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I once accidentally mistook my white neighbor as a burglar, as he tried to break into his front door with a plastic snow shovel at 3 in the morning. At least a

I once accidentally mistook my white neighbor as a burglar, as he tried to break into his front door with a plastic snow shovel at 3 in the morning. At least a dozen cops showed up - six police cars, including a K-9 unit. Needless to say I was embarrassed and felt bad, but my neighbor was too drunk to remember. This is in Michigan, so it really does seem to be common practice to send half the force to a burglary in progress. The cops handled it well. On the flip side of that, cops in Ohio illegally entered my brothers apartment with guns drawn while he was at work, terrifying his wife who called him saying people were breaking in, causing him to race home at very unsafe speeds while trying to contact the local police. When entering they didn't identify themselves, laughed at my sister-in-law, and didn't apologize for having the wrong address. Despite checking with a few lawyers, they were told there's nothing to be done other than file a complaint with the police.

johansch 11y ago
As a European, this just reinforces my belief that South Park is a documentary, not a comic extrapolation of reality... :/ I mean.. to begin with, what can they accomplish with 6 cars with 2 cops each that they can't with a third of that force? Not to start with how much more complicated it must be to coordinate 12 cops compared to 4. From a foreign perspective: Americans always seem to try brute force, as opposed to something balanced. My theory: We get better police officers in Scandinavia since it's not a low-paid job here, relatively speaking. It's not a way of the local power-hungry losers to get the positions of power they crave. I know few local and young police officers here; it's my honest assessment that none of them went into this line of work because they craved power.
- xlm1717 11y ago
  I don't think it's so much try brute force as it is "use it or lose it". This thinking is pervasive throughout all levels of government in the US. Let's say the police do decide to send three cop cars instead of six, and do so consistently. When it comes time to request budget money, the people in charge of handing out that money can say, "well you don't really need as much funding since so many of your cops are sitting idle at a given time."
  - johansch 11y ago
    So people are dying (because of overblown, badly coordinated) police efforts and the reason is the way funds are allocated in the US? That makes me even sadder. Sounds plausible though.

johansch 11y ago

As a European, this just reinforces my belief that South Park is a documentary, not a comic extrapolation of reality... :/ I mean.. to begin with, what can they accomplish with 6 cars with 2 cops each that they can't with a third of that force? Not to start with how much more complicated it must be to coordinate 12 cops compared to 4. From a foreign perspective: Americans always seem to try brute force, as opposed to something balanced. My theory: We get better police officers in Scandinavia since it's not a low-paid job here, relatively speaking. It's not a way of the local power-hungry losers to get the positions of power they crave. I know few local and young police officers here; it's my honest assessment that none of them went into this line of work because they craved power.

xlm1717 11y ago
I don't think it's so much try brute force as it is "use it or lose it". This thinking is pervasive throughout all levels of government in the US. Let's say the police do decide to send three cop cars instead of six, and do so consistently. When it comes time to request budget money, the people in charge of handing out that money can say, "well you don't really need as much funding since so many of your cops are sitting idle at a given time."
- johansch 11y ago
  So people are dying (because of overblown, badly coordinated) police efforts and the reason is the way funds are allocated in the US? That makes me even sadder. Sounds plausible though.