How Do You Do It, Token?

[Snaggletiger]

[Kaos]

I watched a couple of officers in NYC wrangle with an aggressive, belligerent indigent and then the small crowd of Ocassionally Cortez wannabes that started heckling them for doing their job last week. 

I'm telling you bluntly that I'd last maybe 48 hours as a police officer.  At some point during that time I'm going to pull my sidearm and leave some clown laying on the street in a puddle of his own ignorance.  And then I'm going after the loudmouths in the crowd until I run out of ammo.  Hopefully I'll have a sympathetic partner who'd loan me his gun if there are still any morons left when I run out. 

Those guys were patient to a fault, both with the guy who had started a disturbance and with the people who were giving them crap.  Handled it way better than I would have.  

Yes I know there are a few thrill-seeking jerks with self-esteem issues out there in uniform.  No offense, Token, but we don't pay police officers enough to completely weed that crowd out or be selective enough to completely exclude them.  But for the most part?  Those guys (and girls) handle one of the toughest jobs in the world with a reserve and dignity I don't think I could maintain.  

[Snaggletiger]

A couple of months ago, there were cop cars zipping through the neighborhood around my office.  I had just left to run an errand and I see a cruiser stopped in front of a vacant lot up ahead.  There's an Officer confronting a young guy.  At the edge of the lot, there's 7-8 hecklers.  I stopped because the guy was getting real aggressive towards the cop and swinging a back pack at him.  The cop was telling him over and over to get on the ground.  I opened my door and started to get out of the truck when the hecklers started moving closer to them, but it was just then that the cop gave him a few blasts of pepper spray and another cruiser was pulling up.

The cop was using every bit of restraint and it looked like it could have turned out to be a pretty dangerous situation.  Here's how to diffuse the whole thing.  When a Police Officer tells you to stop or get on the ground, the correct response is to immediately do what you were told. I've said this before and I'll say it again:

If you don't simply comply, most Police Officers have that same pepper spray, a big stick they can hit you with, a taze me bro, a gun and possibly a dog he can unleash on your punk ass.  But he also has a little radio perched up on his shoulder that he can use to summon 100 other Officers who are carrying the same instruments of pain and destruction which can also be quickly unleashed on your punk ass.

Just shut your fucking pie hole and comply.  There's still going to be instances where cops way overstep their boundaries.  They're human.  But those instances are 1 in a million and would occur less than that if people would just see the part above about shutting their fucking pie holes.  

[Token]

It's simple, really.

I treat everyone accordingly.  If you are an honest tax paying citizen running a little late to work so you're noticeably speeding? I simply ask you to slow it down a little and have a good day.  If you call 911 because something has happened and you need to make a report?  I listen attentively and try to help you problem solve the situation in the most efficient way possible.  If you've had a wreck?  I remove you from the road to a safe place and try to make everything as smooth as possible.  Having a wreck is bad enough without having to deal with a lazy smartass too.  (fuck state troopers)  If you are a piece of shit, look like a piece of shit, drive a piece of shit car and are driving slowly through neighborhoods that you have zero reason to be in?  I pull you over, ask you what in the fuck you are doing in that neighborhood.  I ask why you aren't at work.  I ask if you've been in trouble.  I ask if you are on probation.  If you are on probation I remove you from the vehicle and search your shit.  I check your SSN for warrants.  If you are lucky enough to not have a single thing against you that could lead to your going to jail, I kindly ask that you get the fuck out of my area and tell you if I see you again I won't be as kind. 

All of that works because I work for a Sheriff's Office with a predominantly white majority rural area of coverage.  If I had to work in a major city it wouldn't be as a civil servant.  I refuse to serve the uncivil.

[Snaggletiger]

It's simple, really.

I treat everyone accordingly.  If you are an honest tax paying citizen running a little late to work so you're noticeably speeding? I simply ask you to slow it down a little and have a good day.  If you call 911 because something has happened and you need to make a report?  I listen attentively and try to help you problem solve the situation in the most efficient way possible.  If you've had a wreck?  I remove you from the road to a safe place and try to make everything as smooth as possible.  Having a wreck is bad enough without having to deal with a lazy smartass too.  (fuck state troopers)  If you are a piece of shit, look like a piece of shit, drive a piece of shit car and are driving slowly through neighborhoods that you have zero reason to be in?  I pull you over, ask you what in the fuck you are doing in that neighborhood.  I ask why you aren't at work.  I ask if you've been in trouble.  I ask if you are on probation.  If you are on probation I remove you from the vehicle and search your shit.  I check your SSN for warrants.  If you are lucky enough to not have a single thing against you that could lead to your going to jail, I kindly ask that you get the fuck out of my area and tell you if I see you again I won't be as kind. 

All of that works because I work for a Sheriff's Office with a predominantly white majority rural area of coverage.  If I had to work in a major city it wouldn't be as a civil servant.  I refuse to serve the uncivil.

Are they all trained in Georgia?

[Token]

Are they all trained in Georgia?

No.  But they do have an academy session that is twice as long as every other law enforcement training academy in the US where they spend the extra 6 weeks telling them how much more awesome they are than everyone else.  Then they get out on their own and realize they are really just pussies with ticket books and wreck diagrams.  From that point they do one of two things.  

1. They become disgruntled because they realize they are actually completely worthless so they punish every decent human being they see with a ticket. (Notice they rarely have a piece of shit car pulled over with a driver who likely won't pay his ticket)

2. They realize they been fed a line of shit so they sit under a shade tree watching movies during their regular shift doing the least amount of work possible then make an extra $60,000 in OT sitting on the interstate in construction zones watching movies and day dreaming about the day they can retire and not have to wear a car door as a badge.  

[chityeah]

I've walked away for more encounters with the police when they could have found something(rightfully so). All I did when approached was say, "Yep ya got the tater". Now what can I do to make this easy for us both? Do as told, get scolded and on my merry way.
Friends ask how I could be so compliant if I didn't do nuttin. Well, because if I'm having an encounter with five-o. I've probably done something to warrant a look see. If they were honest with them selves they would realize they did too. Just do as asked, keep your mouth closed and give the shortest answer possible. Thanks for what you and your brothers and sisters in arms do.    
This a PSA for the X

[jmar]

Had family in Fulton Co. and Jeffco who were officers and I decided to check it out via the reserve route which was weekends and maybe one weekday per week...strictly volunteer as a deputy. So I got certified, had full arrest powers and conducted myself mostly as Token described above.

Enjoyed it at first but it was on my dime including court dates which were often moved and the silly politics within the group itself. The real problem however was the wife, she hated it or maybe it was me she hated. Anyway,  that was three years of my life. Learned from it but it wasn't meant for me. My hat's off to you Token.

[Kaos]

No.  But they do have an academy session that is twice as long as every other law enforcement training academy in the US where they spend the extra 6 weeks telling them how much more awesome they are than everyone else.  Then they get out on their own and realize they are really just pussies with ticket books and wreck diagrams.  From that point they do one of two things. 

1. They become disgruntled because they realize they are actually completely worthless so they punish every decent human being they see with a ticket. (Notice they rarely have a piece of shit car pulled over with a driver who likely won't pay his ticket)

2. They realize they been fed a line of shit so they sit under a shade tree watching movies during their regular shift doing the least amount of work possible then make an extra $60,000 in OT sitting on the interstate in construction zones watching movies and day dreaming about the day they can retire and not have to wear a car door as a badge. 

I take back what I said.  

I'd like to be a Trooper, sir.