[Pulser955]

I’m not trying to turn this in to a cop bashing thread .

I’m asking because its something that me and my friends have talked about lately and im just wondering what other people think. We kind of feel like the cops spend way too much time handing out traffic tickets just to make the state money instead of doing real police work to make the streets safe. I just feel like some towns use there cops to make money. I found it vary interesting to talk to my dads cozen ‘s son-in-law who is a Toronto cop. He told me about how in Canada they look at police work vary differently. And how in the states towns take a 0 tolerance look at things so a lot of the time the cop out on the beat has no choice but to hand out a ticket or arrest some one. I get kind of angry when I get crap from a cop just because I ride a sport bike or drive a lifted truck or even for riding my bike in places. I’m wondering if there will be a backlash from over policing. I feel like we live in a police state some times and I just wonder if that will change if enof people get pissed at the way cops act or the way townships use there cops? Just as a little side note the town I live in has declared bankruptcy and the Mayer has bin inedited for embezzlement. So now ware I live falls under the State police safe streets act. This is ware they come in to troubled towns and patrol to help fight crime. Norristown is small city and the county seat. So we already have a good sized police force. So its bin like Philly ware the cops have a lot of work so they don’t sit on the side of the road righting traffic tickets vary much. Well in the last 6 months that we have the extra state patrols all we ever see them doing is handing out traffic tickets. This town has rather high crime rate and vary high low income residents. I kind of feel like having the extra state patrols is BS if all they are going to do is pick on us for driving and not go after the drugs and other crap that goes on here every day.

 

[Echo]

Most people don't understand what cops do and why. And trying to explain it generally goes nowhere.

For one thing, cops don't sit around writing traffic tickets. They are constantly being sent to calls. Calls where most of the time they are putting their lives on the line for a bunch of ungrateful assholes.

What is your job?

 

[fuzzynutz]

There are many Cops out there, that do there job properly and respect the human race, and understand that sometimes people do ****ed up things.
There are also many many Cops out there who think that since they have a badge and a gun, they can do whatever they want. ie: blowing red lights/stop signs, turning their lights on so they can get home faster, the list goes on.
There are groups and websites out there (i think one is called CopWatch, not sure tho.) where people basically follow cop cars around and see what the cop is actually doing. Sometimes they are upholding the law, sometimes they are not.
as a final thought, STAY AWAY from ALL Cops, you never know when they might shoot

 

[LordOpie]

I hate 'em. Society would be much better off policing itself.

 

[Pulser955]

Most people don't understand what cops do and why. And trying to explain it generally goes nowhere.

For one thing, cops don't sit around writing traffic tickets. They are constantly being sent to calls. Calls where most of the time they are putting their lives on the line for a bunch of ungrateful assholes.

What is your job?

I understand what cops do I use to do navy security. And in this area they do sit around handing out traffic tickets. I’m a construction worker. I’m not trying to bash cops I know they have a tuff job and we need them I’m questioning how the policy makers use them. One of the new ways they fight crime is to randomly pull people over and then go fishing for what ever they can find. What sux here is they pull you over if you fit a profile. And I fit a profile because of the sport bike. I get pulled all the time for no reason just because they are fishing.

 

[quadricolour]

Most cops are decent people who do a good job. The problem is, they are placed in such a position of power, that the few bad ones really spoil the bunch. The authority police have really needs to be limited a bit. It's such a tight-knit bunch that when they do go bad, they tend to back each other up, rather than seeing to it that bad cops get the punishment they deserve.

Echo - I'm guessing you're a cop, or related to a cop? What's the connection?

 

[RhinofromWA]

F Doctors...they can go to hell. All they do is sit around and fix people to raise money. I think they should spend more time and effort going after the big offendors...like industrial pollusion andl, and, and.......

Sorry. I think you should be mad at the people making stupid laws than the ones inforcing them. Cops have thier job to do....if you qualify as "their job" than you must be more than a random target. Right? Maybe your sport bike riding is less than commuter-like? Maybe your bigi 4x4 doesn not comply with the maximum bumper hieght and is a danger to John doe on the street in there stock car?

I would question what you are doing to get "profiled" and see about not doing that.

Cops have a relatively thankless job. When you do get a chance to meet one, it is often under less than favoritive circumstances. Yes their job is to right tickets, to people who break the law. In doing so, they stop a few "real bad guys" along the way.

Metermaids hand out parking tickets all day.....cops are something entirely different.

Do you really feel like you are in a "police state"?

 

[Pulser955]

F Doctors...they can go to hell. All they do is sit around and fix people to raise money. I think they should spend more time and effort going after the big offendors...like industrial pollusion andl, and, and.......

Sorry. I think you should be mad at the people making stupid laws than the ones inforcing them. Cops have thier job to do....if you qualify as "their job" than you must be more than a random target. Right? Maybe your sport bike riding is less than commuter-like? Maybe your bigi 4x4 doesn not comply with the maximum bumper hieght and is a danger to John doe on the street in there stock car?

I would question what you are doing to get "profiled" and see about not doing that.

Cops have a relatively thankless job. When you do get a chance to meet one, it is often under less than favoritive circumstances. Yes their job is to right tickets, to people who break the law. In doing so, they stop a few "real bad guys" along the way.

Metermaids hand out parking tickets all day.....cops are something entirely different.

Do you really feel like you are in a "police state"?

I’m not saying I don’t ride fast from time to time. But the 10 years I have bin riding I have bin pulled over and let go because they cant find any thing the most in the last 5 years that I have bin on the sport bike. And for my truck the legal bumper height in PA is 26in my bumper is 25. You tell me that I’sent profiling. And yes I feel like I live in a police state.

 

[RhinofromWA]

And for my truck the legal bumper height in PA is 26in my bumper is 25. You tell me that I’sent profiling. And yes I feel like I live in a police state.

That is cool your bumper is near the limit...cops must be rusty at gauging 25 and 26 inches on the roll. j/k

My fiance lives in the Poconos (Near Hazelton, PA) and had small town cops...REAL small town cops and there is definately an attitude by the cops....and the people for that matter, that doesn't help. I know for a fact that drug sales and body dumps are prevalent in that area (coal mining country) so I would be a little edgy to if I was a cop. Not to mention all them illegal poachers.....scary stuff.

As far as profiling....yeah I question if it is you as a singular individual person and the things you do and not necessaly because you run fuzzy dice from your rear view mirror.

 

[JRB]

It's a good thing there are no grammar police. Your asses would be so busted.

 

[Pulser955]

That is cool your bumper is near the limit...cops must be rusty at gauging 25 and 26 inches on the roll. j/k

My fiance lives in the Poconos (Near Hazelton, PA) and had small town cops...REAL small town cops and there is definately an attitude by the cops....and the people for that matter, that doesn't help. I know for a fact that drug sales and body dumps are prevalent in that area (coal mining country) so I would be a little edgy to if I was a cop. Not to mention all them illegal poachers.....scary stuff.

As far as profiling....yeah I question if it is you as a singular individual person and the things you do and not necessaly because you run fuzzy dice from your rear view mirror.

Yea I go up the Shamokin a fue times a year to go wheeling with the trucks and you see some scary stuff up there. But for the most part the small town cops I have run in to have all bin cool. I have a problem with the rich suburban towns that buy new cars every 6 months just so they can have new unmarked cars to get people for speeding. One of the towns here uses unmarked Intrepids with the windows all blacked out and all the lights hidden just so they can get speeders. I think the money could be better spent.

 

[tmx]

looks like you could use the spelling cops more than the bumper height regulation cops.

living in nyc i have plenty of messed up cop stories, mostly watching how they treat others, but i've had a few ugly first-hand-experience stories too. however i think this question is regressively bigoted. (as if there's any other kind of bigotry...)

same as asking:
how do you feel about white people
how do you feel about arabs
how do you feel about jews
how do you feel about blacks
how do you feel about women
how do you feel about short people
how do you feel about lifted-truck owners

we're all unique and deserve to be judged by our individual character and not the gross generalizations that make processing life so much more convenient for you.

 

[Pulser955]

looks like you could use the spelling cops more than the bumper height regulation cops.

living in nyc i have plenty of messed up cop stories, mostly watching how they treat others, but i've had a few ugly first-hand-experience stories too. however i think this question is regressively bigoted. (as if there's any other kind of bigotry...)

same as asking:
how do you feel about white people
how do you feel about arabs
how do you feel about jews
how do you feel about blacks
how do you feel about women
how do you feel about short people
how do you feel about lifted-truck owners

we're all unique and deserve to be judged by our individual character and not the gross generalizations that make processing life so much more convenient for you.

OK OK so I cant spell I don’t give a crap about that. It has nothing to do with the subject. I guess the title I picked was wrong my problem Isn’t so much with the individual cops as it is the policy behind what they are doing. I’m sick of seeing tax dollars being wasted.

 

[dh girlie]

Well first of all, the guy feeding you the information about a 0 tolerance policy, your dads cousins best friends next door neighbors tax man or whatever he is, is from...TORONTO...of course he is going to bash on American cops and talk up Canadian Mounties, for cryin out loud...the worst thing that guy has to do is chase down dastardly villians and rescue fair maidens in distress...

If the candian playa hatin doesn't doesn't convince you, watch an episode or two of Cops...trust me these people earn their salaries, and for what they have to endure, the salary is paltry...have respect for the 5-0...you never know when they might save your ass...and sure there are bad cops...as there are bad dentists, and bad mtn bikers, and bad priests...the list goes on...but the boys in blue deserve everyones respect, yo!

 

[Wumpus]

OK OK so I cant spell I don’t give a crap about that. It has nothing to do with the subject. I guess the title I picked was wrong my problem Isn’t so much with the individual cops as it is the policy behind what they are doing. I’m sick of seeing tax dollars being wasted.

One of there jobs is to enforce traffic laws. I wish they would write more tickets around here for running red lights and speeding so maybe some of the idiots would drive safer.

How do you know they aren't picking up drug dealers and dealing with other crimes?

 

[chicodude]

It's a good thing there are no grammar police. Your asses would be so busted.

thsta what i was thiking neaky:

 

[Pulser955]

One of there jobs is to enforce traffic laws. I wish they would write more tickets around here for running red lights and speeding so maybe some of the idiots would drive safer.

How do you know they aren't picking up drug dealers and dealing with other crimes?

IM not saying they don’t catch drug dealers from time to time. But what I am saying is that traffic law should be secondary to that and the large about of time and money they do spend on that could be better spent. I don’t know if any of you have ever bin to the suburban Philly area but there are enof people in the area to make it grid lock for a good part of the day.

 

[Slugman]

however i think this question is regressively bigoted. (as if there's any other kind of bigotry...)

same as asking:
how do you feel about white people
how do you feel about arabs
how do you feel about jews
how do you feel about blacks
how do you feel about women
how do you feel about short people
how do you feel about lifted-truck owners

Hmmm - that's a huge leap. I think the things he was so illiterately trying to talk about are policies of these "rich suburban" cops.

I remember last year RI added more state troopers, and at the announcement the chief actually talked about increasing state revenue through more aggressive patrols etc. That's not an individual, that's a F'ing policy.

And It's pretty widely known (believed) that there is a ticket quota for State troopers in MA (of course, not officially...). Everyone drives faster at the beginning of the month, and starts to obey the speed limits near the end. :nuts:

However - if you are doing 56 in a 55, you're breaking the law and they have th RIGHT to give you a ticket. Even though 99.99% of the cops will not give you a ticket for it.

I've always questioned the whole 'unmarked' car thing. If the police want everyone to go the speed limit, then drive more MARKED cars. Who here has not been stuck in a rolling blockade of 1 cop car? Everyone see' it and slows down to the legal (or close to it) speed. As soon as that cop takes a turn - BAM speed increases. So how are you making it safer by having an unmarked car? You're not - you're just turning a profit and endangering the public!

If they want to make the roads safer, they would put more cars out there that people recognize as police.

 

[Pulser955]

Hmmm - that's a huge leap. I think the things he was so illiterately trying to talk about are policies of these "rich suburban" cops.

I remember last year RI added more state troopers, and at the announcement the chief actually talked about increasing state revenue through more aggressive patrols etc. That's not an individual, that's a F'ing policy.

And It's pretty widely known (believed) that there is a ticket quota for State troopers in MA (of course, not officially...). Everyone drives faster at the beginning of the month, and starts to obey the speed limits near the end. :nuts:

However - if you are doing 56 in a 55, you're breaking the law and they have th RIGHT to give you a ticket. Even though 99.99% of the cops will not give you a ticket for it.

I've always questioned the whole 'unmarked' car thing. If the police want everyone to go the speed limit, then drive more MARKED cars. Who here has not been stuck in a rolling blockade of 1 cop car? Everyone see' it and slows down to the legal (or close to it) speed. As soon as that cop takes a turn - BAM speed increases. So how are you making it safer by having an unmarked car? You're not - you're just turning a profit and endangering the public!

If they want to make the roads safer, they would put more cars out there that people recognize as police.

That’s exactly the point I’m trying to make.

 

[RhinofromWA]

Well first of all, the guy feeding you the information about a 0 tolerance policy, your dads cousins best friends next door neighbors tax man or whatever he is, is from...TORONTO...of course he is going to bash on American cops and talk up Canadian Mounties, for cryin out loud...the worst thing that guy has to do is chase down dastardly villians and rescue fair maidens in distress...

OK that was pretty funny

dastardly villians......lol

 

[SkaredShtles]

Bin? Fue? I'sent??!? WTF?? Maybe they're pulling you over for being dumber than a jar of frogs..........

-S.S.-

 

[RhinofromWA]

Hmmm - that's a huge leap. I think the things he was so illiterately trying to talk about are policies of these "rich suburban" cops.

I remember last year RI added more state troopers, and at the announcement the chief actually talked about increasing state revenue through more aggressive patrols etc. That's not an individual, that's a F'ing policy.

A policy of enforcing the law...damn police neaky: Don't they have anything better to do?

And It's pretty widely known (believed) that there is a ticket quota for State troopers in MA (of course, not officially...). Everyone drives faster at the beginning of the month, and starts to obey the speed limits near the end.
However - if you are doing 56 in a 55, you're breaking the law and they have the RIGHT to give you a ticket. Even though 99.99% of the cops will not give you a ticket for it.

Early month speeders are gambling like any other time of the month. But getting a ticket for it and complaining that there are more important things to be making arrests or citings for is pretty damn funny

I've always questioned the whole 'unmarked' car thing. If the police want everyone to go the speed limit, then drive more MARKED cars. Who here has not been stuck in a rolling blockade of 1 cop car? Everyone see' it and slows down to the legal (or close to it) speed. As soon as that cop takes a turn - BAM speed increases. So how are you making it safer by having an unmarked car? You're not - you're just turning a profit and endangering the public!

If they want to make the roads safer, they would put more cars out there that people recognize as police.

Just a thought but IF there are cars that you cannot easily identify as cops on the road make there existence broader reaching? Since everyone speeds up when the plain cop car pulls off....that encouraged a speed until you see cops mentality. If unmarked cars make you think twice before speeding because you can't tell if that behind you is an unmarked rig or a civilian car....they are doing their job. And how is unmarked cars endangering the public?

I could have easily agreed with you....if I was a bitter "against the establishment/F'da Police" kinda guy. j/k

Just another way of looking at it.

 

[RhinofromWA]

Bin? Fue? I'sent??!? WTF?? Maybe they're pulling you over for being dumber than a jar of frogs..........

-S.S.-

Come on, I am the last guy to seriously make fun of someones typing errors...hell I can't "spell much good eaither"

I can try and connect the dots to what he was trying to get across....and so should the rest of you.

"Let ye of no gramatical errors cast the first negative post" ~ Rhino of Ithica

 

[Echo]

Regarding "ticket quotas". The rule of thumb is that a cop should be able to give one ticket a day. Sometimes if an officer has been busy doing other things, like going to a trailer park because some redneck is pointing a shotgun at his wife, or like going to some lady's house because she heard a noise in her basement which turned out to be her cat... sometimes they sit for an hour or so and look for situations where there is a good probability of a violation.

Think about it logically, what's more likely to be stolen, uninsured, unregistered, or contain an unlicensed driver - a Saturn sedan, or a CBR900RR? If that's "profiling", oh well.

 

[dh girlie]

OK that was pretty funny

dastardly villians......lol

heh...thank you...thank you...

 

[Kornphlake]

do you vote?

 

[dh girlie]

Think about it logically, what's more likely to be stolen, uninsured, unregistered, or contain an unlicensed driver - a Saturn sedan, or a CBR900RR? If that's "profiling", oh well.

Yes, I passed on purchasing a pimp daddy black Escalade with custom leopard skin leather interior, dhg embroidered in the headrests...dvd players in all the head rests including the very back ones so the drivers behind me can see me watching Usher videos while I drive, and custom 26's, and a stereo system that could shake the peaches of any tree because I found out they are the most stolen car in the US...

 

[SkaredShtles]

Come on, I am the last guy to seriously make fun of someones typing errors...hell I can't "spell much good eaither"

I can try and connect the dots to what he was trying to get across....and so should the rest of you.

"Let ye of no gramatical errors cast the first negative post" ~ Rhino of Ithica

One "bin" I might've let slide as a typing error........ but 4 "bin"s in one post....... whoa. Jar o' frogs, I tell ye...... jar of frogs.......

-S.S.-

 

[golgiaparatus]

Personally I like cops in general, they keep us more or less safe. They are there to help the general population.

However some people that are cops should never have been given that power. If you get a logical reasonable friendly person and make him/her a cop then great. But if you take someone with an ego or someone that has a power trip or that has a bad attitude or outlook on others or maybe a temper, then well thats really really bad because you have elevated a person to a level of power that is so much above everyone else that you have in essence, created a monster.

 

[RhinofromWA]

One "bin" I might've let slide as a typing error........ but 4 "bin"s in one post....... whoa. Jar o' frogs, I tell ye...... jar of frogs.......

-S.S.-

WIth my sloppy typing and staring at the keys I often type

Just as jsut

and

The and hte

Something as soemthing

etc


it is repetitive.....and it is pathetic. But so am I. Wait that didn't come out right......

 

[pnj]

how do you feel about short people

short people have NO reason to live. :nuts:

 

[gierhed]

They are fine just as long as they don't mess with me, like they did a little back in the day.

 

[KleinMp99]

**** the poh-leese!!!!!

Nah most of them are alright.....unless your of course umm.....breaking a law?

 

[scofflaw23]

Regarding "ticket quotas". The rule of thumb is that a cop should be able to give one ticket a day. Sometimes if an officer has been busy doing other things, like going to a trailer park because some redneck is pointing a shotgun at his wife, or like going to some lady's house because she heard a noise in her basement which turned out to be her cat... sometimes they sit for an hour or so and look for situations where there is a good probability of a violation.

Think about it logically, what's more likely to be stolen, uninsured, unregistered, or contain an unlicensed driver - a Saturn sedan, or a CBR900RR? If that's "profiling", oh well.

Umm...Saturn sedans are one of the top 3 most stolen vehicles.

I think that it's wrong to rope all police into the same category, just like it's wrong to put all Muslims or all bartenders, etc. in the same category.

That said, I've encountered way more cops that have been total a-holes than not. Power corrupts, and there's no way to deny that. Cops speed, make illegal turns, profile, lie about evidence, ommit brutality, etc. etc. etc. all the time. It's an old-boy network and it works pretty well to make sure that it protects it's own and does what it thinks is right, which sometimes has nothing to do with the law. Keep in mind, I don't think all cops do these things, but some do, and most of them support the system that perpetuates this behavior.

 

[freeriding101]

i live in a small town, i have small town cops, and this is a rich person town for the most part. because of the overwhelming rich ppl, there is not much to do for the cops. the other night at about 1am me and my friend are being fallowed around by a cop for like ten minutes finally the cop pulls us over for expired tabs, but he lets us off cause my friend had bought the used car from a dealership a couple weeks ago. any way out of no where the cop says he is under the suspision that we are dealing pot (neither me or him smoke or have ever smoked weed), so the have my friend signs some little waver and the search his car for an hour. my town does have some drug problems but at the completely other end of town.

 

[reflux]

The funny thing about peoples' attitudes towards cops is that most everyone says that cops are @ssholes. Okay, now, how many of you love cops? If you get pulled over, are you going to ask the cop how he/she is doing and if they're having a nice day? Hell no. Most everyone is going to give him/her crap and sh1t for pulling them over. I don't know about the rest of you, but if over the course of 8-12 hours of getting sh1t from people, I'm not going to be nearly as kind and courteous as I was before work. Yeah, try doing that for a few years and see how you react.

 

[chicodude]

i try to be nice to the policeman, its not his fault i was speeding, its mine.

i have gotten off of the hook many times because i was nice, which was a pleasnt suprise, but not expected

 

[bigginsis]

I had to add my two cents to this one, since just the other night I had a uniformed cop in my living room watching the Dave Chappelle show...my husband is an assistant district attorney and it is not unusual for me to find random cops, county deputies and even state troopers in my living room. And most of them are good people. Power CAN corrupt, I agree, but for the most part they are normal people doing one of the crappiest jobs for the worst pay. When I met one of our town cops, he was in the drug store getting prescriptions filled as a result of a confrontation. He went to serve a warrant on this crack-head girl and she bit him, tore his shirt, scratched his face and kicked him. He had to go get meds to protect him from any kind of disease she might have had and because she bit him, he had to get HIV testing. All for $28,000 a year. So yeah there are some jerks in those cars, but there are also some people who believe in what they are doing and want to do it right.
I get pulled all the time and I try to be polite and it does work. Maybe cops wouldn't seem like such jerks if people didn't treat them that way.

 

[I Are Baboon]

HEY LOOK, ANOTHER COP THREAD.

Maybe if we complain about cops enough, they will just go away.

 

[Mtbkngrl]

Use the SEARCH option next time........I think there's a small chance that this thread been beat to death about 100 times before. :nuts: