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'We used to have informal contests for who could cite or arrest someone for the weirdest law. DUI on a bicycle, non-regulation number of brooms on your tow truc

'We used to have informal contests for who could cite or arrest someone for the weirdest law. DUI on a bicycle, non-regulation number of brooms on your tow truck (27700(a)(1) of the California Vehicle Code)… shit like that. For me, police work was a logic puzzle for arresting people, regardless of their actual threat to the community. As ashamed as I am to admit it, it needs to be said: stripping people of their freedom felt like a game to me for many years.' 'In fact, let me tell you about an extremely formative experience: in my police academy class, we had a clique of around six trainees who routinely bullied and harassed other students: intentionally scuffing another trainee’s shoes to get them in trouble during inspection, sexually harassing female trainees, cracking racist jokes, and so on. Every quarter, we were to write anonymous evaluations of our squadmates. I wrote scathing accounts of their behavior, thinking I was helping keep bad apples out of law enforcement and believing I would be protected. Instead, the academy staff read my complaints to them out loud and outed me to them and never punished them, causing me to get harassed for the rest of my academy class. That’s how I learned that even police leadership hates rats. That’s why no one is “changing things from the inside.” They can’t, the structure won’t allow it.'

Waterluvian 6y ago
I remember bullying when I was a kid. It can be intoxicating. Seems like many or most American police forces are just “being a bully as a profession.”
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  > I remember bullying when I was a kid. It can be intoxicating. Seems like many or most American police forces are just “being a bully as a profession.” It was clear for anyone who has had to deal with LEO to see that they openly vett for those qualities seen in grade-school bullies in their hiring: low IQ, poor academic performance, often troubled and broken home life, possible mental defects that lead to violent tendencies and a propensity for intimidation. I'd say that's quite accurate, most people here have had a very skewed perception of Police as some sort of misrepresented entity and only are now starting to see just how systemic it is. Seeing them shot journalists, tear gas peaceful people, and use excessive force with compliant citizens is nothing but the norm. But, we've been here before and the pressure needs to be applied to PDs all over the US that this will not be tolerated any longer. Some did give into protesters, but that is not enough in my opinion. > I find the post hard to believe. There's zero evidence any of this is real. Police budgets need to be slashed until they comply, which means they lose their pensions without meeting very clear defined benchmarks and officers who have records for misconduct need to be tried for their crimes as any civilian would, instead of just using the same tired 'bad apple' apologist narrative like the one above. The fact that we allowed them to be Militarized should be seen for the stark and immense folly of what happens to a Society that becomes apathetic and desensitized to perpetual erosion on Civil Liberties and Law itself; I still can't fathom who the hell anyone thought Civil Asset Forfeiture was anything but a State Sanctioned shake-down/extortion racket on the populace, because even if you are proven to be innocent the State doesn't have to return the stolen property, and as some exposes revealed [1] they often used it for their own personal largess. And this is typically seen if you have ever gone to court, or jury duty, there will be a litany of cases you'll hear about dismissed cases needing to appeal for the money or property taken from them upon detainment or arrest. Its sickening, because even if it is dismissed you still have to pay them for the duration of your arrest, and then to have the records of the arrest/detainment be removed, as well as have any DNA records expunged from the records. This entire system has to be rebuilt, it simply doesn't serve the People who fund it. And most will never realize that until its too late and they found themselves marred by the very system they condoned. 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/06/05/cops-in-texas-seize-millions-by-policing-for-profit/#1a689c4f1a81 https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/06/05/...
koheripbal 6y ago
I find the post hard to believe. There's zero evidence any of this is real.
- cyaren 6y ago
  Although the quality of the author’s writing is surprising, we need to ask good questions about what was written. If the claims are false, they should be easy to disprove. Just because this story sounds hard to believe doesnt relieve us of the duty to ensure its not true. Eg big company. Controller suspected of fraud. Company investigates even though they cant believe it would be true.
thephyber 6y ago
> We used to have informal contests for who could cite or arrest someone for the weirdest law. There are books and websites written about the dumbest laws still on the books, which give police lots of flexibility to shop for a charge if they really want to get you. > NEW JERSEY - All motorists must honk before passing another car, bicyclist, skater, and even a skateboarder.[1] I've tried to figure out how to incentivize my representatives to drop useless laws, but I don't know how. I can't imagine basic old shame works these days when thousands of US voters send social media death threats to "the other team" on a daily basis. [1] http://www.dumblaws.com/law/1293 http://www.dumblaws.com/law/1293
_bxg1 6y ago
I feel the need to point out, since this is the top comment, that there are numerous reasons to believe this piece is not real.
- otterley 6y ago
  Can you enumerate these reasons? Just saying "there are reasons" is not very useful to anyone.
  - _bxg1 6y ago
    Other comments go through them but I'll surface some here: - Single-post, anonymous account - Weird characterizations and worded with a lot of political ideology - "Officer A. Cab" -> ACAB It would be incredibly easy to write a fake post exactly like this, and it just reads as very fake and unrealistic. There is zero reason to believe it's real. Let us (myself included) not indulge our preconceived notions without a critical eye.
    - otterley 6y ago
      Can you offer any evidence about the truth or falsity of the specific claims in the article? Or does it just "smell fishy"? The former is enlightening; the latter is based solely on circumstantial evidence and suggests bias. I'm not saying he's telling the truth about every claim made, but as a trained attorney who worked for a Federal district judge for some time, I know enough about the law and have met enough LEOs in person not to completely discount everything said here.
      - _bxg1 6y ago
        I can compare the value of incorporating this into my worldview if it is true, against the harm of incorporating it if it isn't true. If it's true, it doesn't tell me anything new or inform my opinions in any helpful way. If it's false, it needlessly entrenches my already strong feelings on the matter and gives me a charged, bad data point. I'm automatically suspicious of anything that plays too perfectly into whatever my emotions want me to believe. I don't see any downside to discarding this one, suspect data point among many other, less-suspect ones.

Waterluvian 6y ago

I remember bullying when I was a kid. It can be intoxicating. Seems like many or most American police forces are just “being a bully as a profession.”

Melting_Harps 6y ago
> I remember bullying when I was a kid. It can be intoxicating. Seems like many or most American police forces are just “being a bully as a profession.” It was clear for anyone who has had to deal with LEO to see that they openly vett for those qualities seen in grade-school bullies in their hiring: low IQ, poor academic performance, often troubled and broken home life, possible mental defects that lead to violent tendencies and a propensity for intimidation. I'd say that's quite accurate, most people here have had a very skewed perception of Police as some sort of misrepresented entity and only are now starting to see just how systemic it is. Seeing them shot journalists, tear gas peaceful people, and use excessive force with compliant citizens is nothing but the norm. But, we've been here before and the pressure needs to be applied to PDs all over the US that this will not be tolerated any longer. Some did give into protesters, but that is not enough in my opinion. > I find the post hard to believe. There's zero evidence any of this is real. Police budgets need to be slashed until they comply, which means they lose their pensions without meeting very clear defined benchmarks and officers who have records for misconduct need to be tried for their crimes as any civilian would, instead of just using the same tired 'bad apple' apologist narrative like the one above. The fact that we allowed them to be Militarized should be seen for the stark and immense folly of what happens to a Society that becomes apathetic and desensitized to perpetual erosion on Civil Liberties and Law itself; I still can't fathom who the hell anyone thought Civil Asset Forfeiture was anything but a State Sanctioned shake-down/extortion racket on the populace, because even if you are proven to be innocent the State doesn't have to return the stolen property, and as some exposes revealed [1] they often used it for their own personal largess. And this is typically seen if you have ever gone to court, or jury duty, there will be a litany of cases you'll hear about dismissed cases needing to appeal for the money or property taken from them upon detainment or arrest. Its sickening, because even if it is dismissed you still have to pay them for the duration of your arrest, and then to have the records of the arrest/detainment be removed, as well as have any DNA records expunged from the records. This entire system has to be rebuilt, it simply doesn't serve the People who fund it. And most will never realize that until its too late and they found themselves marred by the very system they condoned. 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/06/05/cops-in-texas-seize-millions-by-policing-for-profit/#1a689c4f1a81 https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/06/05/...

koheripbal 6y ago

I find the post hard to believe. There's zero evidence any of this is real.

cyaren 6y ago
Although the quality of the author’s writing is surprising, we need to ask good questions about what was written. If the claims are false, they should be easy to disprove. Just because this story sounds hard to believe doesnt relieve us of the duty to ensure its not true. Eg big company. Controller suspected of fraud. Company investigates even though they cant believe it would be true.

thephyber 6y ago

> We used to have informal contests for who could cite or arrest someone for the weirdest law. There are books and websites written about the dumbest laws still on the books, which give police lots of flexibility to shop for a charge if they really want to get you. > NEW JERSEY - All motorists must honk before passing another car, bicyclist, skater, and even a skateboarder.[1] I've tried to figure out how to incentivize my representatives to drop useless laws, but I don't know how. I can't imagine basic old shame works these days when thousands of US voters send social media death threats to "the other team" on a daily basis. [1] http://www.dumblaws.com/law/1293 http://www.dumblaws.com/law/1293

_bxg1 6y ago

I feel the need to point out, since this is the top comment, that there are numerous reasons to believe this piece is not real.

otterley 6y ago
Can you enumerate these reasons? Just saying "there are reasons" is not very useful to anyone.
- _bxg1 6y ago
  Other comments go through them but I'll surface some here: - Single-post, anonymous account - Weird characterizations and worded with a lot of political ideology - "Officer A. Cab" -> ACAB It would be incredibly easy to write a fake post exactly like this, and it just reads as very fake and unrealistic. There is zero reason to believe it's real. Let us (myself included) not indulge our preconceived notions without a critical eye.
  - otterley 6y ago
    Can you offer any evidence about the truth or falsity of the specific claims in the article? Or does it just "smell fishy"? The former is enlightening; the latter is based solely on circumstantial evidence and suggests bias. I'm not saying he's telling the truth about every claim made, but as a trained attorney who worked for a Federal district judge for some time, I know enough about the law and have met enough LEOs in person not to completely discount everything said here.
    - _bxg1 6y ago
      I can compare the value of incorporating this into my worldview if it is true, against the harm of incorporating it if it isn't true. If it's true, it doesn't tell me anything new or inform my opinions in any helpful way. If it's false, it needlessly entrenches my already strong feelings on the matter and gives me a charged, bad data point. I'm automatically suspicious of anything that plays too perfectly into whatever my emotions want me to believe. I don't see any downside to discarding this one, suspect data point among many other, less-suspect ones.