Having gone through the military selection process and the initial stages of becoming a cop, I can tell you that the military will take just about anyone, whereas the process to become an LEO is much more difficult. I believe they are actually targeting the assholes to be cops because I think they want police that people are afraid of. The days of Andy Griffith are over.
I guess it is a matter of perspective. I will sit down and have a cup of coffee with an officer any day of the week. I find most willing to help if needed and many to be friendly. I wouldn't hesitate to call the police and if in Beaverton, I expect they will respond to my call in 10 minutes or less. I see the fact that Beaverton has an abundant amount of police a good thing and the more that are out and about the better. If a majority of the population is afraid of the police, the mayor should be notified. I doubt he wants a community like that and wouldn't put up with most of the police being assholes. It ultimately could cost the mayor his job. But this board seem to very anti-police so maybe I'm living in fantasy land . . . I accept that my perception of the police may be wrong.
Like NWA said........... Growing up in an almost all-white suburb where the only thing there was for the cops could focus on was teenagers having fun and traffic infractions...... I had my share of unnecessary bullshit run-ins. A "speeding" violation where I was supposedly being wreckless and driving 37 in a 25 (I was not) and somehow ended up face down on the pavement in hand cuffs before being released with nothing more than a speeding ticket (which was thrown out after a complaint to the city, and BTW, that cop had to have been flying to catch me because it was our HS po-po and he was 100 feet away from his car when I left the parking lot and he caught up to me 2.5 miles down the road). Or driving home at 10:30 at night to my parents' house and, as after parking and I'm getting out to go into my parents' house, and stopped and detained and interviewed for 90 minutes (the police were in the neighborhood looking for kids that were moving for sale signs and just running through people's yards). I could go on for hours with stories and incidents. Seriously, I can't believe how shitty they treated us teens, and they still do treat the kids like that. I know a few good police officers, but most of those I have dealt with live up to the various stereotypes people toss out about the police.
Updated: 11/06/2013 4:03 PM | Created: 11/05/2013 10:22 PM By: Chris Ramirez, KOB Eyewitness News 4 It's a story that has left the entire country wondering about the state of law enforcement in New Mexico. 4 On Your Side revealed how David Eckert rolled through a stop sign in Deming. A K-9 named Leo alerted that it sniffed drugs on Eckert's driver's seat. And, for the next 14 hours, those police officers, and doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center performed eight medical procedures including x-rays, rectal finger exams, enemas, and finally a colonoscopy. According to a federal lawsuit, officers Bobby Orosco and Robert Chavez were two of the officers involved, and they never found drugs inside Eckert. Our investigation reveals another chapter. Another man, another minor traffic violation, another incident with Leo the K-9 and another example of the violation of a man's body. Police reports state deputies stopped Timothy Young because he turned without putting his blinker on. Again, Leo the K-9 alerts on Young's seat. Young is taken to the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, and just like Eckert, he's subjected to medical procedures including x-rays of his stomach and an anal exam. Again, police found nothing, and again the procedures were done without consent, and in a county not covered by the search warrant. We've learned more about that drug dog, Leo, that seems to get it wrong pretty often. He might be getting it wrong because he's not even certified in New Mexico. If you take a look at the dog's certification, the dog did get trained. But his certification to be a drug dog expired in April 2011. K-9s need yearly re-certification courses, and Leo is falling behind. "We have done public requests to find anything that would show this dog has been trained, we have evidence that this dog has had false alerts in the past," Eckert's attorney Shannon Kennedy said. The doctors from the Gila Regional Medical Center have been turned over to the state licensing board. It's possible they could lose the ability to practice medicine. And the police officers will be answering to a law enforcement board. http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3210356.shtml?cat=500#.Unri9T8UaNF
I get what you are saying. I have personally been harassed by the police when I was young. Now, personally, I deserved it as I was constantly "bending" the laws and totally disrespected the cops . . . but I used to not like police for a stage in my life. I look at them differently now. I treat them respectfully and they do the same in kind. And Nate is right, this isn't Mayberry anymore . . . but that goes on both sides. Forget meth, the bad kids these days are smoking or snorting bath salts (no joke), jacking cars and and possibly packing. 5+ years of trying catch the bad guys (who have no rules they must go by) and they probably start assuming everyone lies and steals. So I could see how they might take out there aggressions on kids unjustifiably, and that is wrong. Reminds me a little of skateboarders. There are some in the area that make it very unpleasant to hang around a park or walk by certain areas or to my car. I swear one is going to take out my knee cap as they do tricks off a wall I'm walking right by. I try to confront them but they are just looking for a reason to get into a verbal then physical fight. After years of putting up with the park and garage skateboard rats, now I find myself not liking any skateboarders and waningt the police around. But I sigh as I realize I sound so old and fuddy duddy . . . and when I rode a skateboard, I hated dudes like me . . . and the police.
Meh, I was super-respectful and never really caused problems. Most of the kids I knew growing up were too. It's just the constant harassment caused us to grow up with a different view of police officers, and it's one that has never changed, in large part due to the amount of negative press they get for doing dumb shit (like the OP). Growing up in Wilsonville, the worst thing any of us were doing was loitering in parking lots. The amount of time the cops spent "dealing" with us was absurd, and it's really caused me to have a mistrust. I've had more negative encounters than positive.
I worked on a Police Advisory Board in HS, and worked with the departments to get a lot of that BS behavior reduced. There are dick cops, just as there are dick mailmen and dick lawyers and dick waiters, and the ones who go over the line should be held accountable. On a slight tangent, the OP reminded me of this: I can't speak to the truth of the rumor that Sly has 3 of these in his basement.
Turns out this isn't the first time. The very same cops have done forced anal searches on other victims. http://news.yahoo.com/police-turn-routine-traffic-stops-into-cavity-searches-201433510.html
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Jurors awarded more than $101,000 to a Happy Valley woman who was a victim of identity theft and wrongly arrested by Clackamas County sheriff's deputies. The Oregonian reports jurors deliberated less than two hours before reaching a verdict upholding Kimberly Fossen's claims of negligence and false imprisonment against Clackamas County. Fossen was arrested in 2009 and spent a night in jail and was arraigned in shackles before she was released. An arrest warrant had been issued in New York accusing her of theft. The woman police were looking for had assumed Fossen's identity. Fossen told deputies about the identity theft when they arrested her and asked them to check her fingerprints.
