How are there so many people on this board that have bad history with cops?

Doesn't take many experiences with cops to have a bad one. Unfortunately.

 

Because posters on this board are as ganstas on the interwebz as in real life.

 

Lots of hipsters on here.

 

White and middle-class?

 

If you cooperate, they are usually pretty cool. I've been arrested once and it was because I was being a drunk douche.

 

My bad experience:

I was 16. I took a friend over to his girlfriend's house at 2am. Her brother (who was her guardian) called the police thinking my friend was a burglar. I'm sitting out in my truck when my friend comes running out from the house and the guy with a gun. Then there are 6 police cars coming towards us.

Anyways, once they realize who it is, they call my friend an idiot and tell the cops they don't want to want to press charges and it was just a big misunderstanding.

Well, in GA there is a 12am - 6am curfew for minors. So they threaten me with a ticket and impounding my vehicle. I'm very polite and say I'll head straight home, etc. The a-hole keeps going at me, trying to piss me off. Then starts threatening me with another ticket for having too many people in my vehicle (you can only carry 2 unrelated passengers). I only have 2 passengers. I still haven't lost my cool at this point. I'm calmly explaining that I only have 2 passengers, and then the a-hole says tow the vehicle. I say **** and slam my hand down on the tailgate of the truck.

The officer tackles me, and handcuffs me. Says "I don't now how they do things in Warner Robins, but this is Byron." Warner Robins isn't a very big city, but Byron is so small it shared its courthouse with 4 counties. The court wasn't even a court.

That is my bad experience. I dislike cops for other reasons, but that was the worst.

 

It's interesting to me because while I've never had a bad experience with American cops ( and so generally am supportive of them), I've had a couple annoying experience with Japanese cops. Seriously, those guys are assholes.

 

Arrested for a unpaid speeding ticket.

The arresting officer called for backup and I overhead the 2nd cop tell the first one "We don't bring people in for unpaid speeding tickets" (this was in Cypress). The first cop shot back with "This is my first arrest, so I could use the practice".

While I was being processed the cops at the station were comparing who they'd brought in that night. One cop had arrested some guy that was in a bar fight and another one had arrested an older man with HIV trying to give head to a minor in a car in a nearby neighborhood. When those two cops heard I was brought in for an unpaid speeding ticket they almost wet their pants.

 

So the cop was an *******, because you didn't pay your ticket?

 

Surprisingly, the cops at where I live, a suburban 25K population city are pretty nice. I got pulled over because my registration was overdue. He gave me a warning and just told me to go fix it when I can.

Another; a cop (same city) ran across a football field with his guns drawn pointing at me. He told me to get on the grown... which I did. He said someone shot at him, but it doesn't seem like it was me. I was the only one else in the area. He then apologized.

But, raised in Oakland, the story is a little different. I didn't have any real bad experiences but I had friends with interesting stories, but those aren't mine to tell.

I can understand though. 3 of my H.S. friends/acquaintances became OPD. One of them said (paraphrasing) "the media makes the thug life to be glamorous, as if they were good people stuck in a bad social salutation with hidden hearts of gold. But the reality of it is most of them aren't. They make life hard for ordinary people so it's our job to make it hard for them."

 

He didn't say "F off". The cop was being a d******d. He threatened a minor twice and tackled him after getting the smallest excuse to do so. He should have just towed him if that was his intent from the get go.

Every police officer I've been in contact with has shown mutual respect. Grew up in a dojo so "yes sir" and "no sir" was imprinted in my head.

Yes, I respect law enforcement and those who defend us from harm. But that doesn't mean they have a right to verbally/physically abuse others. The respect ends once that line is crossed.

 

I've never even gotten as much as a speeding ticket and i've had multiple bad experiences with cops. My dad always told me when you meet a cop just be polite even if you don't mean it. Arguing with cops is a losing proposition, so i always go polite.

When i was 20, me and 2 of my buddies rented a house in Jersey Village. I worked nights and during the day i would walk to the corner store. A cop stopped me for believed truancy, i was very young looking so that didn't bother me too much, an honest mistake. But after my license confirmed i was 20, he preceded to search me, cuff me and hold me in the back of the car while he ran my record. And had a terrible attitude the whole way.

Another time a cop followed us from a store for almost 10 minutes waiting for something to pull us over for. He finally ticketed my buddy for loud noise by exhaust, and again searched all 3 guys in the car.

Lastly when i was a kid a guy my dad worked with tried to steal some of his tools, my dad hit him with a baseball bat as he was walking out of the house. The thief called the cops and they arrested my dad and let him walk away freely.


Aside from these instances, virtually every cop i have ever met has just in general had about as bad an attitude ad you will find. Its like they teach a-hole 101 at the academy.

There are a few genuinely good cops just trying to serve an protect, but most seem to be d-bags on a power trip.

 

This is a stupid thread.

 

Several reasons.
1. Stereotypes - Some cops allow their personal biases get in the way of professionalism
2. Authority - Some cops like their authority a bit too much
3. Not *ssKissing - Alot folx will respect the cops but they won't *sskiss. Some cops want their *ss kissed or they will hassle you.
4. We're just old - live long enough . . and you will run into that one exceptional A-hole of a cop.

My 1st experience with a cop was at age 16. My friend worked in the neighborhood convience store. I went to the store to visit him. It was run by some nice Arab guys and my friend was a black Jew [go figure]. Anyway, we are talking right outside and Starski and Hutch blaze up on the sceen asking us what we are doing their. My friend responded he worked there. . . I responded I was visiting him. They go on to interrogate me and ordered my friend into the store. I am proply put in the back the cop car where I cool my heels while getting berated and cursed at for 30 minutes. Everyone in my neighborhood looking to see WHO GOT BUSTED . .. quite one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. . my 'good kid' image . . .FLUSHED . . . my mom had to come out there . . . . and they still held me. After about 4 minutes. . . They let me out with out so much as an I'm Sorry.

That was only the first time . . .. there have been others since then . . .

BTW - being black helps you have a bad experience with some cops

May I ask . . . Were you born here? You said military , did you show your military id when they asked for it . . it is a subtle way to get out of things and get extra courtesy . . .. military Id goes a long way to soothing cops

Rocket River

 

To reply to this and to the OP question, you needn't have black or brown skin to realize there are some pretty nasty cops out there, though it certainly helps. You could also be a middle class white kid as long as you have long hair. From age 16-30, fully 25% of the time I was pulled over (and sometimes really and truly for no reason) I was asked for consent to search my car. If I said yes, they searched my car. If I said no, they said that gave them probable cause to search my car and then they searched my car.

I'm more shocked to meet a person that hasn't dealt with a dick cop than one that has on more than one occasion. There are cops out there that abuse their power because they just get off on it or because they are simply bored. But they have the guns so they can only ever be right.

I'm 43 years old now and I'm still white so I don't get pulled over too often, but I did a few months ago, for nothing, and the cop had to make up a reason to write me a ticket. He wrote me up for "impeding another driver" or something (the driver being him) for turning right on red while he was still nearly a block away. Now, maybe I slowed him down and that bothered him, but only if he was going about 50 in a 35, and it's not like he was in a hurry. He spent half an hour being a prick to me while I just said, "Yes sir, no sir, I'm sorry sir, whatever you say sir."

All cops put their lives on the line all the time for our safety. All cops are underpaid. Most cops are in it to protect and serve. But it is also so that not just a few but many are not.

You don't have to do something to run afoul of the law. All it takes is for them not to like the looks of you and they can pretty much do whatever they want if they really want to. And if it gets to court it's your word against theirs. Who wins that (always)? Add that to the fact that they wear a nightstick and handcuffs on one side of their belt and a gun on the other and I gotta be honest: I don't much like the looks of them either.

I was pulled over by border patrol in El Paso once, nowhere near the border. "The dogs had alerted them to my car," a 1985 white Volvo in the year 1991, and from many yards away. I guess he didn't like the smell of rubber tires. My car was searched without my permission and after going through all my luggage and boxes (I was moving), upon finding a dusty old pipe I had only kept for sentimental reasons, one deep in a taped up box a dog never could have smelled no matter what a star he was... they took all the cash we had in our pockets (about $100 between us which was also all of our gas money to get to Houston), gave us a warning, left my friend and I to repack my entire car, including basically reassembling one of the seats, and told us we hoped we knew how lucky we were.

One time I was detained outside of my West University home, the home in which I'd lived for over six years, for the crime of parking my car and approaching the front door. I was asked, "What are you doing here?" "I live here," I said. "Then how come I never saw you here?" I said, "No offense, but maybe it's because you don't live here." Is there a more respectful way a kid might have answered in the same situation? Probably, but come on. The address of the house was on my license. Upon seeing that I lived at that house and the address was on my license, he asked me if I'd ever been arrested. When I truthfully answered "no" he shot back, "How'd you manage that?" A white teenager in West University at his own house, with, yes, long hair in the 1980's. Good lord, how had I managed to evade the law for so long! He asked if he could search my car to which I responded, "I'm sorry but why?" He responded by telling me to sit tight and keep my hands out of my pockets, while he ran my license for warrants, of which I had none. For being at my own house. Then he shoved my license back in my hand, told me I better be careful(?!) and left without apology or goodbye.

I have a dozen or so of these stories but it's never the details that matter, it's that to some cops, no matter how "yes sir, no sir," no matter how sincerely you offer your full and sincere submission, some of them are just flat out dicks. And it's not just the occasional bad apple. Cops are often portrayed in films and television as jerks that abuse their authority not because it's a fun thing to make up but because there are many that are like that and do that.

I've lived all around the country and cops tend to be cooler in some regions than in others. Never had a problem with a cop in NYC and I never would. They are too busy with murders and actual crimes to hassle people that aren't doing anything. Or at least they were when I lived there. Had good experiences (and good times drinking with) cops in Pittsburgh. Providence is a small city so you meet all sorts of people there and I had cop friends there as I have one in Houston. I could go on. Atlanta, Albuquerque, Portland OR, Chicago, Austin... And I've done many cross-country road trips and visited nearly every state. In my experience Houston cops are particularly bad.

And being this is a Houston Rockets website, probably most people here have had experiences with Houston cops. Maybe that's why they've had more than one bad run-in. It's pretty easy to have a bad run-in with a cop in Houston.