Do you beleive the police can "have it in for someone"?

Question

And harrass them. I know someone, who has, admittedly, been a bit of a pest, but his worse crime has ever been drunk and disorderly. He is an ex squaddie, suffering ptsd, and is now in rehab, but every thing that occurs, the police pull him up, even for a burgalry, committed miles away. He gets stopped in the street, when minding his own business, and locked up, only to be released, proven innocent. His solicitor is going up the wall, he needs help, not constant harrassment, he is at the end of his tether, he is trying to put his life back together, but is always being picked up, and even ridiculed by the local police, taunted, if he says something back, they arrest him. How can this be allowed to happen, and it does, beleive me, this guy is in turmoil, are you aware, that this goes on. Or do you beleive everything the police tell you, just because, they are police officers?

JAYFIRE....he IS ex forces, trained to kill, i think this is the problem myself!

Answer 1

Regretably the police seems to be persecuting easy, safe targets which is ruining their standing in the community.
They really need to concentrate on drunks, vandels, muggers, burglars and offenses against the person in general - but then these may fight back rather than send money AND there is nowhere to lock them up now!
I think police should be responsible for making good any losses or injuries suffered by people from their wages.
That would wake them up!
RoyS

Answer 2

The cops are human, just like the rest of us. Some are professional, some are jerks. All I can say is that he should document everything - when, where, what officers were involved, what grounds did they claim to have, how was each case dismissed, etc. Get copies of the police reports for every one of the incidents and arrests. When there's a clear pattern, you take it to the police chief, then the prosecuting attorney, then the press.

Go in that order, don't go to the press first. When possible, you should give them a chance to back out gracefully, even if they've been graceless in the past by harassing him. If you go to the press and make everything public first, you'll make an enemy even worse than you have already, and your friend will either get harassed more, or in other ways - like damage to a car, pet, harassment of family members, etc. But make sure that if whoever you're talking to knows that if they can't stop this, you'll move up to a higher authority. Good luck!

And what's a "squaddie"?

Answer 3

There is such thing as Karma Police... You get what's coming to you.... Although he may be straightening his life out now... He is paying for some of the past mistakes he has made. Your reputation follows you everywhere and it's harder than anything to change... Harder to change than old habits...

If this guy is from a small town, especially, cops will "have it in for someone". They are trying to make their quota and they know who the "bad guys" are. They don't really know what life is like on the other side of the law or how seriously arrests can affect people's lives... They are just doing there jobs.

In my opinion, police are given ENTIRELY too much authority... You talk sideways at a police officer and he can arrest you. It doesn't seem fair... But obviously this guy you know still has run ins with the law--for reasons you aren't really sure of.

Point is--I wouldn't believe what anyone tells you about the situation. I would remove myself, if I were you, because if you are seen with that guy than the police will know you... And whether you like it or not... they have the upper hand in most everything they do and they are usually gonna be trusted in the end, by the law and most people because they are there to serve the people.

Answer 4

I have a lot of officers in my family and I can tell you that they (some) can and DO act this way from time to time. It's horrible, isn't it? Now there are good cops out there. The ones in my family are some of the good ones, thankfully! But there are the bad ones who just let the power go to their heads and use it to pick on people. Not much that can be done about it unless it is constant and proven...which is very hard to do because they all stand behind one another. I hope your friend is successful in straightening his life out even with the constant harrassment.

Answer 5

The police are far from perfect, but I would say most are straight and honest ordinary people. I think when they get together and start to run the station rather than work for the public, it all goes corrupt. It's then they start to look for easy pickings and try to frame the easy targets to get the numbers up. But the moral is stay out of trouble, because once you get on their books your life can be made a misery. You have no comeback because you have a past conviction and sometimes you can be victimised as a result. My advice, put a complaint in writing to the station concerned and send a copy to your MP.

Answer 6

Yes. I know they do. Because my brother was always in trouble with the law, I was guilty by association. I've been arrested for a B&E and the when they took me to be ID'd by the victim he went nuts. Not because I committed the crime, but because I DID NOT FIT THE DESCRIPTION!!! I was picked up because I was wearing a St Louis Cardinals ball cap and a levi jacket. The suspect was almost a foot taller than me and twice my size and african american. I was a short, scrawny white boy. I ended up being arrested THREE times for this one offense.

I've been pulled out of school for assault, even though the event took place across town during school hours. I had 30 witnesses and school surveillance tapes that showed that I wasn't involved. My friends and I have been kicked out of a PUBLIC park for loitering even though we were playing football. We've been followed for 20 miles before being pulled over by the police for having a broken tail light, expired tags, and without a valid smog check. Never mind that my friend had just bought the truck and were on our way to get all that taken care of. We were in a friends yard throwing a football around when the cops pulled up and started to search us. Lucky for us the next door neighbor was a lawyer and came out and started questioning the officers.

It got so bad, I couldn't leave my house to go to work without being stopped two or three times a day. My boss would have to come and pick me up just so I could make it on time.

Now whenever I see a pig I have to fight the urge to ram their car into a house or off the highway.

Answer 7

Actually I had a friend that was stalked by several city police officers continuously after he pissed them off. He was arrested for public drunkeness by them and he filed complaints against them for some things he alledged they did. However our boss and coworkers actually watched these cops follow him when he left the office. Our boss had enough and called the state police which pulled them over one day and ended this stalking. Now that is a rare thing. I have lots of police office friends and they are very upstanding people. There are bad apples everywhere.

Answer 8

Lady, I am not trivialising your friends problem but it is but a snow flake on a penguins bum in comparison to the iceberg size problem that EX - Forces and serving Forces suffer

Police hate and fear us because we have been trained to kill and they rarely if ever experience the training let alone the "REAL DEAL"

The Police will often "lock up a danger" to get them off the street as if being caged is not going to make it worse

You should try and get him in touch with either SSAFA or the Earl Haig organisation or even Erskine hospital in Scotland as he sounds as though he needs help - at least one of the 3 should be able to get him some attention

Answer 9

Get him into a psych programme instead, as the damage
is just going to get worse, and the Police do have a right
to arrest you if they think that you are being drunk and
disorderly, or even for other things, he must already
have a record, get him some psych help instead.......................

Do not blame the Police they have a job to do out there............

Answer 10

Sometimes the police know a lot more than you do. They will let the 'Perp' know that they are on his 'case' and hopefully prevent further crime being committed. Criminals will call it harrassment but, law abiding citizens(the majority) see it as keeping the criminal minded at bay. However, I am not saying there are no mistakes.