Do you think all police officers abuse their authority at one time or another?

Question

Regardless of whether they are "good" cops or "bad"cops do you get the suspicion that they feel they are above the law. I just saw my neighbor, who is a cop and who I have always thought of a good upstanding guy, drive home with his four year old on his lap behind the wheel. You know that if he saw average Joe citizen doing that, they would have a ticket and probably a visit from child protective services. What is your opinion, do cops abuse their power? And is there anything we can or should do to stop it?

Yes, this situation is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. My point, however, broader than just this one particular cop on this one particular day doing somehthing that, to me, is just like holding your child over an open flame. But I'm ranting...and maybe yes, a little petty, I don't care!

Ok, so now I'm a little scared about you people. Maybe I shouldn't have included the story about my neighbor. It's simply the catalist for this question and I'm shocked that so many people are defending the actions of employees that work for you, people whose salaries YOU pay. If you owned a business and your employess were stealing from you, you would do something about it. No, this guy is not a bad cop, yes he made a mistake, we all make mistakes, I get it!

Answer 1

ALL people have abused something at sometime in their lives. Cops are people too . People tend to raise their children in a similar fashion to the way they were raised & to many of us, this includes being held on the drivers lap behind the wheel of a moving automobile. We even used to have car seats with our own steering wheels! Who asked you to watch over your neighbors like a hawk? You need to get real & butt out of other peoples personal lives or you could find yourself being served with a restraining order or charged with malicious mischief. As long as the Town is protected & you have a hand to help you, why would you want to bite that hand & render it useless when it is needed. Think about it.

Answer 2

Yes most of them do abuse thier power, particlarly on a county level where the sheriffs repuation and votes are on the line, this leads to more corruption no matter how small the offense is, the public opinion has to be kept in order. So we cover it up, what I've seen in MO the city and state cops aren't so much a problem because they get to the top by earning it, not by a bunch of political bs. What to do about it remains to be seen since every one tells me they have no control over law enforcement, but contacting the attorney general for your state and the fbi seems to work for me. But do you really think what your nieghbor did is that important? You live next to the guy you are going to be unhappy for a while if you do this.

Answer 3

Power corrupts. Nevertheless, we all do it!
Subversives take over by turning the people of a nation against each other. Taking the frustration of the people. Getting them to riot. Throwing rocks at guys with machine guns, DUH!
The Law Enforcement and the Military gets pissed, and stomps
the citizenry. We don't want to make that mistake in our country. We usually get treated exactly like we treat others. They give us the same hate we give them. Treat people like a human being, and they will act like a human being.
We all need to take reponsibilty for our own actions. There are going to be some very trying times ahead. In that the Earth is going through a major physical upheaval of some sort.

Answer 4

When I used to teach at a small country school, there was a rule that children must never run in the hall. It's a pretty standard school rule. All the teachers were like broken records to all the kids. "Whoa! Slow down, pardner!" "Hey, hey, no running." "Alright, go back to the door and walk this time."

Well, my niece was enrolled there when she was 3 years old. My niece was (and still is at age 16) the apple of my eye.

After school, her teacher would bring her to my wing. Her eyes would light up when she saw me, and what did she do? She RAN to me. And what did I do? I opened my arms and said, "That's my girl!"

So, ok, maybe sometimes people "abuse" their authority a little...in little harmless ways. No one's perfect ALL the time, and I'm willing to bet that the cop you saw had just put his son in his lap on his street, and was probably driving slowly. A little "daddy and son" thing.

Answer 5

Well,he wasn't doing 75 on a two lane road.One hand on the wheel, kid leaning on his arm ,and a beer in the other hand.C'mon,he was in the neighbor hood.I sat on my dads lap,my kids sat on my lap.How do you know average Joe would have got a ticket?
Do ALL cops abuse their authority? No At one time or another?yes
There are some da*m fine cops out their,untill you have walked in their shoes,dont be to quick to judge them.

Answer 6

Okay...

I think that cops abuse their power sometimes. Some cops do and some cops don't. In my area there are 2 or 3 cops being charged because they made girls give them oral sex to get out of tickets. That's a definate abuse of power.
However...when I was little and we got to my neighborhood my dad used to always put me in his lap and let me "drive" the car home. If your neighbor was on the LA freeway with his child on his lap then yeah, that's bad. I just don't think your situation is a big deal tho

Answer 7

is this a poem? From examining this I see 0 harassment and nil abuse of authority. and also you imagine this officer is corrupt depending off of one site visitors supply up? in case you believe getting pulled over for a site visitors infraction is "harassment" then regrettably you have not any understanding of both the literal or criminal that technique of the note. it is an insult to mothers and fathers who extremely have confronted harassment (from the police or in the different case). Why have you ever no longer revealed the race of this officer, because it become the variety of significant area of your question very last time round? Oh yeah it become racist... i desire that you report a grievance with those allegations. If I were the officer i must be contacting my union criminal specialist as a thanks to suing you for malicious slander and defamation of personality. very last POS criminal who filed a pretend grievance on me settled for an volume that allowed me to purchase a sparkling automobile. In all seriousness I propose you contact a psychological well being specialist. Your reaction to a recurring site visitors supply up is a lot in out field. Re-study your posting...it is absurd. It shows the ramblings of a paranoid ideas. And shop in ideas police officials have rights like each and every of us else...we've the right to face our accuser, in spite of ways "diverse" they could properly be.

Answer 8

Police officers are human, like the rest of us. They make mistakes, they break the law - they're not above the law - they're just average Joes.

I would like to believe that they hold themselves to a higher standard because our children should look up to them as examples to aspire to.

I don't think there is anything we should do to enforce that they always obey every law. If they get caught, they can face the same consequences as the rest of us. Whether or not they get cut some slack is a different issue.

If you feel that your police officer neighbor is endangering his child, make the call. Forget about who he is - think about the child. Honestly though, it sounds like you are just being petty.

Answer 9

My father is a cop and he never acted like he was above the law. If he ever found out one of my sister did that with their kids, he would KILL them.

Answer 10

NOPE. Not all of any one group is bad. But every group has some bad apples. But mostly mankind is good at heart and are law-abiding.