what do you think? (Police Harassment)?

Question

Police Harassment
> 
> Recently, the Chula Vista (So CA) Police Department ran an e-mail forum (a question and answer exchange) with the topic being, "Community Policing."
> 
> One of the civilian email participants posed the following question, "I would like to know how it is possible for police officers to continually harass people and get away with it?"
> 
> From the "other side" (the law enforcement side) Sgt. Bennett, obviously a cop with a sense of humor replied:
> 
> "First of all, let me tell you this...it's not easy. In Chula Vista ,  we average one cop for every 600 people. Only about 60% of those cops are on general duty (or what you might refer to as "patrol") where we do most of our harassing.
> 
> The rest are in non-harassing departments that do not allow them contact with the day to day innocents. And at any given moment, only one-fifth of the 60% patrollers are on duty and available for harassing people while the rest are off duty. So roughly, one cop is responsible for harassing about 5,000 residents.
> 
> When you toss in the commercial business, and tourist locations that attract people from other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is responsible for harassing 10,000 or more people a day. 
>  
> Now, your average ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds long. This gives a cop one second to harass a person, and then only three-fourths of a second to eat a donut AND then find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. To be honest, most cops are not up to this challenge day in and day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is utilize some tools to help us narrow down those people which we can realistically harass.
> 
> The tools available to us are as follows:
> 
> PHONE:  People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus on a person for special harassment. "My neighbor is beating his wife" is a code phrase used often.. This means we'll come out and give somebody some special harassment.
> 
> Another popular one is, "There's a guy breaking into a house." The harassment team is then put into action.
> 
> CARS:    We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars with no insurance or no driver's licenses and the like. It's lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for nothing more obvious than running a red light.  Sometimes you get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have drugs in the car, they are drunk, or have an outstanding warrant on file.
> 
> RUNNERS:         Some people take off running just at the sight of a police officer. Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after them like a beagle on the scent of a bunny. When you catch them you can harass them for hours.
> 
> STATUTES:      When we don't have PHONES or CARS and have nothing better to do, there are actually books that give us ideas for reasons to harass folks.  They are called "Statutes"; Criminal Codes, Motor Vehicle Codes, etc...  They all spell out all sorts of things for which you can really
> mess with people.
> 
> After you read the statute, you can just drive around for awhile until you find someone violating one of these listed offenses and harass them.  Just last week I saw a guy trying to steal a car. Well, there's this book we have that says that's not allowed. That meant I got permission to harass this guy. It is a really cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well.
> 
> We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass. And we get away with it. Why? Because for the good citizens who pay the tab, we try to keep the streets safe for them, and they pay us to "harass" some people.
> 
> Next time you are in my town, give me the old "single finger wave."  That's another one of those codes. It means, "You can harass me.”  It's one of our favorites.

? · Accepted Answer

Thank you Sgt. Bennett! I couldn't have said it any better.  Law enforcement is always seen as harassment by those violating the law.  You obviously have a great sense of humor.  It would have been a pleasure working for you.

? · Answer

1

geminisoup · Answer

Interestingly enough, I live in a town where the average is much higher.  I think there are 12 cops to every citizen, and they like to pull you over just to check whether you are wearing your seatbelt.  Funny that the cop (although I certainly appreciate a cop with a sense of humor - they're a dying breed) equates "statutes" with "laws", as they are NOT the same thing.  Google it.

Here's the thing.  They have quotas to fill.  They are primarily not keepers-of-the-peace, but fund-raisers for the city or county that employs them. Now THAT"S funny!  Imagine an old-west Sheriff who had a "quota" of people he had to hang every month.  

The whole idea of cops is supposed to be to protect people and property rights.  How is hauling a single mother to jail, who's just trying to get home from work to her child/children, because her license has been suspended, due to failure to make enough money to keep her insurance premiums up, doing the public a service?  She is non-violent, non-dangerous, and could be losing whatever minimum-wage job she works due to the arrest and/or not being able to afford bail in time to get to work the next day.  A citation wouldn't suffice?  You still get the fundraising thing because she'll have to pay court costs and fines and will undoubtedly miss work to sit in court for three hours (minimum) to satisfy the landsharks' vampiric hunger for a pound of flesh.  I know she feels properly protected.

Google Sheriff Richard Mack if you want to see what a REAL cop is supposed to look like.

And to those who have already answered this question:  No, I am not a criminal, just a reasonable person who looks OBJECTIVELY at what is going on around me.

One other pet peeve....it is said that "ignorance of the law is not an excuse", but what if these...er...."laws" are passed at such an alarming rate (and with NO nod to common sense) that it is impossible for the harmless, workaday citizen to keep up?  The "justice department" should be called something else......

? · Answer

The people who complain about generally being harassed on a daily basis are criminals. Period.  Most people never even come into contact with police on a day to day basis....and most people experience the most police contact on a simple traffic stop.  Being "harassed" is special treatment for people who just can't seem to follow the law.  Yes, cops harass criminals.  Yes, cops should scare criminals.  If cops do not harass and scare criminals, what good are they?  

The problem is, many criminals break the law so much, they forget what they are doing is against the law....therefore when the police are "harassing" them for breaking the law, they see nothing wrong with what they are doing, and blame the police.

Just ask yourself....those of you who have no criminal record....when was the last time YOU were harassed by police.

Anonymous · Answer

So many lf the replies on here are such horseshit. If someone is causing no harm to anyone or in posession of property that isnt theres then theres NO reason for a cop to be bothering them. You hear so much complaining in the media about the state being broke but so much tax money is wasted paying the salaries for these thugs with badges that promote fascism wherever they go

Anonymous · Answer

I live in Oakland, CA, 42 years old.
I have found that the Only people complaining about cops are those in the high crime neighborhoods where even the grandmothers drink in public.
From experience, people habitually breaking the law daily think cops harrass them because they are breaking the law! How many rich neighborhoods complain about cops?
It's only in the High crime areas where basically Everyone is guilty of something.
Fact not Fictional.

Anonymous · Answer

I think the vast majority of police get sexually aroused when they, Bust someone, wright a ticket or citation and harass someone.... I base this opinion on the way they act wile doing it..... Sorry to let the cat out of the bag PIGS

rjrmpk · Answer

Saw this explanation earlier on YA.

Still great!

Genegee · Answer

The person is obviously playing with you. Get over it.

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what do you think? (Police Harassment)?

9 Answers