I think most police officers mean well. They're just trapped in a system that gives them the job of 'hurting people'. Most of the police I interacted with were

I think most police officers mean well. They're just trapped in a system that gives them the job of 'hurting people'. Most of the police I interacted with were good guys. I got pulled over twice - the scottsdale officer bounced over & told me why he'd pulled me over (instead of asking for a confession). The sheriff asked for a confession ("Do you know why I pulled you over?", "I have some ideas..."), but decided I didn't need a ticket for missing that stop sign and gave me a written warning. A retired cop I know was telling a cop story which included him telling someone "I don't make the rules I just enforce them." I've realized this is probably the origin of the term 'cop out'. These diaries are two of my recent efforts to better define the tension between police and the public: America's Make-Work Sheriff: The Anachronism of Joseph Arpaio - http://www.taxiwars.org/2017/09/americas-make-work-sheriff-anachronism.html http://www.taxiwars.org/2017/09/americas-make-work-sheriff-a... Ordinary Rendition: The Public Servants' Quagmire - http://www.taxiwars.org/2017/10/ordinary-rendition-public-servants.html http://www.taxiwars.org/2017/10/ordinary-rendition-public-se... 'Advice from a cop' was one of my earliest diaries at kuro5hin.org (RIP) - http://www.taxiwars.org/2012/04/15-sprinter-addict-advice-from-cop.html http://www.taxiwars.org/2012/04/15-sprinter-addict-advice-fr... - "Officer Steel" (I guess) really put the police's job in perspective for me. Really the politicians need to be held accountable for screwing up the police's job - institutionalized racism was replaced with an unwinnable 'war on drugs'. I learned about 'mens rea' (guilty mind) and 'strict liability' ("crimes" where no victim is required) from some HN comments (thanks, whoever that was): > Mens rea (/ˈmɛnz ˈriːə/; Law Latin for "guilty mind"[1][2][3]) is the mental element of 1) intention to commit a crime or 2) knowledge that one's action or lack of action would cause a crime to be committed. It is a necessary element of many crimes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea > A regulatory offence or quasi-criminal offence is a class of crime in which the standard for proving culpability has been lowered so a mens rea (Latin for "guilty mind") element is not required. Such offences are used to deter potential offenders from dangerous behaviour rather than to impose punishment for moral wrongdoing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_liability_crime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_liability_crime