Don’t forget teachers. Among some circles they seem to walk on water.
Marc
Be thankful you’ve never lived in a country where the police were the willing agents of a murderous, torturous, brutal, racist regime, then. At least your US cops don’t work for your Govt. directly.
Cops. Feh! They have to earn my respect, and they have to work harder at it because they’re coming with a built-in negative amount of respect. I’ve come across many who have my respect, since, but 20+ years of experience goes first still.
police and fire always have strong public support in our neck otw, in the case of a small nearby town i dont think the residents know just how much the public safety dept really siphons from the budget, its a police state over there! any wonder there is no money for economic development so its a quiet sedate town with nothing going on. In need of a full force and cadet program? and training programs for citizen cops?
From my experience, some cops are disliked because they were the same people who were bullies in high school, but now they’re bullies with a badge and a gun.
Secondly, from my experience life isn’t black and white; the facts are usually gray. To too many cops, everything is black and white. Once a cop has facts that he likes he/she very seldom considers any others that may contradict his already formed opinion.
Two things come to mind.
First, police officers operate “under the color of law.” That is, the very fact that they wear badges gives them a level of respect that they don’t have to earn, but is bestowed on them, ideally by We the People. (Besides, anyone who doesn’t speak respectfully to someone wearing a badge and carrying a gun is just a fool.)
Second, I disagree that police officers really do get even the respect due most of them. I think that a combination of bad television shows, police corruption (rare but destructive when it exists) and disintegration of traditional community values has led to widespread disrespect for police officers.
Cops deserve respect just from the simple fact of the view their job has. The drug dealers, crack-whore moms, killer kids, domestic abuse, and on and on. I mean they see the absolute worse that people do to each other. Then they try and defend us from that. How can you not respect that?
Now, when that same Cop pulls my ass over for speeding, yeah, I hate him them. But still a respectful hate!
Very nicely put. The only thing I can add is that, because the pedestal I put these people on is very high, they have a hard fall when they do fall. There is nothing lower, imo, than a dirty cop, or a bad soldier, or an arsenous fireman.
Ehh, they get some respect really because their job sucks more than mine does, most of the time.
Unfortuneately, everone I know that wanted to be a cop wanted to be one for the wrong reasons. I stopped knowing those two people before they actually became cops. I have known 2 other cops well enough to say I know them, and they are allright people on an individual level. In my experience with police as a group, they leave much to be desired. I have been pulled over more than 30 times ( I have a lead foot ). About 1/3 of them seem to be good cops, just wanting to do their job. These cops do ask useful questions, that pertain to the crime that they have reason to suspect you were committing. The other 2/3 were working to be supercop. They ask inane questions about your life ( I was once asked detailed questions about every tool that I was carrying in a #$%^ 30 year old car, the answer every time was “It’s to fix the car!” ), detain you for much longer than is necessary, search your car for drugs. (They guessed right once out of fifteen searches, when I was young.) Maybe it is just the technique of treating every traffic stop as a reason to investigate your life that I have a problem with, but it really makes it hard to consider the first when experiencing the latter.
Couple this with when I have actually needed a cop, they were worthless for protection, and ineffective at apprehending a suspect, much less conviction. The result is that in my opinon, the system is too screwed up for me to have greater respect for a police officer than an average citizen.
Cops have volunteered to put their life in danger every day.
Even if they haven’t actually been put into a dangerous situation(yet) they know the risk is always there every time they pull over a motorist for a traffic offence or walk down a street.
They frequently are subjected to traumatic sights in the aftermath of road traffic and other accidents,dying children ,mangled bodies and other things that most people never have to endure even once let alone regulary.
Another poster has pointed out the constraints on who police can and and cannot befriend,but also in their personal life they(and their close families) are always "on trial "by M.O.T.P. even off duty.
They cant be seen to be drunk,get into debt,throw litter,respond abusively to an offensive asshole giving them hassle and many other acts of social behaviour that the rest of us have all done at some time in their adult lives. or else they experience extreme disapproval from society in general.
Yes some police do act in this way sometimes becuse when all is said and done they are only human.
I’m speaking from my experiences (as a M.o.t.P)with U.K. and U.S. police mostly and some european forces but I concede that I have come across police forces in some 3rd world countries where the officers are quite frankly no different from criminals themselves and being able to be an official bully seems to be the main motivation for enlistment.
All I can think of for “M.O.T.P.” is “man of the people.” That can’t be right, though.
My friend, I have. India cops are not the worst in the world by any means but they are not good. They are allowed to pretty much get away with anything - bribery, beatings, embezzlement, what’s the other word? extortion, and rape.
Please don’t assume I know nothing of bad cops. That doesn’t mean they all are. And yes, I am extremely grateful for US cops.
Personally, I feel just about everybody deserves a basic modicum of respect (subject to modification based on their actions). I agree with Robert Heinlein’s statement (paraphrased here) that politeness and respect are the lubrication that keeps the wheels of society working, and I don’t understand why so many people object to it.
On the specific subject of cops, I feel that a good cop deserves more respect than a good member of most other professions, but a bad cop deserves less respect, more disdain, and a swift boot out of the profession.
Oh, but they do. I suppose it depends on how you define “cop,” but using just the law enforcement people we have around here…
Our police work for the city government.
Sheriffs and their deputies work for the county government.
Highway patrol officers work for the state government.
Secret Service and FBI agents work for the Federal government.
ALL of the cops around here work directly for one level or another of our government.
I think what MrDibble meant was that most police officers in the United States do not work for the national government, which is true.
Yes. In Apartheid SA, all cops were directly under a national Police Force, kind of like if all US cops were FBI.
Anaamika, I would contend that there is a difference between having a lot of bad cops, as India does, and as South Africa still does too (cops who force underage prostitutes to sleep with them, cops who party with drugdealers, etc.), and having the entire police force being an arm of an evil regime.
In the first case, you can still look for good cops, and the job itself is still a needed one. In the second case, while you may find a rare exception, merely being a cop is a sign that you are not on the side of the angels.
Bad cop is one thing, riding around and capping kids at the side of the road is a little different.
MrDibble, there’s a local book I’d like to recommend, but this badger’s mind is like a teastrainer these days, so I’ll have to get back to you after the weekend.
Hey, Ratel. Am I misremembering, or aren’t you a reservist? See, I knew there were some cops I liked and respected 
And the idea that it’s so hard to be friends with a non-cop because we’re such potential criminals adds to the ‘us versus them’ attitude that I’ve seen in so many cops that my first reaction to them now is distrust.
To them, everyone who doesn’t wear a badge is just a criminal that hasn’t been caught.
Or that they refer to themselves as anything other than civilians in the first place. Since in the United States, police officers are not employed by nor acting as members of the military, they are every bit as much ‘civilians’ as every other non-soldier.
They’re under absolutely no legal obligation to help anyone. In fact, if you’re being held with a knife at your throat, they can tell you that you’re on your own. They’re only obligated to investigate the crime after it has been committed, and this is exactly the way they handled the Rodney King riots in LA and the Columbine shooting.
The only ‘constraints’ on who they can and can’t be friends with comes from their own attitude: everyone without a badge is probably a criminal. As for the rest of it, cops tend to have a high rate of alcoholism and drug use, and have in my own personal experience been quick to resort to threats of arrest and to violence if their ‘authority’ is not respected - as in when I refused to tell a cop why I was walking on a public side walk at 4 in the afternoon, or where I was going. When they give you attitude, when they make threats, or if they rough you up, you have no recourse whatsoever nor ability to defend yourself, and they know it. They’ve got a lot more power to be the offensive asshole giving someone a hassle than I’ve got.
My default now is to proceed with extreme caution until they prove they can be trusted. When trust and respect for a cop are misplaced, it can turn out really badly for me, so it’s safer not to apply it automatically.
To be fair, catsix, Pittsburgh cops tend to have a rep for being especially big assholes. Johnny Gammage, anyone?
Uh… cite? We can certainly disagree as to whether or not local police bungled their handling of the LA riots or the Columbine shootings, but police are under a legal obligation to help those who are at that moment being victimized by criminals. A police officer who shrugged and walked away from a guy holding a knife to another’s throat would be disciplined and probably fired, not to mention sued by the victim, and perhaps even prosecuted for dereliction of duty.
In Ohio, for instance, Revised Code 737.11 provides, “The police force of a municipal corporation shall preserve the peace, protect persons and property, and obey and enforce all ordinances of the legislative authority of the municipal corporation, all criminal laws of the state and the United States, all court orders issued and consent agreements approved pursuant [to law]…” (emphasis added). Among the ordinances and criminal laws are those prohibiting assault and battery, weapons violations, kidnapping, etc.