Learn the lesson: police are never your friend, helping others WILL get you punished eventually - all good deeds are punished in the long run, police can and will do whatever they want to you with no repercussions. Keep your head down and enjoy your free country.
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I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, don't you?
not at all
this story is a great example of this, but there are others
Of course there are others. There are also many people having pleasant experiences with cops every day - they don't make it to the top of Hacker News.
Really? Who has pleasant experiences with cops besides other cops? Honest question.
I've certainly had enough negative interactions to make me very wary, but I also remember some positive ones. Off the top of my head:
* An incident where I was driving and spun across a lane of traffic and off the road in a heavy snowstorm, very fortunately hitting nothing but a reflector post in the process. A highway patrolman stopped, checked to make sure no one was injured, congratulated us on being lucky, and encouraged us to be careful out there.
* An incident where I was being followed around -- no, pursued through -- town by a car I didn't recognize, and I called the dispatcher and eventually drove to the police station.
* A few incidents where I'd pulled off highways to sleep, and officers knocked on the window just to make sure everything was OK. One, when I told him why I was there said "Smartest person I've met tonight" (I suspect any highway patrol officer has seen more drowsy driving accidents than they care to).
* Incidents where I'd been hanging out in my car, using my laptop tethered to a cell phone, in a parking lot or neighborhood long enough to make someone in the neighborhood apparently uncomfortable. In two cases I remember, the officers were gently inquisitive, explained what was going on, ran a check on my plates/ID, and said I wasn't doing anything wrong but might want to consider moving on before too long.
* Incidents where there was nothing particularly positive about the interaction but the officers simply did their jobs and either issued reasonable instructions or a citation.
I've also had a number of incidents where this has gone somewhat less well (attempts to escalate to a search of my car or a DUI investigation, weird and menacing lines of questioning, threats to charge me with illegal camping/vagrancy, occasional browbeatings, on-site detention with no explanation, and at least one encounter where an angry officer was threatening me with extralegal violence), so I understand it doesn't always go like this, so I encourage reforms and increased accountability. But I also think it's fair to remember appreciate the officers who acted reasonably, kindly, and professionally.
I don't really get this. It's nice that many police officers do what they get paid to do, but what about the three bad examples you cite, which were probably abuses of power?
You cited five pleasant events, two where you were suspected of doing something wrong and three which are abuses of power. A considerable amount of your interactions with the police were abusive. So clearly there is a big, systemic problem ehre.
I have. I'll admit this is rare, but one time I paid the city to put up some no parking signs the day I was moving so that the moving truck would be guaranteed to have a place to park. (This is apparently normal in Los Angeles.) When the morning came and one of the spots in front of my building had a car in front of it, I called the police to have it towed. Since the moving truck hadn't arrived, the cop actually went to my neighbor's buildings and checked to see if the owner was home. (He didn't know who it belonged to, so he checked a few different buildings.) He was going to let them move their car instead of having it towed. But as luck would have it, he couldn't find the owner, so he had it towed. I can't believe he went to the trouble, and had it been my car, I would have really appreciated it.
Me. Last night, actually, and it wasn't the first time.
Here's another honest question: do you actually believe that nobody has pleasant experiences with police?
Well, for the most part they're like lawyers: you only need them around for shitty situations, so that's what they're remembered for.
I'm not saying all cops are bad people (though almost all police forces are bad institutions), but why would you just hang out and have a good time with a cop, in his cop role? I'm sure they have friends, but they're not being cops when they're watching the game with their friends.
My comment was more about the fact that police don't walk the beat and help old ladies with their groceries anymore. When cops are around, shit's going down. So even if they are doing their job professionally, it isn't a pleasant experience. And if they're doing their job poorly, it's a nightmare.
>Well, for the most part they're like lawyers: you only need them around for shitty situations, so that's what they're remembered for.
And because of this they get a lot of irrational hate, but it's often still irrational.
>I'm not saying all cops are bad people (though almost all police forces are bad institutions), but why would you just hang out and have a good time with a cop, in his cop role? I'm sure they have friends, but they're not being cops when they're watching the game with their friends.
Is this a question for me, or the general public? If the latter then I'll defer to someone else. If the former, then I'll clarify that I never said that I "hang out" with cops.
>My comment was more about the fact that police don't walk the beat and help old ladies with their groceries anymore. When cops are around, shit's going down. So even if they are doing their job professionally, it isn't a pleasant experience. And if they're doing their job poorly, it's a nightmare.
The cop I had a pleasant experience with was doing his job professionally. You seem to assume that my "pleasant experience with a cop" involved hanging out at a bar together watching the big game, or something like that. I had a pleasant experience with a cop doing his police duties, and it wasn't the first time.
I've been pulled over and harassed by the police for doing absolutely nothing except driving with an out of state license plate. I got no citation and the officer had no reason to pull me over.
I was also pulled over and harassed including being made to take a roadside sobriety test (I was completely 100% sober) for doing absolutely nothing except driving around at 3:30am. I got no citation and the officer had no reason to pull me over.
Both times my first question was "why did you pull me over?" which they made up some crazy story. One was my passenger apparently wasn't wearing her seatbelt (she was - the whole time) and one was I apparently "drifted left slightly while making a lefthand turn." WHAT!?
I've also have good interactions with the police but they aren't really notable. I'm most upset about the roadside sobriety test. The officer then proceeded to litter (illegal) part of the breathalyzer, after I blew a 0.00.
I have had just about nothing but pleasant experiences with the cops. I was an EMT for three years, and the cops that I worked with on a daily basis were the ones that got me — and others, including druggies that ODed, domestic violence victims, and suicide-attempts home at night.
Of course, the natural extension is to say 'well, who has pleasant experiences with cops besides other cops and EMTs and firefighters'?
Even after I moved out here to SF and into Bayview, I still had good experiences with them, meeting them on walks home and pulling up next to them on my motorcycle.
Yes, there are bad cops, and we see articles like this, but that doesn't mean that all cops are bad, and saying 'all of them are fucking pigs' undermines the entire system, and only makes things worse. The bad cops should be ejected from the system, the good cops should be commended. The system itself isn't broken, and treating it like it is just makes it worse.
I'm not saying all cops are great, but on occasion some can be nice.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/01/police-officer...
I can think of four experiences I've personally had with cops and all four range between pleasant and even better than pleasant.
Me, I'm European though.
Your name is BlackDeath, but I assume that you're white, for saying this?
Well, look who it is.
Why is my username relevant? Show me where I suggest that no bad cops exist. However, "police are never your friend" is an exaggeration.
Exactly. No good deed goes unpunished.