haha

I never said I wouldn't call the cops, I have twice. They weren't helpful either time.

I never said I respected them, I said I was polite and courteous. Respect is earned, and I've never met a cop that's deserved my respect. I hope someday one will.

Your test is oh so hard, but apparently doesn't include a grammar or reading comprehension section .

- Computer Cowboy
(and for the record, I don't work in an office, I'm in the real estate business . thanks for playing, though.)

 

Real estate!?! LMAO!! Now there is a well respected industry!!! Work in the real estate business, but you don't have an office? Business is that bad for you, or did I hit a little too close to home? I think so! Boy do I like running into your type!!! They are so much fun, watching them turn so red that you think they are going to pop!!


Later!

 

Woo, I'm gonna grab some popcorn here...

 

ROFLMAO!! yep! I know! I guess should be showing him more courtesy, after all, he risks his life every day playing a person of power on this site, right? Gunslingin' moderator of an internet site about cars. What was that about power trips?

Guess it won't be too long before he throws that Mod card down on the table!



*mod edit*: poof!! consider the mod card played

 

Business is quite good, don't even worry about that . I average about 5 appointments a day, and I work 5-6 days a week. You probably don't own property, so maybe you don't know what an appraisal costs, but ask around and if the math isn't too complicated for you, crunch the numbers. This week's gotten off to a slow start (that's why I had time to get you so riled up a bit earlier), but the rest of the week looks promising.

LOL you're cute. I just like to sticky good threads and move ones that are in the wrong forum. Didn't you say something about not posting anymore in this thread?

- Computer Cowboy

 

Ok, this is starting to get ugly. I won't be grabbing a bag of popcorn, but I will say this:

The police system in the U.S. is fairly decentralized. With each county and city in charge of their own police forces. In L.A., we have the county Sheriff and LAPD. It's not inconceivable that police officers in different areas can be very different when confronting suspects. LAPD is notorious for their brutality towards suspects, and some of those suspects are later proved to be innocent.

Perhaps it's a different story in Chicago.

I, however, have encountered both mean and polite officers. Though I have to say, in my encounters, the polite officers are the minority. To police officers, sometimes intimidation is their biggest defense towards an unknown suspect. Officers don't know whether you are a true "good citizen" or just one that pretends to be one. Some situations can take a long time before they can identify you as harmless, and often their business with you ends before any conclusion can be drawn. So I understand why officers feel like they need to intimidate you at first.

I think police officers earn their respect not by being nice. But by doing their job, and doing it well. Beating up innocent people, however, is the opposite of a job well done.

fshwrcs, perhaps you'll feel like PMSing everytime you pull someone over if you were a police officer. People that you pull over aren't your customers, they're potential criminals. Hence, being nice doesn't save your life here. Some of your comments are quite immature. Sounds like you were using your sarcasm to vent more than making a rational comment or observation.

Three things both of you need to realize here:

1. Police officers put their lives on the line everyday.
2. Citizens don't like to be treated as criminals.
3. A conflict of interest is unavoidable. Officers want to do their job while staying alive, but citizens don't like to be intimidated and bossed around by people who are not their bosses.

If you met a police officer that is on duty, it's less likely that he/she will be nice to you. To the officer, he/she needs to be vigilant. And this at times, will put the officer at odds with the person that he/she suspects as a law breaker.

Both of you need to just drop the personal insults, and move on.

 

Dancingsun, I have a problem with something that you wrote. A police officer should treat everyone as if they are a potential victim and not as if they are a potential criminal. Treating someone that is a stranger to you as a criminal doesn't show respect it shows contempt. If you read my other post on this thread that is the cynical attitude of a lot of otherwise good policemen. I understand the safety issue of being ready for an attack. The last time I was stopped by a policeman it was 2:00am and he stopped me to tell me that my tag light was out. I am sure that he just wanted to check me out and used the tag light as an excuse to stop me. We were both polite and he let me go. No real problem. He was fishing for a criminal. Maybe a DUI or something else. Some officers use the time of day or night as a reason to stop someone. That is bogus. Criminals like to go home and sleep too. Most crimes occur in the afternoon hours when everyone is out and about. This is a peeve of mine because I rotate shifts and am on the roads at all hours. It is wrong to stop someone just because it is late. Too may stops are made just to see if someone may be doing something wrong and not because someone HAS done something wrong. A policemans job is to protect the people not to treat them as criminals and harrass them. My local police are usually inept and undertrained. Our Oklahoma state patrolmen are very different. They are very professional and do their job extremely well. I would not hesitate to call the OHP if I were in trouble. My local police would simply be more trouble.

 

Rationality and intelligence FTW

(last 2 posts)

 

I think unless you've had experience as a police officer, it isn't fair to pass judgement. How do you know what it's like to live the life of a police officer? They probably pull people over at random times because maybe it does catch the criminals once in awhile. We all have opinions about how a cop should behave in front of us and we'll always be disappointed when they don't meet our expectations. Just like we have opinions on lawyers, real estate agents, etc. I am glad we have good cops out there. I have met some very nice ones and not so nice ones.

 

I have always considered policemen to be public servants. As members of the public it is fair for all of us to pass judgment on the behavior of a police officer. Pulling people over at random is a violation of rights. There must be a reason to do it first. The first post on this thread shows how the attitude of a person is that has been pulled over for no reason other than the wrong approach by an officer. If the officer had a report of a vehicle being stolen that matched his cars description I can say that it was justified. If that had been the case and the officer didn't tell the person why he was pulled over that showed a lack of compassion for someone needlessy detained.

 

Not just compassion, but respect.

 

Treating all people that they come in contact with as potential victims instead of potential criminals would be a good way to get killed. A study was done that looked at the traits of officers killed in the line of duty not accident related. The study showed that officers who were always the type to give the benefit of the doubt to the people they came into contact with on a daily bassis were more likely to be killed by a criminal. The percentage of "nice" cops killed was far greater than the "mean" cop who treated everyone they contacted with suspicion while working. A little side note, they also found that policeman wearing hats on all traffic stops were injured or killed less often. In a perfect world things might be different, but this is far from a perfect world.


As for getting pulled over at 2 AM in the morning just to be checked out, why does that bother you? You would rather them not pull anybody over at all? To say that most crime is comitted during the day is not accurate. While most residential burglaries occur during daylight hours, there are many more crimes committed at night. If you are going to break in to a store, are you going to do it during the day, while people are around, or at 2 AM when nobody is around. Another point. Think of how many crimes are committed where a vehicle is NOT used at some point! Maybe 6-7 out of 100? Drug dealers transport drugs in them, burglars drive to and from the crime in them, people that are wanted drive places all the time. Traffic stops are a great tool in crime prevention. This does not even take in account how it might save your life one day and you would not even know it. You are going home one night at 2 AM, a half mile up the road a cop has a drunk that was driving with a headlight out pulled over and in cuffs. Who is to say that same drunk would not have swerved into your lane causing a head on collision?

I admit I am biased when it comes to this. How many other jobs do you know where there are people that want to kill you just for what you are wearing? kill a doctor for wearing scrubs? A nurse for wearing a white uniform? A doorman for wearing his outfit? A cop for wearing a badge?

 

By the way... regardless of what you have said, I still think you're an idiot for jumping to conclusions.

 

It's a trade off. If there's a better way that public saftey officers can protect the society I believe it would be through proper education. But that's easier said than done. And even then you will still face a similar problem: at what point would you say that instilling the values of a good citizen becomes brainwashing?

It's a matter of where to draw the line between public saftey and violating personal freedom (for the lack of a better word that comes to my head).

Usually, when a police approach a vehicle that they pulled over, I believe they suspect that the person(s) in the vehicle either broke the law or "looks like" somebody that might break the law. I don't think the police that pulled me over for speeding thinks I'm a victim of speeding. I'm not saying the police should treat "everyone" as a potential criminal, but most likely, they'll treat the people that they are "pursuing" as potential criminals (perhaps I should use law breakers, as criminals seems condemnatory). No, I don't like being treated like a criminal, and yes, I have been treated like a criminal before.

Back in college, I had a summer where I just got back to my rented home from school, and the house alarm went off before I could disarm it. So I stood there waiting for the telephone from the security company. Nope, still waiting. Then I fired up my Playstation in the living room and started playing NBA basketball. Lo and behold, 2 officers pushed open the front door (apparently, I was in a rush and didn't shut the door completely), and pointed their guns at me screaming something which I can't quite remember. They then screamed at me to put my hands behind my head. Then commanded me to get down on all fours and crawl backwards towards the font door. While I was still shocked, one officer yelled at me: "GET DOWN ON YOUR FOURS, DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ENGLISH!?" I'm Asian, so that did piss me off. With 2 handguns pointing at me, they intimidating alright, and didn't even bother to ask what happened (but should they?)

They cuffed my hands, called in another police car and had me sat outside my front door, with neighbors walking by, pointing fingers at me, and saying, "so young!" They then searched every room and closet in the house before they determined that it was a false alarm. I felt humiliated for about 20 mins in front of the public.

But in hind sight, I was glad that they showed up, at least that means the freaking alarm works and it shows that the police were really thorough at their job and in making sure that the criminal, if any, doesn't get away. It's true that they could've perceived me as a victim of a house robbery, but I think it's a better decision to perceive me as the potential robber given the circumstances.

Using the time of the day to as a reason to stop someone is actually backed by statistics. I work at USC and most crimes around the area happen during the weekends or during the night (I get the crime alert emails from the USC Department of Public Saftey all the time and they will report that time of day when the crime occured).

I haven't met any police officer that screens people at random, so I feel a bit reserved to comment on that. But then again, police officers are humans, so it follows there are good and there are bad police officers. As always, we hope that there are more good than bad.

But I concur, a good policemen knows when and where to draw the line between protecting and harassing the very people that they are trying to protect (edit: but sometimes, it's hard to know where to draw that line).

Disclaimer: While I am not an officer, I did watch the Discovery Channel. Kind of remind you of the "I did stayed at Holiday Inn last night" commercials eh?

 

There is some faulty logic! The "I pay your salary! Why don't you go find some real crime!" theory. No reason???? Did you read the post? No rear registration IS a reason. A police officer is sworn to do his best to protect the people that pay him. If that involves legally delaying someone for a few minutes while he checks them out, then that is what he will do. Nowhere here do I see anybody say that they were the victim of an unlawful stop. No rear registration, registration light out. All perfectly legal reasons to perform a stop. You might not like the reason, you may think it is stupid and that it violates your "rights" as a citizen, You might think it is not "justified" but until they change the laws, they ARE the laws and officers will use them to try and do thier jobs.

If you think that people should not get pulled over for not having plates on the car, don't tell it to the cop! Tell it to the people who make the laws!

 

Also, you can't have it both ways, you want to be able to sit and pass judgement on them, but then say you do not want them to do the same thing to you? "How dare him! Treat me like a criminal! Why, just by looking at me he should be able to tell I have done nothing wrong!"

 

Err....good point!

That's the reason we have laws, so that we don't need to rely on personal judgements!

 

If there were no reports of a stolen car with that description why did the officer not assume that the car was new and didn't have the plates yet? That is legal and a police officer should know that. Or he could have assumed that the person driving the car was a victim of theft. Checking someone out without a reason to is illegal. I don't pass judgement on a jerk cop until he acts like one. I expect him to not treat me like a criminal until I commit a crime. If he thinks that I MIGHT be commiting a crime that isn't reason to harrass me. My problem is that the wrong assumption is the reason too many times.

 

Come on! Listen to yourself! If he thinks that you might be committing a crime, then he SHOULD do something!!! Pulling someone over that has no plate on the back is not harrassment! Someone robbing grocery store yanks off the plates on his new honda before he does the job so nobody can get a plate number, the cop sees him driving down the road, not knowing about any robbery. According to you, he should not stop the car, but should ASSUME that it is only a new car that has done nothing wrong just so it does not delay the driver for a few minutes??

News flash! Police officers are not paid to assume that no crimes are being committed! That is why they call it PATROL! You are LOOKING for anything that looks out of the ordinary!

 

I agree with you about an officers needed suspicions. I don't agree that he should treat everyone as if they are a potential criminal. A person can be pulled over for a suspicion that something might be wrong and still be treated as a law abiding citizen until it has been seen otherwise. That is one difference between a jerk cop with no people skills and a good cop who has compassion as a fellow human being. I am sure it is easier to lump everyone onto the same category and treat them all the same. When I was stopped for the tag light being out it falls under improper display of the tag. Driving a pickup with a trailer ball that blocks the numbers does also. How many times is someone pulled over for that? In western Oklahoma it is never. Most farmers do that. Even our city vehicles have trailer balls mounted. I am not arguing completely what is legal but what is right and what is wrong. There are some things that are more right and some that are less right. The same can be said about wrongs. I lot of policemen look for the most wrong in a situation, like the car has to be stolen if the tags are not there. Cynical attitude. A traffic stop that can be legally justified may not be completely right. We all know that a lie about "you were swerving" might lead to a drug bust. The old "you didn't signal for the lane change" gets policemen around racial profiling. These things happen and give good cops a real problem in public perception. A person that can't deal with people and do the right thing shouldn't be a policeman. A lot of departments can't get enough people and can't be choosy. The jerks hurt everyone not just the citizens but fellow policemen too.