Recently, a California website ran an e-mail forum (a question and answer exchange) where the topic was
"Policing the Community."
One of the civilian email participants posed the
following question:
"I would like to know how it is possible for police officers to continually harass people and get away with it?"
From the "other side" (the law enforcement side) a cool cop with a sense of humor replied: "It is not easy. In California we average one cop for every 2,000 people. About 60% of those cops are on patrol, where we do most of the harassing. One-fifth of that 60% are on duty at any given moment and are available for harassing people. So, one cop is responsible for harassing about 10,000 residents. When you toss in the commercial, business and tourist locations that
attract people from other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is responsible for harassing 20,000 or more people each day.
A ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds. This gives a cop one second to harass a person, and three-fourths of a second to eat a donut AND then find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. Most cops are not up to it, day in and day out. It is just too tiring.
What we do is utilize some tools.
They are as follows:
PHONE: People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus on a person for special harassment. "My neighbor is beating his wife" is a code phrase we use. Then we come out and give special harassment.
Another popular one on a weeknight is, "The kids next door are having a loud party."
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting music, cars with expired registration stickers and the like. It is lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for nothing more obvious than running a red light. Sometimes you get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have drugs in the car, are driving drunk, or they have an outstanding warrant.
RUNNERS: Some people take off running just at the
sight of a police officer. Nothing is quite as
satisfying as running after them like a beagle on the scent of a bunny. When you catch them you can harass them for hours.
LAWS: When you can think of nothing else to do, there are books that give ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are called "Laws" -Penal, Vehicle, Health and Safety, Business and Professional Laws, to name just a few. They spell out all sorts of things for which you can
really mess with people. After you read the law, you can just drive around for a while until you find someone violating one of these listed offenses and harass them. Just last week I saw a guy smash a car window. Well, the law says that is not allowed. That meant I got permission to harass this guy.
It is a pretty cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well. We seem to have a never ending supply of folks to harass. And we get away with it.
Why?
Because the good citizens who pay the tab actually like the fact that we keep the streets safe for them.
Next time you are in my town, give me a single finger wave.
That will be a signal that you wish for me to take a little closer look at you, and then maybe I'll find a reason to harass YOU!
Looking forward to meeting you.
2007-02-15 02:14:04 · 11 answers · asked by common sense 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law Enforcement & Police
That IS good, I'm still laughing. Hooray for the cops! Well, that genius in particular and most in general. A sense of humor saves the day in many situations. Thanks, y'all.
2007-02-15 02:20:20 · answer #1 · answered by Casperia 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Isn't it great? Being law enforcement for over 30 years, you tend to think they you do your best to provide the best to the public you serve. Despite it all...you have to agree with the old saying..."you can please some of the people all the time...all of the people some of the time...but never all of the people all of the time."
With that in mind...you always find some way to relieve the stress with humor!
2007-02-15 10:19:51 · answer #2 · answered by KC V ™ 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Very humorous, but in reality police harassment has increased 80% in the last 50 years due to all the new and improved administrative tools given the patrolman by do good legislators. You have an 80% better chance today of having your life ruined because when stopped by officer friendly “your papers are not in order”. Mandatory proof of financial responsibility (instead of drive at you own risk, insure yourself), minor equipment violations, and unconstitutional vehicle confiscations (because of nebulous implied consent assumption), licensing suspension because of unpaid fines (costing three months groceries? for a malfunctioning turn signal?). Sorry, I’m going to feed my kids. Revenue due to traffic fines now exceeds the amount collected by the IRS for income taxes. Old Russian immigrants I know shake their heads and say they had far less personal restrictions in the old USSR. We have slowly become a totalitarian police state without even realizing it… and you get absolutely NO justice if you are poor.
2007-02-15 10:57:32 · answer #3 · answered by Gunny T 6 · 1⤊ 5⤋
Yes! Easily the the best thing i've read in a long time
2007-02-15 10:29:13 · answer #4 · answered by stevedude256 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I dont know who that officer is, but he deserves to be Officer of the Year.
2007-02-15 10:45:31 · answer #5 · answered by dkiller88 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
HahA good for the cop that said that!
2007-02-15 10:23:57 · answer #6 · answered by Cheer Barbie 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
That is the funniest thing I have read in a long time.
GOD BLESS THE POLICE
2007-02-15 10:25:50 · answer #7 · answered by Patricia 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is really funny. I have cop friends and they would really enjoy that one.
2007-02-15 10:20:29 · answer #8 · answered by Tink 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
HAHAHAHAHAHA Priceless!
2007-02-15 10:21:44 · answer #9 · answered by mastercheddaar 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is fabulous, funny and wonderful.....it should be preserved.
2007-02-15 12:20:44 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋