamal and Tisha poor minority caught buying or dealing drugs. Plus we expect him to walk into our family arguments if called and handle the situation with the expertise of a social worker, psychiatrist, priest and ringside referee.

Superman might be able to do all of these things flawlessly, but human cops might not.

Still, give me an American cop any day over a Mexican one who is not in the least concerned with my ‘civil rights’, is a whole lot less reluctant to shoot and interested in my wallet. I’ll take an American cop over Turkish ones who can toss one in jail without any Miranda, make one wait days before calling a lawyer and have no problem with operating a truly inhuman prison system. Get arrested in certain parts of Africa and you stand a real good chance of arriving slightly tenderized at the jail, from frequent beatings. In some nations the cops will haul you in and kick you around for being American, Christian, or Jewish.

In Russia, the cops have no problem with administering a little persuasion to reluctant ‘criminals’ with their clubs, gun butts, boots and fists prior to dragging them into jail. They’re not real concerned about whisking one to the hospital either to get one’s injuries looked at.

Yes, I think I’ll take American cops any time, though the British are awfully polite when they arrest you. They’ll even offer you a cup of tea down in the slammer.