How much do you trust the police?

I generally do trust officers individually, though, as a force, I am more leery. Especially with the fact that when police incidents of brutality are filed, lawyers for the police officers' union intervene.

I have a relative who is in law enforcement (well, prison guard) and many police officers who my dad is friends with because of his work. They all seem genuinely nice. I actually considered a career in law enforcement but had to abandon it (vision really sucks ). I think in general it helps that many police departments, and especially federal agencies, like to hire college graduates.

The only incident that really made me question police a bit was when my 7th grade teacher, who was really nice, lost $20. Might I add, I went to a mostly Black middle school. The school police officer (a licensed peace officer), who was Black himself, came and asked all the males to remove their shoes and empty their pockets. I complied but went a bit on the offensive, within bounds. I made a little spiel if he had ever heard of the 4th Amendment (yes, I know courts have ruled that schools have different applications of the amendment, but the search was done in a discriminatory manner (i.e. only males) and without any reasonable basis for that). He did get a little embarrassed. The teacher later discovered the money was misplaced by her :eusa_doh:. What's surprising is that for the entire week, I got a lot of little tchotchkes from them. I never did complain officially, but only for my parents' sake. One of them would have had an aneurysm. I've actually never told them :lol:

 

For some reason, university police officers are an entirely different breed. I don't know why. They don't have as much negativity and seem to treat students fairly. Maybe it's because, on the whole, universities don't represent the full extent of society's ills. Well, their graduates can be become whackier upon having lived more of life.

 

i don't i just don't
it comes from upbringing i guess i never had any reason personally not to i just can't seem to trust them.

 

Except when it comes to traffic/parking tickets. My university's police officers (peace officers, not the security guards), seem to really not give warnings at all. Straight to a fine for any violation of speed limit/parking inappropriately. Much less slack than municipal police officers, in my opinion.

 

In my hometown area, yea, my cousin was the chief of police for my area of my town, so yes I trusted him. He has now retired and I do not know who the new one is. They do a lot of good and care about the residents, even if my family can be rather annoying for them at time. I live in area of town that is non-residential, and is technically considered industrial because of the train tracks beside my property one side of and the gas well on the other. Because of that, my family can shoot our guns, make loud noise, and even use pounds legal explosives without getting in trouble. I only have one neighbor anyways, and they are on the other side of the tracks.

People who live on the other side of wood and up the road have called the cops on us so many times that is kinda funny. A couple of them have been told to stop calling or the cops were going to file harassment charges. I mean they were calling nearly everyday. Which meant the cops kept coming to my house. They checked the range the first couple of times to make sure it was legal, besides that they would come say hi and say have a nice day.

The ones at school seem trustworthy too. I trust them, I am a little leary of campus security, but a lot of the ones who were causing problems were fired though, so they are probably just as good.

 

As much as I trust my mother on crack.

 

I know the parking services at my university are another group entirely from campus police, and I swear they have a six sense for when someone is illegally parked. They swoop in like vultures.

 

I think as with any other group, it's a mixed bag, and it's hard to issue a blanket statement.

But I'll always remember one cop who might have saved my life, and helped me a great deal.

I was in college, and had a Mohawk at the time, in Michigan. I was walking from campus and to this restaurant where I worked part time, off campus. On the way there, I walked past this cafe where all these beefy frat-boy sorts hung out, and a couple of them shouted some pretty rude, offensive comments. Normally, I would have just ignored them, but that day, I was in a bad mood, and turned back, and said, 'Fuck You!'.

So I'm walking down a few blocks, and almost at work; this is in a retail part of the town, when all of the sudden, my head is slammed against the pavement, out of nowhere. I was bleeding, and had a concussion, was semi-conscious. It turns out the two guys had trailed me in their car, and jumped me. But at the same time, a cop had been right behind them, and saw the whole thing, stopped and came to my aid. I was sorta delirious, and thought he'd immediately blame me, for being weird looking, but instead, he was very helpful. He helped me through the process of pressing charges, and he was there at the pre-trial. I ended up dropping the charges in exchange for a settlement; a long story, but it gave me new respect for the police. I had an excellent witness, so there was no easy getting out of it for them.

This officer regularly patrolled that area, and maybe a year later, I ran across him, and he asked me if those guys had given me any more trouble. It felt nice to know that even though I was this rebellious punk kid, he was looking out for me.

What was kinda funny is that the guy driving the car that day was drunk, and it was a company car, so they impounded it, and he got a DUI charge. Justice works in odd ways.

So yes, there are crooked cops, but I'll never forget the one who quite possibly saved me from who knows what...officer Williams was him name, odd, I recall it all these years later.

 

Absolutely totally not at all. The police are protectors of money and the exchange of money, the hired terrorists of the ruling class. You are a damned fool to trust them at all.

 

Well, one pretty much saved my life, or damn close.

I think it's stupid to just throw them all in one category. Yes, gross abuses of power happen, I'm not naive. But from my own story, outlined above, in post 28. It's hard for me to just dismiss them as protecting money and power...I was a relatively poor, scruffy, punk anti-establishment kid, the guys who jumped me were suave MBAs, with money. Had the cop wanted to protect the status quo, he would have arrested me, and let them off.

 

In my hometown, the Chief of Police was forced to resign over a sexual harassment suit and blatant mismanagement of the department. Here's a brief overview from the local paper.

 

It's not about individuals... whether some are good and some not. It's their job, which is not to protect people, but to protect the exchange of money. In places where that matters, there will more respect for people (if they're white). In places, and people who don't count in the economy, cops can do whatever they want, and do.

Not about whether individual cops are good or bad, it's the job they're paid to to do, which is NOT to be your friend. Unless you're one of the wealthy elite, and the right skin shade, and don't speak with an accent.

Cops are an occupying force. If you think they're ok, it's cause they take you for one of the colonial occupiers. We live in an almost world wide police state, with surveillance that would have made the Gestapo or the Stasi jealous. Wake up and smell the ... um.. not roses...

 

In general? NO, not at all.

I'm very aware that many many cops are great at their job.

I've just seen different where I live. Especially when it comes to domestic violence. Like the cop that wouldn't do anything about my stepfather *breaking the front window* in order to get into the house when he was piss-drunk and angry ("it's his house too"), and the other cop who wouldn't do anything about my stepfather yelling and screaming outside the house (these were separate occasions), *DESPITE THE FACT* that he had been sent to jail twice at that point for beating up my mother.
Needless to say, I had to redial 911 not 10 minutes later on both occasions.

 

Just so long as you realize this is your opinion and not fact then alright

Foxface

 

I respect them, but I am also aware of the fact that some of them can be bad people and others can have bad days, so I just do what they say to the letter until I can go free. As a general rule I behave as if all of them want to shoot my head off and are looking for any reason they can to do so, just to be on the safe side. Cops scare me.

 

I do not trust them in the slightest.

 

My Grandfather was a police officer so yes I do trust them, they have a hard job to do and they do it the best they can.

 

If not for the police coming along when I got beat up in college, I could have died. I weighed maybe 110? This guy, 200 easy. I'm on the pavement, this isn't good.

I'd like to thank the East Lansing Police Department for not looking at me like a stereotype/freak/queer, and helping me out, like a person, same as anyone.

 

50/50. I never go up to a cop fully trusting, nor fully doubting. I've met those who have been good and are faithful to the actual reason they're there: For the justice of the law. And there are obviously corrupt ones. I've come across a couple, as well.