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> Don't judge all the the US by its corrupt big cities. > I recognize nothing in this story in my town's local police (we're about 65,000 population, and the c
by alsetmusic 9y ago
> Don't judge all the the US by its corrupt big cities.
> I recognize nothing in this story in my town's local police (we're about 65,000 population, and the cops are quite relaxed and civil as a default).
I was stopped without explanation in Andover, KS (population < 12000 as of 2010). Officers harassed me and threatened to arrest me when I would not allow them to search my vehicle. They claimed that they smelled pot in the car. I Was not a pot smoker and was borrowing the vehicle from an anti drug family member while mine was in the shop. The claim was bogus and they were clearly trying to intimidate me.
In a neighboring city (Wichita), police responding to a 911 call that I placed after being robbed at gunpoint played good-cop-bad-cop with me. They suspected that my roommate and I were selling pot (we weren’t) and refused to press charges on the assailant because they assumed we were withholding information. I tried to call them on it, but I was unsuccessful. They didn’t give a shit about us because of the assumptions they made coming into the situation.
FWIW, I have two friends who are cops. I do not think all cops are bad people. Your dismissal of the issue is problematic.
- Spooky23 9y agoPolice need to deal with every walk of life. I just served on a jury where the police were made to sound like a bunch of idiots by the defense because a person who appeared to be a witness wasn’t interrogated like you were.
- lozenge 9y agoAggressively interrogate victims of crime, and you will find nobody wants to report crime or even cooperate with the police any more. That's far more damaging than missing the opportunity to prosecute a single drugs case, but it isn't measurable.
- Spooky23 9y agoI didn't say drug case, because it wasn't relevant. In my situation, a young woman was killed by a car. So a person is dead, and neither the victim's family and friends, the perpetrator's family or others will really know if justice were served. That's not making excuses for corruption or the despicable conduct in Baltimore. But sometimes our perception of police conduct goes one way because we haven't walked a mile in their shoes, and don't have the big picture of how their world works.
- Density 9y agoI too think they're massively removed from the world regular people live in.
- DrScump 9y agorefused to press charges Police don't press charges. DAs press charges; police are merely witnesses in criminal cases.
- ams6110 9y agoWell we can trade anecdotes, it doesn't really prove anything. A relative was stopped by the cops, with weed and a pipe visible in the car, and was just told "keep that out of sight" and this is a state where it's not legal. Why? Because the local prosecutor does not prosecute simple possession cases and they know it would just be a huge waste of their time to bring people in and book them just to have the cases dismissed.