Cops are not above the law

I often get peeved when I see cops not using their signals or speeding without lights flashing. If it's unsafe for me to drive 20-30mph faster than the rest of traffic, it's unsafe for the cop, too. When I bring this up to friends, they just reply, "well, he's a cop." One of these days I should flash a cop down and see if I can convince him that he should write himself up a ticket.

I stumbled upon this rather frightening article after reading the people arrested for feeding hungry homeless article; there really is something fishy about the state of Florida: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-police-car-crashes-totals-mainbar-20120211,0,3890782.story and below an excerpt:

•One out of every 44 crashes in Florida — or an average of nearly 7,400 a year — involved a law-enforcement vehicle.

•Most cop crashes happen while officers are simply driving — not while they're chasing someone or racing to an emergency with lights and sirens deployed.

•Many officers crash repeatedly. In fact, 26 officers had tallied four or more crashes in that time period.

•The associated costs are staggering. During the five-year period, crashes involving officers caused more than $126 million in property damage. That doesn't include medical expenses or legal claims paid to people who were hurt or the families of those killed.

In 2008, a Palm Beach County deputy fell asleep while driving 73 mph in a 50-mph zone, crossed into oncoming traffic and killed a man on his way to work. The deputy was not ticketed or charged.

A Pensacola officer in 2009 tased a 17-year-old boy on a bicycle from his moving patrol car, trying to stop him, then ran over and killed the teen after he tumbled to the ground. That officer was not ticketed or charged.

For 20 years, FBI analyst Chuck Miller has studied what kills cops in the line of duty. When he started, the No. 1 killer was criminals. For the past 15 years, it has been motor vehicles.

"Now," he said, "it's more dangerous to give an officer a car than a gun."

US of A.

Last year, a cop blew a light without his lights OR siren on and jack-knifed a car that my brother was driving (with two passengers). The car was totaled and the passengers had to go to the hospital. Under Pennsylvania law, my brother was not able to sue the officer or municipality due to a PA municipal tort law which required a number of conditions to be met including, but not limited to, proof of the officer's negligent action and irreparable bodily damage.

Of course, there was no way to prove what happened since the police report was written up by other officers late at night with no other witnesses. So many other officers swarmed the scene and cleaned up the mess that there was no trace of an accident even occurring the morning after. There was barely any information on the entire incident in the police report. The officer who ran the light was in a cruiser from a township -7- miles away and nobody was ever able (or attempted) to explain why.

Cops are above the law unless they can blatantly be exposed. Good luck with that

Daamn. If I was in your shoes, I would pursue this--write letters, whatever it takes.

darkreaver said:

US of A.

It's a known fact that injustices never happen outside of America.

And I thought I'd magically be capable of drinking and driving better once I became a police officer.

Last night, a cop passed me speeding through rush hour traffic. Didn't have his lights on or anything. Typical day in Bremerton.

I also hate it when they drive on the roads that are only meant for walking or riding bicycles. I hope their asses get fat.

Vordakk said:

It's a known fact that injustices never happen outside of America.

i don't know about many countries where cops have such incredibly empowered status as in america. the media would rip them apart in here.

dew said:

i don't know about many countries where cops have such incredibly empowered status as in america.

The US of A isn't even on this list.

Acting as though all ignorance, corruption, and evil stem from America is rather small-minded. Having said that, I certainly don't condone bad behavior in any authority figure, anywhere.

Jimi said:

I also hate it when they drive on the roads that are only meant for walking or riding bicycles. I hope their asses get fat.

Most of the time they're allowed to get to a certain point in their vicinity (colleges, parks, government grounds, etc). It's part of their patrol.

Vordakk said:

It's a known fact that injustices never happen outside of America.

You are right. It also happens in...Congo, Sudan, Cambodia...

darkreaver said:

You are right. It also happens in...Congo, Sudan, Cambodia...

this one time there was an article about a cop kicking the hell out of a demented old guy in melbourne. i was like wtf, is australia becoming another america? but it was melbourne, florida and all was good.

darkreaver said:

You are right. It also happens in...Congo, Sudan, Cambodia...

...but never in the utopias known as Europe and the UK.

Gotta say I'm with Vordakk here. This sort of shit is prevalent wherever you go. Any time you give people the option of becoming authority figures, you're going to get a ton of bullies.

I'm in central-eastern Europe and I don't remember ever seeing road cops act freely like that.

Such behavior by police officers wouldn't be tolerated here in Germany.

Of course you find some rotten ones everywhere - but it only gets a real problem if this devolves into some pack mentality where protecting one's own becomes more important than doing their job and somehow American police seems to suffer more strongly from it. Relics of the Wild West?

My sister-in-law is from St. Petersburg in Russia, and apparently if you want the police there to do anything, you first need to give them a bribe.

...but non-cops are definitively UNDER the law.

Vordakk said:

The US of A isn't even on this list.

That looks suspiciously like an American Law Enforcement site to me, so I'm not entirely surprised to see they don't claim that American Law Enforcement is "one of the 10 most corrupt police forces in the world".

Obviously, I don't think American law enforcement is that corrupt myself. I'm British, so I wouldn't know, but I'd dare say the 10 places listed are definitely worse. What I am saying is that the link you've provided as evidence actually proves nothing.

The police force in the US isn't a violent dictatorship, but they have rather huge room for improvement, nonetheless. Namely, quit tolerating bad-cop's bullshit.

Vordakk said:

The US of A isn't even on this list.

Given the purpose of that website (to point visitors towards criminal justice schools in the US of A), I expect they'd paint an unrealistically rosy picture of the current state of American law enforcement.

Vordakk said:

The US of A isn't even on this list.

Acting as though all ignorance, corruption, and evil stem from America is rather small-minded. Having said that, I certainly don't condone bad behavior in any authority figure, anywhere.

The American police force is the most militarized in the entire world. Doesn't that worry you?

GreyGhost said:

Given the purpose of that website (to point visitors towards criminal justice schools in the US of A), I expect they'd paint an unrealistically rosy picture of the current state of American law enforcement.

And most of this thread is painting an unrealistically corrupt picture of American law enforcement. Either way, it's unrealistic. I will freely admit that some U.S. cops are shitheads and I've even seen one or two bad apples in person, so I'm not glamorizing them by any means. But show me some hard evidence that proves American cops are more corrupt than cops in [insert name of "obviously superior" overseas country here].

You guys really break out the rose-tinted glasses when looking at your own homelands and throw any shred of objectivity out the window. I'm betting some of you armchair experts haven't even set foot on American soil, yet you're telling a guy who's lived here for 32 years how corrupt his local law enforcement is. Get the fuck off your high horse.

Membrain said:

Any time you give people the option of becoming authority figures, you're going to get a ton of bullies.

Finally, someone who gets it.

-

well, i have to point out it was you who derailed it towards a discussion about corruption in the police. i said america has the most empowered police force, as in ubercitizens with the rights to bully everyone else however they want without having to conform to (too many) rules. policemen in europe aren't supposed to be the all-knowing protectors of law and order. if a policeman tried to approach me for no particular reason, i'd send him to hell with a few tasty cursewords. in other words, they don't get to boss people so liberally, their rulebook is much stricter.

now to the question of corruption... eh, ours are prolly worse than yours. shame i didn't even try to argue about that point. :(

dew said:

well, i have to point out it was you who derailed it towards a discussion about corruption in the police.

That "derailment" doesn't seem too far from the point that the OP was making in the first place :)

I'll admit that I have effectively zero knowledge(firsthand or otherwise) about cops in any place other than the USA. I have been to Germany and Russia in the past, but fortunately did not have to interact with any law enforcement because I didn't get into trouble in those places. Although in St. Petersburg there were these two guys walking down the street with AK-47 assault rifles(I guess they probably weren't cops, dunno what they were), and being the dumbass that I am I thought it'd be cool to snap a photo of them. Of course they heard the click of the camera and whipped around to see me pointing it at them. They didn't do anything, but the look on their face said, "Hey bitch, don't do that shit around here!"

I kept my little camera stowed away for the rest of the trip.

printz said:

I'm in central-eastern Europe and I don't remember ever seeing road cops act freely like that.

Same here.

Phobus said:

What I am saying is that the link you've provided as evidence actually proves nothing.

As usual.

This is why I don't like or trust cops. Not becasue I think they are corrupt (they are), but it's becasue they are fallible men, like me. Like anyone, when given authority, they'll abuse it.

Vordakk said:

Show me some hard evidence that proves American cops are more corrupt than cops in [insert name of "obviously superior" overseas country here].

The USA is not the face or the leading nation of the western world, that would be Europe :)

Cop Arrests Five Year Old for Acting Out in School...Zip Ties Hands and Feet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqFU6mRWYr0&feature=player_embedded

US schools with their own police:
More and more US schools have police patrolling the corridors. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the canteen floor. Why is the state criminalising normal childhood behaviour?: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/09/texas-police-schools

Cop Shoots Unarmed Woman Motorist To Death For Rolling Up Her Car Window: http://wusa9.com/news/article/189808/373/Witness-To-Fatal-Police-Shooting-Says-Officer-Was-Not-Dragged