Tag: Police

Police Debate

Griz

We have a ton of debate to defund the police, or disband the police, some support the police…

Me, I support the police until the individual officers do something that proves that they are not worthy of the badge. Qualified immunity needs to go. We are held accountable for what we do, they should be held accountable too.

Now, we are starting to get a push to get the police to not perform traffic stops because a nit wit got confused and shot a guy who was trying to escape.

Sorry dude, but you are dead because you were stupid. Do not fight with the cops. Do not try to run from that fight either. Fatal stupidity. Yes, he was barely an adult and he will not learn from the mistake. Should he have been shot? No, the intended tasing should have been sufficient. Does it rise to the level of the charges that the cop got? hard to say, I will leave that one to the jury to decide.

Our police departments are partially to blame for what is happening to society. The people out running around are acting as though there are no consequences for their actions. When I first got my license, I got popped for speeding on my way to work. Yes I was in a hurry. Yes, I was going too fast. You know what? It made my more mindful of my speeds. I have only had a few speeding tickets in my life and one of them I very MUCH earned.

Watch the drivers around you. Look at all of the stupid shit that they do. They do not care about anyone but themselves. They are not planning their trip to make sure that they get a decent lane in time to avoid an ugly merge issue. This zipper bullshit is a great way to meet me as I plow into the side of your car when you FAIL TO FUCKING YIELD. I really hope that my dash cam is able to pick up the look of sheer terror and disbelief on impacts as well. The cab of your nice little sports car will look like a damn marshmallow factory exploded with all those air bogs going off. Yes, I would post it all over social media for the world to enjoy as well. Try me.

Should a minor object such as an air freshener be a primary offense to allow for a cop to pull you over? Nope! It certainly can be a secondary offense. In my state, you must have and use a litter bag in your car. Will they pull you over for it? Nope, but they will site you. If your car is clean, they will probably just mention it. If you have all kinds of crap that would likely fall out when opening a door, you may well get cited.

What Pissed Me Off Today?

Griz

Anyone who has been with or around me for any period of time knows that I enjoy debate. To be more specific I engage in respectful debate.

This morning a lifelong friend had a meme with a cartoon image of a protester bearing a picket stating “Cops aren’t supposed to kill guilty people either.”

Okay cool, the sentiment is clearly well intended.

My response was “sometimes we just chalk it up as a cost cutting measure as well as preventing recidivism. It is a case by case basis.”

It started going sideways when I stood by it not being sarcasm.

The consensus of the group was that I was arrogant, wrong, privileged, unamerican, and a few other things. In the end I was silenced so I stepped away from their [what is the non-sexist version of a hen-fest? oh. I got it…] self congratulating clusterfuck.

I am on the whole quite liberal, but I do have some conservative marbling. Those issues where I am not fully to the left. I am also pretty unapologetic about it. Don’t go pearl clutching if I am not so far to the left that I set the new standard for how radical one can be.

I do not appreciate being vilified while engaging in a civil discourse. If a person B disagrees with the position of person A, they can discuss it, find common ground, learn, or back away with the understanding that they are not going to meet eye to eye on a subject.

I was infantry and my major when I got out was criminal justice administration. One would think that it would cause a bias toward the cops. Well let’s take a moment to realize that the reason that I started studying law was the night that my biker mother was illegally frisked [groped?] by a Vancouver cop while I was in junior high. Yes it was a long time ago, but it was a watershed moment in my life.

Circling back to the impetus of this post, do I think that cops should be randomly executing people? Hell no! Should we have a judicial system handle case to ensure that the rights of the people are protected while they face the allegations against them? hell yes!

If suspect A has barricaded himself in a mall corridor after killing seven people in the food court and is killed during an exchange of gunfire with the police… while I shed a tear. Fuck no! There are plenty of instances where I will not shed a tear while a body bag is being zipped up.

Harm my family and see how torn up I get when the M.E. carts your stupid ass away. Show up in my bedroom in the middle of the night without my knowledge… When you enter my home without my consent or harm me or my loved ones, you forfeit your rights to maintain a pulse. Yes, I have been arrested, no it does not scare me. Get over it, I know that I will.

No, our cops are not judges. That is not their part of separation of duties. That have largely been reduced to a glorified taxi driver. Many hate them, many love them, and me… I afford respect to all officers until they give be reason to start reducing my levels of respect.