Sad state of America's youth

[blas]

I have yet to see a cop that would rather bust a drug deal than pull over a Yukon Denali with a headlight out.

[Slayergrrl]

Wow! My Boyfriend is a Police Officer and I've worked for the police department for over 7 years. i assure you guys that there are some great police officers out there!

I've had my fair share of run in's with jerk cops but working here has shown me that there really are some amazing Officers out there..

[scruff]

When I was a teenager, one of the local cops and a friend ran the Venture Scouts. They kept 60 teens busy, out of trouble, and learning handy survival/first-aid/self defence/amature dramatic skills. We held regular parties, and they would get a couple of officers to pop in to check everything was cool.
It worked great, we got to know them, they got to know us.

(and they held regular gun/knife amnesties.)

[MystyGlyttyr]

I've been pulled over a couple of times down here and the police were perfectly polite. But I've always had this extreme fear of police cars...not so much the officers themselves, but the cars. My mom, after seeing me go white-faced and sweaty behind the wheel several times at the sight of cop cars, finally explained to me why.

Apparently, when I was little, still small enough to be in a car seat, my parents were driving with me, my older brother and older sister, and on the way out of town, they stopped at a liquor store to grab something...knowing my parents, a bottle of wine they took two drinks of and then forgot about for three years . My dad went in to get it while my mom stayed in the car with us kids, and then brought back a bag and we headed off.

Within about five minutes, we were suddenly surrounded by police cars and my dad was ordered out of the car. He gets out, one officer comes over, gun drawn, looks in at the three of us kids, and immediately starts apologizing. It turned out that literally seconds after we left, some freaks broke into the liquor store and robbed it, but our car was the last one seen leaving so it was assumed that it was the getaway vehicle. When the police saw my dad had three small children and his wife in the car (not to mention nothing else but some groceries and a single bag from the liquor store), the police apologized profusely and let us go.

But apparently, being surrounded by all those flashing lights and police and probably my petrified family left a pretty deep impression that hasn't been much adjusted by dealing with perfectly ordinary, polite officers.

However, the campus police at one university I visited (who were actually just rent-a-cops who didn't even have nightsticks, just a flashlight), were constantly throwing their weight around and trying to get people in trouble for whatever blew their skirts up at the moment. Never worked though, because A) people weren't doing anything, and B) even the administration basically thought they were morons.

[Becks]

SC: Why are you out at this hour (4:30 am, Monday morning)?
Me: I just got off work.
SC: Really? What corner was that?

(Bolding by me.)



Please tell me you reported him for that. Please.

Back to the OP. I would have to say that the child, if from the ghetto, probably has seen many instances of cops showing up, and to him that's a normal reaction. Sad, isn't it?

[XCashier]

I have yet to see a cop that would rather bust a drug deal than pull over a Yukon Denali with a headlight out.

Move to Phoenix, Arizona! Seriously, even though I admittedly have a bit of a heavy foot and got a couple of tickets for speeding in Mesa and Scottsdale ( ), I never had a problem with Phoenix police officers. Namely because they're too busy dealing with stolen cars, drug dealers and shootings.

[protege]

I'm not a fan of my borough's cops at all.

Having the next-door neighbors use them as a "harassment squad" will do that. (For those who don't know, the nutjobs next door would call the cops on people for stupid things--parking in front of their house, toys or similar objects in yards, people just working on cars in their driveways, that sort of thing.) We'd be doing nothing wrong, and then the local cops would show up to bust our balls. It was usually *not* a cop that my family knew, but always some rookie trying to throw his weight around. Most of the older cops were cool--they'd be like "you know, we're only here because the idiots next door called us. Don't worry about it.' Not so with the rookies--they were *always* looking to bust balls.

There was one asshole cop I had to deal with. I had an accident on a slick road, when the car in front of me suddenly stopped after leaving a light. I couldn't stop, and slid right into him. Even at 5mph, I still totaled his car. Cops came and the one in charge *refused* to hear my side of what happened. He even ignored what witnesses, as well as the *other* guy had to say about it. In his mind, because I was only 16, it was *my fault* and I was *speeding* Yeah, that 5mph is a bitch Rather than deal with that prick, I called my father. He showed up to get some things out of the wrecked car, and to see what was going on. Cop told him, and because my father argued with the cop, I got cited for "reckless driving" and a few other charges. Total? About 6 points on my license

But, I was able to fight that. I got signed statements from the other driver, a few witness statements (one of whom showed up at the hearing), bumper and crash tests on both cars, etc. Since the cop didn't even bother to show up at the hearing, the district magistrate threw it out. That prick has since retired.

That was nearly 15 years ago, and I still don't like having police cars behind me.

More recently, I had a state trooper pull me over because I didn't have inspection stickers, and the 'Pennsylvania' on my plate was covered. This was right after PA went to the *new* plates that look similar to WV and OH, and the plate frame covered up the state. As for the inspection stickers, a rock hit my windshield not long before, and I just never replaced them. Why spend the $40 for new stickers, when I still had the piece of the glass with the old ones on it...and they were going to get replaced soon anyway at inspection time? I never kept that piece of glass on the dashboard, since it would slide around. Nothing ever came of that.

It's not all gloom and doom though. They do an excellent job at keeping crime in the borough low. We don't have many of the problems some of the larger boroughs have, simply because of their hard work.

[Sandman]

My family had a tradition when we lived on a road in a semi-rural town. Every Halloween we would TP the road, from one end to another. This went on over a period of 30 years. The police department learned over the years that it actually caused a little more traffic to the area, and it actually helped a business that did haunted hayrides.

One year a police officer caught some of my cousins because he snuck up on them.

Let's just say that officer is no longer on the force due to the fact that they were told to basically STAY AWAY from that road on Halloween unless you are called out that way to pull over a car, or for an emergency.

[Bramble]

I don't have much respect for cops after working with them but I kind of have to. (I have a few relatives who are cops so I don't have a choice.) The cops in the town I used to work in would purposely tailgate you in order to make you speed and have a reason to pull you over.

That's why I don't speed when someone tailgates me. I go slower. And slower. And slower. They usually get the hint.

[MadRocketScientist]

I've dealt with jerk small town cops, rarely a pleasant experience, but I've also dealt with honest, very professional officers who bring honor to the badge.

One night, when I was 16, I got into a very serious wreck (I struck a skid loader that was sitting in my lane at 50 mph). My car was totalled and I got away with just cuts and bruises, but the guy (a local farmer) who was in the skid loader was killed. The officer who responded to the scene was very polite and professional and when I had to go to court for the incident, the officer testified on my behalf.

A friend of my parents, whose father was a sheriff deputy in the next county over, told us if it had happened in that county, the deputy would have lied his face off since I had hurt a farmer.

[WorkAtBBuy]

On the campus where I did my undergrad work, we had a bunch of rent-a-cops. Maybe 2 members of the force were decent (1 did safety and sexual assault seminars for an organization I was apart of). The rest? Straight up rent-a-cops. If you needed a door opened for you in the student center, show up an hour early. It would take them an hour to drive over on the golf carts (which, mind you, the building for student activities was DIRECTLY ACROSS from the police station) to help you out. 2 rapes occurred 30 ft from the police station, yet NO ONE HEARD A THING. Conversely, my uncle is a DC cop and I know he works very hard. I have no problem with real officers...it's the rent-a-cops I can't stand. They tend to be assholes who finally found a little piece of "authority".

Also...THIS IS MY 100th post!

[wagegoth]

Mysty's story brought back a really bad memory. We live on a small, private court. One of our neighbors is an occasional unlicensed, pharmaceutical salesman. One night, we were just preparing to pull into our driveway, when lights and siren erupt behind us.

Here's the picture: Family of four, nice family sedan, dressed nicely, turning into our own drive. Does this look suspicious? Not to most people, but we were dealing with a deputy in training.

He comes up on the left and the older officer comes up on our right. Rookie demands (yes, demands) that my husband explain what we're going here. Husband replies that we live here, then says he's reaching for his ID, because this deputy has his hand resting on his gun. I say, too, that I'm reaching for my ID, and pull my wallet out of my purse.

Then, it happened. My kids have never dealt with the police, not even a traffic stop. All they've ever seen having to do with police is what they've seen on TV. My youngest son says, "Daddy, are you going to jail?"

My husband turned towards the back seat and says, "No, baby, I'm not going to jail."

Rookie goes ballistic, steps back as if ready to pull his gun, and starts yelling, "Why are you telling him you're going to jail? I never said that." Keeps yelling. Older deputy steps closer, and puts his hand on his gun.

I'm so angry at this point that it keeps me from freezing up. My husband immediately tells the rookie that that wasn't what he said, he was just reassuring our son, who was very upset. I turned to the older deputy and showed him my ID, then asked him if I could, please, get my kids out of the car, that we lived right there (pointing). He says, okay, and I take the boys home.

About 10 or 15 minutes later, they finally let my husband go.

[blas]

Well I do feel a little bad about yesterday's post about "officer doofus" and "retarded cop", considering the police more or less saved my ass when I worked at the gas station.

I'm not sure if it's because gas station robberies have been a huge problem since forever, or just because it was by the ghetto and the police always wanted to be nearby, but if I ever needed a cop at the gas station, there would be one in 5 minutes or less. If Crazy John was in the neighborhood and I called and told dispatch, they'd be there in about 3 minutes.

I never had a problem with the city cops when I lived with my parents. Hell, a deer ran into my Tempo (yes, it ran into MY car, I was crawling at less than 10 mph and two male deer that had been fighting were crossing the street on a 90 degree angle turn and the second one ran into my headlight). I drove around for 2 weeks with a bashed out headlight and saw many cops and none of them cared. But if I were to have went elsewhere or seen a State boy, I would have been pulled over.

[myswtghst]

I will say, I've had cops who were super nice and awesome. It just seems like for every cop like that, I meet or deal with 5-10 asshole cops, which kind of skews my view of cops. And I treat them all the same--I'm always polite and calm, so I never understand when they cop an attitude with me.

[Greenday]

Wow! My Boyfriend is a Police Officer and I've worked for the police department for over 7 years. i assure you guys that there are some great police officers out there!

We know there are nice cops out there. We just don't see them because they are the ones who don't pull us over.