In the last 22 years, I have had 9 interactions with with the police:
- In 2000, my car was broken into, and my stereo, radar detector, cash, and other items totaling about $600 was stolen from it. The crime scene investigator came out and took fingerprints. They got a hit, gave me the name of the person, and asked me to sign a paper saying that this man did not have permission to be in my vehicle. A month later, I was told that the criminal would not be arrested because the crime was too minor to waste resources on.
- In 2001, I was pulled over for running a red light. I let the cop know I was carrying, even though Florida law doesn’t require me to. He then threatened to kill me. I don’t inform any more.
- Same year, I got a traffic ticket for $184, which I paid. Eleven years later, the court sent me a letter saying that they miscalculated the fine for the ticket, and I owe them another $32. I refused to pay it because the statute of limitations had passed and there was nothing that they could do about it.
- In 2004, a cop told my girlfriend how to use the courts to steal my stuff by claiming that I had committed domestic violence. It took me months to get it straightened out. (I foolishly told this story to a GF in 2012 and that one copied the scheme)
- In 2005, I had someone steal a check for over $200 from my mailbox, forge my name and deposit the money into his bank account. The number of the account that the check was deposited into was printed on the back of the check. I went to the station to report the crime. I had a copy of the check. All the cop had to do was go to the bank, get the name of the account owner, and make the arrest. Anyone could have done it, it wasn’t a hard crime to solve. The cops told me that they didn’t have the manpower to solve a crime for such a small amount of money. On the way home from the police station, I passed 6 cops with cars pulled over, writing traffic tickets.
- As a paramedic in 2010, I ran a call on a report of man who was unconscious and slumped over the wheel at an intersection. When I got there, he was obviously drunk, so I reached in and took the keys out of the ignition and put them on the vehicle’s roof. When the cops got there, they let the man call his girlfriend and let her give him a ride home. They said that they couldn’t prove that he was behind the wheel. I told them I would testify, but then the cop told me that his shift was over soon, and he didn’t want to stay late to do the paperwork. I found out later he was a friend of one of the cops.
- In 2016, I had to draw a gun on someone who then fled the scene. I called the cops and the one who showed up didn’t even take a report. Exactly zero effort was made to catch the guy.
- In 2018, I had a police supervisor tell me that silencers and machine guns were illegal. I offered to bring in NFA items with the proper paperwork, so the cops could be trained to recognize the proper forms and know the law. They refused, and told me “Keep that stuff out of my town or you will be arrested.”
- Also in 2018, an armed man was burglarizing cars in my neighborhood. He was caught on my security cameras. The cops used my footage to catch the burglar, but he reached a plea deal that included expunging his record. All he got was probation, even though he broke into four vehicles, stealing one of them.
I am giving the good cops some advice: clean up your ranks. I don’t think you can, because I believe that the bad cops far outnumber the good ones. The police have become just another group of criminals who prey on the people in this nation who actually produce wealth. They are a street gang with badges and qualified immunity.
21 Comments
Brewer · November 7, 2022 at 12:50 pm
No such thing as a good cop. They cover for the bad ones, they are just as dirty. I would say that the entire legal system is the enemy of the people.
Skyler the Weird · November 7, 2022 at 1:23 pm
It can’t be cleaned up by the rank a d file. These positions are political in nature. Most of the bad cops flaunt their connection with some mayor, pastor, or state representative. They know they are pretty much untouchable. A place where I lived the Sheriff was rumored to be selling commissions for Deputy at $3000/head. He came under investigation and shot himself in the head with a shotgun at a gas station. No word if he had any dirt on the Clintons.
Big Ruckus D · November 7, 2022 at 1:54 pm
Sing (well, rap) it with me. Y’all know the words.
Fuck. Tha. Po-leece.
These useless shits suckling at the taxpayer teat, abusing their power, and failing to do their jobs, all with impunity. That one man could have that many infuriating interactions with useless pigs is informative
Their unspoken message is “you get no justice, piss off.” Looks like privatizing the means of taking care of business is the future.
E M Johnson · November 7, 2022 at 2:02 pm
actually most are just sorry sob goons. I wasn’t a customer but know them and the system. parasites
Don Curton · November 7, 2022 at 2:12 pm
My list over the past 20 years or so isn’t quite as long as yours, but basically comes to the same conclusion. Unless it’s traffic enforcement, cops basically do the least amount possible. They don’t investigate, don’t follow-up, and don’t care. After one particular fender-bender, had to argue with a cop who didn’t want to file a report. Said it was so minor that a report wasn’t needed. I argued that I need a report to file with my insurance. He then instructed me to go to the website, download a pdf form, file it out with pertinent info, email back to him (he handed me his “business card”), and then he’d submit it.
Yeah, I’d say that there’s a lot of us who no longer support the blue and pretty much won’t bother to call 911 until after all the shooting’s done.
Don Shift · November 7, 2022 at 3:45 pm
You have really crappy cops in your area. Some of that is just disgusting to read.
The only way to really fix this is to ensure that better people are employed as cops. That means you have to pay competitive wages that will attract people who go into different professions. You also have to utilize the complaint process, lawsuits, and political pressure through the politicians to get the crap out.
The left does a great job targeting people on the right for removal and installing people who implement their policies. I see a lot of people complaining about how their police suck but not coming together to affect any meaningful change.
That’s not an indictment of any person here but indicative of what it takes to truly fix a system. Unfortunately we can’t all live in areas of higher quality law-enforcement so it’s up to us to get the service that we demand. Those of us on the right really do need to focus beyond checking the ballot box and organizing locally to change some of the attitudes and policies that lead to the above.
Divemedic · November 7, 2022 at 4:22 pm
LOL. No. The Orlando police department starts officers at $50K per year, and by 12 years the pay is at $86K. That is far above what the average person in Orlando makes, yet it was an Orlando police officer who pushed a woman down the stairs and then falsified the report on the incident.
If paying people more made them better at their jobs, then the TSA would be the most effective security agency in the world.
Steve · November 7, 2022 at 4:39 pm
That’s just wrong on so many levels.
If I don’t like the service or food at a restaurant, I don’t have to sue or use any stupid complaint process. I just don’t go back. It’s the manager’s responsibility to notice that he’s not getting the happy customers he used to have. If I don’t like PayPal’s new terms of service, rather than trying to get someone fired, I just close my account.
The reason this does not work with gov’t goons is there you are not the customer. At best, you are their mark. More typically, you are their victim.
The reason they even have all those review boards and complaint forms is to figure out which are the docile livestock who will play their game. This lets them keep an eye on the uppity ones.
Jonathan · November 7, 2022 at 4:03 pm
I had a discussion recently with someone I thought was a “good cop”; he insisted there were only a few bad cops and that all professions have bad apples…
The issue is that other professions have accountability and appeals in ways that law enforcement doesn’t – in most cases, they can do whatever they want to you and face no punishment at all…
Oddly enough, in this rural area I see officers more often than I have anywhere else I’ve lived.
Divemedic · November 7, 2022 at 4:24 pm
If you think that your friend is a “good cop” then get in a disagreement with one of his “bad cop” friends and see whether or not he tells the truth or backs up his cop buddy.
Bad Dancer · November 7, 2022 at 5:22 pm
Your encounters and list sounds like the norm for most law abiding types anymore.
In the academy I distinctly remember the feeling that went through my head when an instructor said that as of today there were two kinds of people: Us and Them and everyone outside these walls was now the enemy.
Seeing fellow officers act rude, beligerant, and hostile to active duty military personal from the nearby base refering to them as civlians because they were not police.
Everyone knowing the officer who liked to bust teen parties to pressure the kids for sex and drugs yet somehow continue to be a resource officer assigned to schools despite making official reports about them.
Some of it was funny, like having a lieutenant threaten to write me up for not having my cap on while on scene where a barricaded wackadoo was taking pot shots out of his trailer while coming down from something or other. “What if the news shows up how will you look! Consider your bearing!”
Some of it was upsetting like the female officer they gave the full time position I had been chasing with my prefered department to who a married captain was sleeping with put not one but two rounds of buckshot into the cruiser headlights and engine while trying to load and cruiser safe the shotgun she had drawn from the armory.
Some of it was sad like being written up for wasting department resources for driving a housebound old lady to the store to get groceries or seeing the kids who had been turning their lives around in job placement and education programs end up dead in the street after the programs were shut down so the mayor could use the funds for overpaying the no bid contracts he made sure his friends and family got.
But the final straw was seeing the writing on the wall knowing that we were not allowed and would not be supported if we actually did our job as peace officers and protected citizens instead of acting as reveue generators for the city. Being admonished to work for the clock and not your fellow citizens isn’t something I could do.
Steve · November 7, 2022 at 9:55 pm
I feel for you.
I knew several peace officers growing up. One memorable chap knew everywhere the HS kids went to drink, and he would show up and confiscate the booze, but not issue any tickets or anything like that. Once he was sure there was someone sober to drive, he told you to go home. Not what you are thinking. He would show up at church Sunday morning and hand the alcohol over to your dad. Not many repeat offenders, if you know what I mean.
Somewhere along the line, cops morphed from peace officers into “lawn forcement” — glorified tax collectors, or more correctly, brigands and highwaymen.
Could probably return to peace officers, but the incentives are wrong. If you work for the state, you have to do what the state wants done, which is amass wealth and power. I doubt the state, now having tastted wealth and power, would voluntarily give it up. I think it’s probably going to have to be private sector peace officers. There is a demand. It’s just that we aren’t going to demand that you pull over people with expired tabs…
JaimeInTexas · November 8, 2022 at 11:01 am
Now, that is funny in a sad way. The cops, law enforcement officers, they are the civilians.
Active in the armed forces, military.
Not military, civilian.
Sigh! I remember when it was supposedly peace officers.
Dirty Dingus McGee · November 7, 2022 at 7:12 pm
In my 65 years, I have met good cops. Both of them. The less interactions I have with police, especially federal, the better my life is.
Brutus · November 7, 2022 at 8:04 pm
Traffic enforcement is mostly just a euphemism for brigandage.
It's just Boris · November 7, 2022 at 9:05 pm
Worth noting, perhaps, that your list goes beyond just cops. It’s pretty much the whole criminal justice system from street to trial.
Exile1981 · November 7, 2022 at 9:21 pm
Besides the ones i mentioned earlier i had a guy in a tiny hatch back cut me off in the city one day and then wave a gun at me. Called the cops and after much run around point out it was a city cop on stress leave who they refused to charge as he would be pensioned out rather than given stress leave.
Another city cop threatened to charge me for fighting back after a meth head tried to car jack me and stabbed me with a screw driver.
Exile1981
WDS · November 8, 2022 at 9:06 am
I’ve noticed that one of the biggest problems with bad cops is even when they are fired they just apply at another department because all departments claim they’re understaffed and are desperate for trained officers. The answer is that they must be de-certified after dismissal. Recently my county’s Sheriff’s Dept. hired some “roid-rager” fired from another jurisdiction and had to pay a hefty settlement because of his actions in the field.
JaimeInTexas · November 8, 2022 at 11:06 am
Which State? Impossible to do in Texas,at least, no way a department can claim an officer’s prior work in another Texas’ department.
WDS · November 9, 2022 at 9:02 am
South Carolina
Anonymous · November 8, 2022 at 10:23 am
The situation of a majority of bad cops comes from the situation of a majority of bad voters. Most voters are commies, because the instinctual human political organization is the monkey troop, which is communist.
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