Police harrassment - how cops decide who to harrass

[MyMopar]

I know we have a few law enforcers on the board and they may have already seen this but if they didn't they may get a laugh.  I keep my reason for harrassing on the down low.


Subject: Police Harrrassment ....


Police Harassment
Recently, a California website ran an e-mail forum (a question and
answer exchange) where the topic was "Policing the Community."



One of the civilian email participants posed the following question:
*"I would like to know how it is possible for police officers to
continually harass people and get away with it?"*



From the "other side" (the law enforcement side) a cool cop with a
sense of humor replied:
It is not easy. In California we average one cop for
every 2,000 people. About 60% of those cops are on patrol, where we do
most of the harassing. One-fifth of that 60% are on duty at any given
moment and are available for harassing people. So, one cop is
responsible for harassing about 10,000 residents. When you toss in the
commercial, business and tourist locations that attract people from
other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is
responsible for harassing 20,000 or more people each day.



A ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds. This gives a cop one second to
harass a person, and three-fourths of a second to eat a donut AND then
find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. Most cops are
not up to it, day in and day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is
utilize some tools to help us narrow down those people which we harass.
They are as follows:



PHONE:
People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus on a
person for special harassment. "My neighbor is beating his wife" is a
code phrase we use. Then we come out and give special harassment.
Another popular one on a weeknight is, "The kids next door are having a
loud party."



CARS:
We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to
harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting music, cars with expired
registration stickers and the like. It is lots of fun when you pick
them out of traffic for nothing more obvious than running a red light.
Sometimes you get to really heap the harassment on when you find they
have drugs in the car, are driving drunk, or they have an outstanding
warrant.



RUNNERS:
Some people take off running just at the sight of a police officer.
Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after them like a beagle on
the scent of a bunny. When you catch them you can harass them for
hours.



CODES:
When you can think of nothing else to do, there are books that give
ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are called "Codes" Penal,
Vehicle, Health and Safety, Business and Professional Codes, to name a
few. They spell out all sorts of things for which you can really mess
with people.



After you read the code, you can just drive around for a while until
you find someone violating one of these listed offenses and harass them.
Just last week I saw a guy smash a car window. Well, the code says that
is not allowed. That meant I got permission to harass this guy. It is a
pretty cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well.



We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass. And we get
away with it. Why? Because the good citizens who pay the tab actually
like the fact that we keep the streets safe for them. Next time you are
in my town, give me a single finger wave. That will be a signal that
you wish for me to take a little closer look at you, and then maybe I'll
find a reason to harass YOU.

[TK73]

 

[hemihead]

You can tell he isn't from my city.They make new things up to harass you here. 

[RD]

that is outstanding!

[SuBLimE 69]

hehe, I bet that guy is a riot to work with 

[Silver R/T]

ya right, I know they do have "real" harassment going on

[TheGhost]

ya right, I know they do have "real" harassment going on

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you another fine example of one of Silver's excellent posts.



I especially like the part about the 1 second to harrass, 3/4s a second to eat a donut.

[ChargerRob]

Cops  They keep the scum off the streets.

[MyMopar]

I like the whole when you run out of ideas for harrassing their is a whole book dedicated to reasons, called CODES! 

[dkn1997]

That's good stuff.  Strangely enough, I live a normal life and never seem to get harassed.... funny how that works....

[volk68]

I have lots of friends who are cops that would find this hilarious.  Most cops are out there doing a good job, but there are some that do harass.  I think it is more prevelant in a small town where there is a lower crime rate.  Sometimes I think they just get bored

[Plumcrazy]

That's good stuff.  Strangely enough, I live a normal life and never seem to get harassed.... funny how that works....

Underachiever 

[dkn1997]

Hey, I resemble that remark!!!!!!

[yellowcuda]

I have a co-worker that says she "hates all cops" she says they pull her over for "no reason"...funny thing is she has been pulled over twice and arrested for DUI.  I told her that just might have been the reason.