Increasing hostility to Men & Women in Blue?

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On the web millions of folks bash politicians, the military, school teachers, college professors, union members and everyone else. Let one person put up a post on police misconduct and he's accused of "police bashing" and/or "hating cops". :D

The CATO Institute tracks police misconduct:

http://www.policemisconduct.net/databases/
 
People who don't like cops don't like them for a reason. They're either perps themselves or have them in their families. Show some documentation to prove this. Because otherwise it is just another made up bunch of crap like most statistics. Or they're just anti government in general. Again, prove your belief. I distrust police but am not in anyway anti-government.The vast majority of people live their lives without giving cops a second thought, except when they pass one on the highway and they are speeding. The funny part is when I am caught speeding I readily admit what I was doing. Yet I have still been treated rudely and interrogated unnecessarily.

The reason for the animosity towards cops is a general loss of morals in this country, and an obvious media bias. The Michael Brown shooting is a perfect example. Thug assaults a cop and gets killed and the media portrays the cop as trigger happy and the lowlifes looting as "protestors". Used to be ONE cop could clear a corner. Not anymore Used to be cops were looked at as being there to help not roust everyone including the victim and treat them as badly as the criminal. Or look at everyone as if they are a criminal.
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The only point you proved here, other than insulting several members of this forum, is that you believe that the police are somehow exempt from public scrutiny.
 
Homerboy wrote;
People who don't like cops don't like them for a reason. They're either perps themselves or have them in their families. Or they're just anti government in general.
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DING DING DING ! WE HAVE A WINNER ! This ^^ Is a perfect example of the mindset of many in "Law Enforcement" This mindset is the reason for the increasingly poor perception of officers, in general.

In your successful attempt to offend as many of us here as possible, you provide the "Smoking Gun" This is priceless ! :D

When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks more like a nail !
 
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The really sad part is, when you juxtapose that rather offensive statement with the post made by officer Malibru Earlier in this thread. Many officers, I'm sure, fall somewhere in between those extremes.

Either way, there is a disconnect in this Country between "them" and "us" that surely needs to be repaired.
 
I agree, and I understand police officers must act with due regard to keep themselves and the public safe. But there is a line between being cautious and being an ******* and actually provoking a confrontation that probably never would have happened. Slow down, speak calmly and clearly so the person you are talking to can understand what you are saying and give them time to respond. Obviously things are different if the person is loud or violent, but they can't treat everyone as if they are.
 
Show me proof that I'm wrong. This is a forum where people speak their opinions. And that is mine. I am the only cop (retired now) in my family. None of my family are cops and only a couple of friends are still active. And I still say that the vast majority of people don't even think of cops unless they pass one on the highway or the media runs a biased story of cops taking action. Some lowlife gets shot trying to take a cops gun and the media paints the cops as overreacting as they roll out armorer cars to avoid the rocks and Molotov cocktails

Law abiding people have very few contacts with police. The few cases that that isn't the case hit the web and people make uninformed statements based on only some of he facts

Eric garner, a 400 pound asthmatic with high blood pressure decides to resist arrest for selling untaxed cigarettes, and he dies after a cop takes him down, and all we here about is "cop kills man for selling cigarettes". No mention of his morbid obesity and the fact that if he complied with a lawful arrest than he would still be alive

By the way, got very few complaints while on the job. Delivered 2 babies and helped many an old lady cross the street. Slim jimmied many a locked car open and got countless people on the subway when they forgot their metrocard. No problem with interacting with the community. And it's not an "us vs them" thing either. The decent people were included in the "us" portion. It was us against the low lives and rabble rousers.
 
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I can say happily that where i live i feel like the cops have been fair to me. Every time ive had an "unpleasant experience" i was doing something wrong sure, that's the point though, if youre seen to be breaking the law then the result is not supposed to be pleasant. When i was younger i got pulled over and questioned many times for things like "tag lights" and such. My car was a junker, and to them i might have seemed suspicious at the time. Paid many fines as a result so i avoided police at all costs because it always just ended up costing me money. If youre throwing rocks at police cars or shouting at people in uniform then you can best believe the result will not be pleasant. I thing the media have made things out to be worse than they are much of the time, but then, there have always been those few crooked ones whove soured the badges respect for the rest.
 
I don't even bother to call the police anymore for theft or vandalism -- they are too busy writing seat belt tickets or eating donuts or fighting real crime (or whatever it is cops do) to even show up and take a report. I don't expect them to actually investigate my little crime, but I need that report to file an insurance claim. I'm speaking from personal experience here; multiple times.

I have a lot of sympathy (empathy?) for repeat victims that go vigilante, like that pharmacy owner in Oklahoma.
 
Isn't blaming the media sort of like blaming the messenger?
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It would be if they were actually messengers, but instead they selectively decide which messages you will receive and discard the others, re-write the message in their own words in way to make to you believe it says what they want you to think it should mean. Every 3rd grader knows you can make your friends begin to hate somebody they have never met if all they hear is your evaluation and version of of events concerning that person.

Unconvinced? make up an imaginary "guy at work" and come home and complain about him to your wife for a week. At the end of the week, point out a random guy and tell your wife "that's him", and watch her reaction.
 
@Homerboy

I'm sorry if any of this sounds like political advocacy or advocating the violation of laws. I advocate neither thing. Just because you disagree with a law doesn't mean you can ignore it and just because I'm expressing that some people disagree with laws doesn't mean I support that disagreement.

However, I think a distinction needs to be made between criminality and political activism. I get that from the LEO perspective any law-breaking is criminality. It's the job of LEOs to uphold the law, not make political decisions. However, it's also true that some of the most significant political activism comes in the form of civil disobedience. The most obvious example of this is the Civil Rights act of 1964.

People can talk about the hostility between the police and the black community right now, but during the civil rights era, the situation was much, much, worse. Why? Because the police where charged with enforcing laws that the majority of citizens in many communities saw as unjust. Did that mean that those entire communities were criminal? Or did it mean that the police had become caught up in the middle of a much larger political struggle?

Currently, there are a few such unpopular laws, for example, the prohibition of marijuana. Polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of americans oppose marijuana prohibition but the fact remains that in most jurisdictions, cultivation, sale, and/or possession of marijuana is a criminal offense. Thus, in the majority of communities across America police are charged with enforcing a law that much of the community resents as unjust. The LEOs view these people as criminals, but the community itself does not.

So ultimately, I do think this is largely a political issue. LEOs have been caught in a vice between the government and the populace.

Now again, let me clarify, I am not anti-government. I think the USA is the best country in the world and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I do not support the violation of laws. If you want to be a political activist there are plenty of legal ways to express yourself in this country.

I'm also not trying to make this a political discussion about the civil rights act or marijuana prohibition. This not the place for that. However, if you don't talk about the effects that these types of social movements have upon the relationship between the police and the public then I think you're missing a central aspect of the issue.

Politics DO play a big role in the quality of the relationship between LEOs and the rest of us.
 
Stumbled across this story as a link to a different story I was reading:

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/...121352.html?_osource=outbrain_recirc=obinsite

Capsule summary: 20-year veteran officer sends sexually explicit messages to two under-age members of the local scout Explorer post, of which he happens to be the advisor. Then he kidnaps and assaults one of the girls.

This was going on for at least three years before he was arrested. I used to have friends in Trumbull, CT. It's a small, bedroom community type of town with a comparatively small department. I very much doubt that this could have gone on for three or more years without at least one other member of the force being aware of it. But, if any other officers were aware, they did or said nothing.

And that's the problem. Protecting brother officers is more important to most cops than doing what's right (and, BTW, required by law).
 
I will say this, despite how bad you think it is today, I'm not seeing crowds of people chanting "OFF THE PIGS!!!" like I did some decades ago.....

I'm also reminded of the quote (or misquote) about how "the 5% of politicians who are actually honest make it tough for the rest of us..."

There are good people in the police. There are not so good people in the police. The trouble is that the good will of a hundred of Mayberry's Sherriff Andys is wiped out by a single stormtrooper wanna be with a badge.

AND its those bad actors that the press delights in showing us, over and over.
 
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