We got raided late last week at our office in Austin Texas - we were working late on a demo for the game Star Citizen, and while the game was compiling we went out on our porch overlooking the hill country galleria. Security saw us up there and called the police, they came into our office weapons drawn pointing guns at people until they realized we were a bunch of programmers, designers and artists making a game. They apologized, liked our game and left.....but it still has me perplexed - having a gun pointed at my employees face as they open the door is unnecessary - and wtf happened to tasers? Why are we shooting first now? DD
The less I see police the better in my opinion. Extra police presence in a neighborhood doesn't really mean a safer neighborhood, just more speeding tickets.
While your police question is certainly valid, why did your building security call the police on tenants? Isn't part of the building security job to check things out before calling in the police? I would think my response would be a phone call to the police chief to complain about the police tactics and also an irate phone call to building management wondering why their tenants (who I assume work a lot of late nights and weird hours) are having the police called on them.
I don't think people realize how understaffed HPD is. It is not an easy nor a quick process to find or train someone to become a police officer, and for good reason. Houston is the second fastest growing city in the nation with no shortage of crime. Of course they cannot investigate every single burglary - there simply isn't enough time and enough people to do so. A friend of mine is an office at HPD and the vast majority of his time is spent responding to calls and writing reports over piddly arguments and fights between family members and/or residents in low income neighborhoods. He rarely writes speeding tickets, or any traffic tickets at all. My advice to you, OP, is to find a better way to protect your belongings. Invest in some security cameras if this stuff keeps happening to you. Stop relying on police and take matters into your own hands. HPD is not CSI and cannot track down every person that commits a burglary. I have been fortunate to have never been burglarized, but I would like to think that part of the reason for that is that I always been extremely cautious with my car and home. Simple things like not leaving blinds open with all the lights off when you aren't home, not parking in isolated areas and/or leaving valuables in your car, etc.
Sooo . . .set our expectations low when it comes to the people paid to police and investigate . . .. everything is DIY now. . . . Rocket River
You know, I did exactly that and complained to our owner - and he basically made up some story about us making a big commotion after midnight and ignoring the security guard. It was BS - there were 3 people on the balcony trying to pronounce a weird stores name while the game was compiling, and the security lady came around the corner - and quickly called the police without even checking with our guys. I am getting a copy of the report to send to the landlord - who is a class A jerk by the way - just to make sure he knows it was BS. DD
I'm just talking about HPD. I would absolutely recommend setting your expectations low and taking matters into your own hands (legally, that is, in ways to keep you from having to deal with the police or in ways that make their job easy). I'm sure there are a lot of very competent HPD officers, but any city this size that is growing this fast is just bound to have dysfunctional government and as a product of that dysfunctional police as a whole.
The simple answer to why “…we…” are “shooting first” now, DD… …is fear. Hard to think critically or rationally when you’re scared. And anyway, fear has a built-in mechanism for alleviating its conditional onset ― fight or flight. Works wonders for human beings too, who can always fall back into primordial survival instinct and act however they see fit, and immediately evolve into any type of rationale to justify the behavior. Guess it took more than just opposable thumbs to move mankind a notch or two up on the food chain. To be fair, especially in light of everything that’s gone on the last few weeks…police officers don’t often get called out to kids’ birthday parties or all-night keggers (unless it’s to break them up). Nobody calls the cops if everything’s okay. And so, police officers don’t often get to see people on their best behavior. Many times, their mere presence creates an anxiety that isn’t especially conducive to soothing tense social situations they’re called upon to investigate or intercede in. The expectations for police conduct are very high, especially given that sometimes, life or death decisions for many people hang on the discretion of police (who, at the moment they interact with the public, are in essence the whole writ of law). I remember what it was like, being afraid all the time. Grew up in a pretty nasty part of Houston, on its good days. We called where we lived “Death Valley” because of all the bodies lying around. Never saw so many dead bodies before, that people seemed not to be bothered by. See enough of that, often enough…marking how indiscriminate death was (age or gender or infirmity or image or “deserves” didn’t matter), and you start to seriously wonder when it’ll be your turn. I know what it’s like now to not let whatever you’re afraid of get in the way of your living your life. But the closest I’ve come to what police officers encounter daily was what I did over in Kuwait in 1992. And strangely, that’s about the time I said I wouldn’t let what scared me lead me around. That’s tough enough to do WITHOUT a badge, I’d imagine. Police went from “protecting and serving” to “patrolling and controlling” a long time ago. Fear is an excellent motivator, I’m told. Kind of sucks at determining “threats” and the like, though….
Is it possible that somebody found out that DD was shooting his latest Rockets video blog and was incorrectly reported?
Are you generalizing? While SOME cops may be crooked/lazy/whatever, I find your massive generalization of police offensive. I have family members who are police officers, they do a damn good job and they're the furthest thing from lazy.
I'm still waiting to hear back from a complaint I filed to the HPD after an officer assaulted me and arrested me, completely randomly, without cause 18 months ago. They claim it is "still under investigation." Meanwhile, cop I spoke to told me that the cop who assaulted me has been ordered by a court 5 times to take mandatory anger management classes (none of which the cop has attended). Cops are absolute scumbags, more than any other profession, there is absolutely no standard to become a cop, any jackass can become one. I have no respect for the profession
Yet have something go wrong and they'll be the first people you call.... I get the disdain for cops, but sometimes people go over the top with it. For the most part, we treat cops like crap yet expect them to treat us well AND solve all of our major problems.
Cause if a 'call others' to handle it. . . . we all going to jail for doing the cop's jobs . . . DUH!?!?! you options are: 1. let the crooks get away 2. let the cops handle it . .. which might mean they will probably get way 3. handle it yourself and be treated like the criminal [unless you you shooting black folx and you are white] Rocket River
If your Fam are a bunch of good cops. . . How many bad cops have they turned in? I think that is my new standard . . . you cannot be a good cop . . . if you turn a blind eye to all the bad cops. Rocket River
"When seconds matter, the police are minutes away." Car broken into? Didn't call the cops. See a guy standing on my patio at 3am? Didn't call the cops. Someone close to me was sexually assaulted? Knew the guy's name and went to the cops and they didn't do ****. Someone actually breaks in to my home and I am there? I will call the cops after the fact. This is such a lame talking point. I'll grab my shotgun before I grab my phone if something goes wrong. I'm not trying to be a tough guy but this is logically the best plan. They are good for noise disturbances and traffic control though.
Guilty until proven innocent, right. Good standard there. You don't even know sew's family and you are presuming them to either be bad cops or protecting those who are. I hope people don't talk about your family that way.
Well that's good, there should be more people like you. I was talking about those who talk **** about cops all day long then immediately call them to come to their aid as soon as the first thing goes wrong. I'm in the same boat, I've never felt the need to call cops to come fix a situation and have only done so to report something that had already happened. The more people who take care of themselves, the better we all are. The more the cops are getting called out to McDonald's because they ran out of chicken nuggets, the worse off we all are.
