5 ms·
Police in America are a cesspool of scum, dishonor, poor judgement, poor impulse control, and sociopathic behavior. It's not every cop, but on the other hand it
by waterphone 10y ago
Police in America are a cesspool of scum, dishonor, poor judgement, poor impulse control, and sociopathic behavior. It's not every cop, but on the other hand it's also the system as a whole, which does affect every cop. Police are not good. They are not to be trusted. They are a barely controlled monster that we ostensibly hold the leash to but increasingly are getting bitten by.
It shouldn't be normal to be constantly filled with rage by the actions of police officers. It shouldn't be normal to silently celebrate whenever a police officer is killed. It shouldn't be normal to have to consciously put on an exaggeratedly compliant persona when interacting with police so they don't kill you. It shouldn't be normal to be a law abiding citizen who actively avoids any interaction with police because you might end up in jail or dead. It shouldn't be normal to have to refuse to talk to police because they can and will use anything you say against you if they feel so inclined, even if you're completely innocent of anything. But it is normal. And that needs to stop.
- dang 10y agoPlease don't post rage rants to Hacker News. This is not the kind of discourse we want here, regardless of one's position on excess use of force by police, etc. This, in particular, is egregious: "silently celebrate whenever a police officer is killed". You can't comment like that here. Please don't do it again.
- civilian 10y agoIs he raging? waterphone sounds depressed about these state of affairs, not rage-filled. He doesn't want to be happy about an officer's death, but in the face of the behavior of our police force? It's weird how our monkeybrains celebrate the death of a member of a corrupt and insane organization.
- feld 10y agoI think it's blunt honesty that many of us can resonate with. Thank diety I'm a white male, but we're no longer "exempt" from this behavior anymore either. I can only begin to imagine the emotions of a targeted demographic. It's obvious there's a larger problem when young children of all walks of life know that something "bad" is happening when they see a police officer. If the system wasn't so vile they would be happy and thankful to see a police officer because they are "good" people who provide "protection". You know, like how kids feel about firemen. Have you ever met a child that was terrified a fireman was going to burn down their house?
- PopsiclePete 10y agoI'm a European immigrant to the US and honestly, I wouldn't have stayed if I weren't a white male. There's a lot of great things about the US but a lot of terrifying things about it to, crime and the police being two of them. Again, as long as you're a white male, one is mostly shielded from those. If I were any other kind of ethnicity, I'd have stayed in Europe. Fewer opportunities, but better to be slightly poorer than dead, I say.
- cloudjacker 10y agoWhite males were never 'exempt' You can squeeze in 4 dead black males into primetime annually but this doesn't account for the other 1000 Americans killed by police under equally dubious circumstances It has always been this way in the US Think about it, count on your hand the people you remember being killed
- dang 10y agoI see your point and approve of your charitable reading. Still, there's no interpretation of the HN guidelines by which inflammatory rhetoric like that belongs here, and it isn't a defense of police abuses to point this out. Like most of you, we get mad when we read these articles. At the same time, HN calls for thoughtful discourse, not blaring or venting. There's no contradiction here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
- ryanobjc 10y agoI couldn't disagree with your more. The author was using interesting rhetoric and you misquoted him in an attempt to censor him. You are asking people to silently and politely discuss issues that very serious and very problematic. Honestly, seeing the moderator of HN say this, has made me question if HN is worth participating in anymore. To me this is the turning point where 'dang' demands civility in uncivil situations and mutes and waters down the discussion. I very dissapointed in you.
- scrollaway 10y agoYou're blowing things way out of proportion. I also disagree with dang's assessment of the situation but I can also understand being bothered by the quoted statement. I'm bothered with it because I strongly disagree with it - I think the US should be ashamed of its police forces but certainly do not "silently celebrate" when they are killed.
- waterphone 10y agoI'm not advocating the celebration of the death of police officers, I'm acknowledging and lamenting that it's come to the point that a lot of people are responding that way. It shouldn't, and we as members of society need to work towards a way that we can have lawful, trustworthy police officers again who we don't respond to with fear and hatred.
- dang 10y ago
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jack9 10y ago> It shouldn't be normal to be a law abiding citizen who actively avoids any interaction with police because you might end up in jail or dead. It's normal in many countries (some depending on ethnicity or local customs). A few 1st, many 2nd or every 3rd world country. Saud, China, India, Russia, Mexico, etc the list isn't short.
- laurentoget 10y agoNone of those other countries think of themselves as 'The Land of the Free', though, or routinely invades other country on the pretext of restoring human rights.