Dog day afternoon

[P_Funk]

They always talk about threats to democracy and freedom abroad. All these terrorists we ought to be so very afraid of. But the fact remains that each and every one of us lives about a car drive away from the police from a police state. In fact I'd argue we are in a police state. It is only those checks and balances seen in consitutions which protect the average citizen from overzealous police. The fact that this fellow is allowed to continue as a leader of the sheriff's office after many years of reported unconstitutional behavior and conduct says to me that in this case his jurisdiction is a police state. If you can't stop him orhold him accountable then rights become priviliages handed out by this sheriff and that is the definition of a police state.

I'm a Canadian but up here we have the same threat. Recently a teenager was shot in the back of the head in a rural community while in police custody. The police say he was assaulting the polcie officer in the inmterrorgation room with him but there is no clear motive for that as he was apparently "being released" at that point. He was hauled in for having an open drink in public outside a hockey game (really eh?) and apparently the cop took him back to the station alone. So the cop was alone and interrogating this kid. Not only that but apparently he also had his gun in the interrogation room with him. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to put it in a secure location first. Lastly how could a kid faced with a trained police officer be abel to present a sufficient threat to constitute the use of deadly force? They give cops billy clubs, pepper spray and tasers for a reason. Now we might have a very easy way to determine how it really happened as there is a video camera in the interrogation room. However interestingly enough the polcie say that it was not turned on for the interrogation. Likely story.

So this is a big deal right? Well the cops after 8 months have not released a final report on the incident and it is currently being investigated by, get this, anotehr police detachment in the province. I think you call that conflict of interest.

So even us, we Canadian lefty pinko commie lovers, are facing inroads into our rights.

Like my dad says, never trust a cop. I think we know why now.

[PeriscopeDepth]

Personally, every cop I've ever dealt with in his/her professional capacity has been just that... extremely professional. Now, of course, there are people that abuse that power. I think it's unfair to label police officers as a whole as untrustworthy, however.

PD

Originally Posted by PeriscopeDepth

Personally, every cop I've ever dealt with in his/her professional capacity has been just that... extremely professional. Now, of course, there are people that abuse that power. I think it's unfair to label police officers as a whole as untrustworthy, however.

PD

Really, hmmm! I've always kinda looked at them like egotistical, power hungry, out to punish more than protect, jerks!!

[August]

Originally Posted by SubSerpent

Really, hmmm! I've always kinda looked at them like egotistical, power hungry, out to punish more than protect, jerks!!

So what dealings have you had with the Police to justify this attitude?

[P_Funk]

I can see where this is going already. It's gonna become a "pro-cop v. anti-cop" argument. Ultimately ending with it becoming a righty v. lefty argument. Or not. WE'll see.

As for my attitude (I know you were referring to another guy but I'll answer for myself) I justify it simply because as a good citizen I can't help but question police. Police are the ultimate symbol of authority for the establishment. And we all know that we're supposed to question authority. I don't care if most cops are professional or well meaning. People in general are the same but we don't walk around after dark through alleys and down skid row saying "why should I fear people? They are by and large well intentioned and honourable". The problem with cops is that they are in a position of power and power is constantly at risk of being abused. I know many people who have told me stories of how cops have treated them poorly. Granted these guys, not quite my friends, were either drunk or high or something which would attract the police but that doesn't justofy the way they have been treated many times.

Police are the paradox of a democratic society. We are supposedly free and guarenteed rights yet the only way to guarentee just that is to have a force of armed men charged with denying selectively certain rights under parrticular circumstances. As my father has described it they are a "necessary evil". Police are a threat to all that we value but their presense is simply favourable to that of a world in which criminals reign.

I don't trust police because they don't trust me. It is their job to be suspicious and to infer guilt prematurely with innuendo and heresay. If you think about if police are so trustworthy why do we need the trial system to confirm guilt? police cannot be trusted because we can't afford for them to be able to become corrupt.

Don't get me wrong we need them. But only just. They keep the greater evils at bay. But how easily they become that evil.

A perfect example of why police are always a threat goes back to the 1970s in Canada. It was 1970 and the FLQ crisis was in full swing. A domestic terrorist group had taken the British ambassador hostage.

Our Prime Minister declared "War Measures", a highly unorthodox thing given that those measures were intended for war time. It essentially laid all law and liberty aside for a time and gave the government ultimate power. So for some more context the FLQ was a seperatist group in Quebec and the crisis was occuring there. However all accross the country where ever police were present people were being rounded up and put in jail. The police decided that if they now had ultimate power they would arrest without charge or due process anyone whom they did not like. So every pinko and lefty adjitator was rounded up and locked up until war measures were suspended. My father was 14 at the time and was hanging out with a group of older teenagers at a park. This was in Niagara Falls Ontario. The police came accross the field like an army and grabbed all the teens and loiterers and hippies. My dad got away only cause he was 14.

This is Canada, a country known for being leftist. Yet our own police force was no better than the SA of pre-war Germany when Hitler began his march to power.

I have no delusions about what the true nature of my country is. I don't trust police because of what they symbolize and what I know they would do given the freedom.

[Yahoshua]

Granted, it isn't necessarily fair to label ALL PD across the country as being in competition with the gestapo reputation, it really depends on WHERE the PD is that defines whether LEOs' there are trustworthy or not.

Me for example, has been arrested several times simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (there really isn't anything more to it than that). And my dad was nearly shot while extracting money from an ATM machine while a cop was standing behind him yelling at the top of his lungs with his pistol out and at the back of my dads' head! My dad is deaf by the way, and the reason the cop was trying to get his attention is because the city had recently painted the curb near the ATM machine yellow and he hadn't noticed yet.

This was all in San Diego, and it is now well known that the LEOs' there are NOT trustworthy (I wouldn't go within 100' of a uniformed LEO for any amount of money). In fact the whole state of California has problems with PD corruption (google it to see what I mean), and it is rampant. But you cross the state line to Oregon and most of the LEOs' are nice and easy going. Go to some country towns and you'll find that the PD varies from town to town.

Some towns will have LEOs' that came from the city and are on a power trip. While other towns will have a PD that doesn't do ANYTHING more interesting than rescue cats ontop of power poles.

It really depends on where you go.

However, the exceptions that I'll note are these states: California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and parts of Nevada and Texas. I'd avoid these states by any and all means. And Washington D.C., Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and San Diego are all cities to avoid. And now we'll add Phoenix to that list.