Via Technically, That’s Illegal (on of my favorite new blogs):
I seriously didn’t intend for this blog to be an anti-police haven. However, I do see the police as playing a role in the bigger problem of over-regulation in my life. The police have a job to do, but their job is getting more and more overbearing as new laws are passed. This and other things have served to make some of the police bitter, obnoxious, and condescending.
You will find me making the argument that “one bad apple ruins the bunch.” That’s really how I feel. Some people leave feedback that I should abandon this view because all police are bad because even the “good ones” turn a blind eye to the actions of the bad ones. Then, other people tell me that I shouldn’t let a few bad apples ruin the bunch because the police really are, by and large, decent, good folks who have society’s best interest in mind. For now, I will maintain the middle of the road view that the bad ones are serving to ruin the reputation of the good ones.
One of the roles of this blog is to bring awareness of the problem to regular citizens. I used to be in the boat that considered all police heroes. I come from a very patriotic background and, somehow, supporting the police is seen as patriotic. So, I believe that people need to be aware of the increasing police presence in their lives so they can stand up for themselves when new laws are enacted that restrict their liberties.
One of the terrible things that I think is happening in modern day America (U.S.A.) is the more frequent exposure to the idea of the police state at an early age. This is reflected in having armed officers patrol the schools and giving kids criminal citations for school-related behavior.
You can search through the archives of this blog to find all kinds of articles regarding my view of the police. I think I’ve made a good case in the past and I’m not going to rehash it all right now. I think that the problem I have with the police can actually be summed up better by the Twin Rivers Police Association. They recently stopped selling a shirt that depicts a young child behind bars with the phrase “You Raise ‘Em, We Cage ‘Em.” Wow. This police association evidently sees their main job as “caging” our children.
The insidious nature of this shirt disgusts me. First of all, there are so many laws on the books now that the argument to “just follow the law and you won’t get in trouble” is impossible. The United States has more prisoners than any other country, and it’s not because our citizens are more devious, it’s because we have more laws on the books that are criminal offenses. Once we pair the fact that there are too many laws with the fact that the police have an “out to get you” attitude, we’re doomed.
If you wonder why I have taken the stance against the police that I have, look no further. It’s increasingly becoming an us vs. them situation, and the police are the ones perpetuating it.
I’m in the same boat. Raised as an Air Force child in conservative middle America, and most of my working career has been in a engineering technology position working alongside federal law enforcement.
Up until about 3 years ago I would have pretty much supported virtually any action of the police, believing that although not perfect, they had my best interests at heart.
That was all proven wrong one afternoon, when it was shown to me, personally, that no matter how law abiding you might be, if a cop decides for whatever reason that you’re a criminal, he has no problem breaking the law himself in an attempt to prove it.
I will write a post detailing this little adventure soon. On the overall scale of getting rights violated, it ranks farily low, but it was a giant turning point in my perception of the police.
I just want to thank you for even having this Blog and I really think it’s important that we have a place to keep up with current changes and actions of the Police.
Just to tell you how I feel, I’m an older American who came from a family that was mostly in Law enforcement, with the exception of myself, I went into the Military and made a career of it myself and my last family member who was in Law Enforcement for over 20 years, my Uncle left to force because he saw the same things you see, a transformed Police that have gone from being great peacemakers that are respected by kids and adults a like, to a Militant Radical group that has decided that anyone not a member of their fraternity is the enemy and needs to be eliminated.
I agree that there seems to be an endless list of “laws” in the country. But FORTUNATELY the new ones that pass don’t apply to us. The are more of a regulation basis for companies. I go to a legal update every year. Have for the last 10. And over the last 10 years the laws in my state haven’t changed much. We’ve added a bunch on computer crimes during that time. And we’ve stiffened the penalties on others. And then we go over how the current laws have been changed or case law that relates to current law. But other than that, since I graduated the academy in 2001.
As for the incarceation rate. I don’t think it’s fair to judge our laws based on incarceration rate. Depending on what stats you look at, we roughly have 1.5 Million people in Prison(who commited felonies). And about 150,000 of them are serving life sentences. Me personally, I don’t mind murderers, rapists and such spending life in Prison. So that’s 10%. About 65% of people imprison, re-offend and get sent back to prison. You really have to look and compare stats for crimes AND how countries punish people. China executes thousands of people a year.. we do about a dozen or so.
That being said, with 52% of the prison population being there for violent crimes.. I guess we need to look at what the other 48% are there for b4 we start pointing fingers IMO. Chances are, they are for crimes that have been on the books for decades.
I backed the police. Supported em. Argued to defend them. Went to church with them. And when they railroaded me, beat me in front of my daughter, in front of the whole town, well they changed me from their best friend to their worst enemy. Im now classified as a threat to law enforcement. And im proud of it. You shoulda seen the da arguing that though I am a pillar of my community active in church, school, and charity orgs, and though i had never harmed or threatened a cop, I was indeed a very dangerous man and a threat to law enforcement
The notion that you can’t understand the law only makes you out to be either lazy or illiterate. Probably the same type of person who has no idea what they signed when they got their home or what’s all that printing on a credit card statement. Also the same people who do not know of the exceptions to the Amendments.
Look at any state’s legal website and check the difference between criminal laws and laws that cover such things as contracts. Criminal law sections take up only a fraction of a states legal code.
Sadly, if Adam took 5 minutes of his free time and read the consent portion of NH wiretapping statute, its very doubtful he’d be facing wiretapping charges….
T-I-M-M-Y!!!
The idea that the US has more people in prison than, say, China, or North Korea, is ridiculous. I guess if you only count actual prisons and not slave labor political camps, yeah, but otherwise, no.
But mandatory minimum sentences and drug laws and three strikes you’re out, things like that, are mostly counterproductive and unnecessary.
Have you guys seen this funny video about American prison facts?…from the U.K.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPZed8af9RI
A demo: That is clearly the most well thought out and best written thing you have ever done. And while I don’t agree with your conclusions and viewpoint, I will certainly respect your right to think as you do.
I think however that Sgt. has it closer to right. Very seldom are there “new ” criminal laws. Any changes mainly come from case law which, over rules, refines, or otherwise changes the existing laws.
II hear you all talking about your background. I my dad was the chief of police and a pastor. Granddad was fire chief. My wife’s family are all volunteer fireman. My wife recently talked about how much things have changed in my job over the last several years and about the change in perception of the police. How it has gone down. I agreed . I’ve said here many times that there are bad guys among us. More often than not though they are misguided by management. That pressure to do more to look better. I fight that all the time. I’ve trained lots of guys and I always stress doing the right thing. There are good reasons to right speeding tickets, red light tickets, dwi’s. The “war on drugs” is unfortunately nessecary as the consequences of not doing it are far worse (I know you won’t agree). There are lots of bad people out there that do lots of bad things. I realize that the dreamy goal around is to have everyone just get along and do everything by mutual agreement. But is fantasy at best.
In my 16 years I haven’t violated anyone’s rights. I I’ve done lots of things that those people have hated. And I’m OK with that. I say it over and over, it’s about free choice. People (and cops too) have free will. When you choose to live outside of the law, YOU CHOSE. Don’t get mad when you get caught.
Another EXCELLENT article about the subject.
TOO MANY LAWS!!! Actually, more LAWS than people living in the U.S.A.
With your daily duties [9-5 jobs, etc...], average people do not have the time to scrutinize the books and know what NEW LAWS were enacted in just the…LAST WEEK, by our beloved State and Federal LAWMAKERS.
There are SOOOOO MANY LAWS and REGULATIONS in this country that it’s nearly IMPOSSIBLE to keep up with all of them and every week, we get new ones.
Unfortunately, it’s the C-O-P-S, the ones in charge to…en-FORCE those Laws.
And, whether the damn laws are meant to restrict ordinary people’s freedoms; yep, people like you and me, even MORE…cops don’t give a shit about it…the just have to en-FORCE that…like robots.
Grim future for this country.
Carlos
P.S.: @Common, you never contribute anything of value, why do you waste your time?
Let’s just say that you are somewhat trapped in a fairly large hole. The sides, well over 50 feet high, are too steep to climb out but you have semi-freedom to move around and attend to your daily needs. Your skill is widget making and you are given the raw materials to make your widgets. In return for the widgets, your captor throws food and water into the hole every day, so you won’t starve, or die of thirst.
As part of the fee for your captivity, your captors reduce your food and water by just a little bit, each day. But then a strange thing starts to happen. Each day, your captor starts dumping a muddy slurry into the hole. You slop around in the mud, but you are still free to move about, albeit messy. Widget making becomes more difficult and requires extra effort. You grow weaker as your food and water are reduced.
But as the slurry gets deeper and deeper, your ability to move gets tougher each day. You yell about injustice to your captors, but they aren’t listening and the slurry slowly rises. Finally, you reach the point where you can’t move at all, even to make widgets or get to your food and water and you and your semi-freedom die. You die a slow, agonizing death as freedom and sustenance are stripped from you, just a little bit at a time.
Consider now that the millions of local, state and federal laws are the slurry that is being dumped into your “hole”. At first, you don’t feel the impact of the laws and you can still slosh around. It’s a minor inconvenience and you ignore it. The slurry (law) rises a little bit more and you ##### and moan about increasing restrictions, but still you ignore the cause of the rising mud. Your freedom of movement becomes more restricted each day as the slurry (flurry) of laws grows exponentially. Laws that are used by special interests to inflict greater restriction on the people to implement some narrow focus agenda; laws that are passed by immoral legislators who will pander to the special interests, just so long as the legislator can retain his or her power.
Then of course, your captor (government) extracts taxes from you by reducing your daily food and water rations. Now your condition is that you can’t move as freely as you once did and the sustenance that keeps you alive is being reduced. Your future is indeed bleak.
“P.S.: @Common, you never contribute anything of value, why do you waste your time?”
P.S.: why don’t you take your backhanded fascism somewhere else. Ever heard of free speech, or is that one of those freedoms that only applies when people say things you like?
FREEDOM of SPEECH does NOT necessarily has to apply here. Like any other web-site you visit [e.g. Amazon, CNN, Fox, Yahoo, etc.], they have T.O.S. [also known as: TERMS OF SERVICE]. You break THEIR T.O.S. and you get…BANNED. You have to ABIDE by THEIR RULES.
Have you ever read the sign: “We reserve the right to admission” at some business?
They do not have to abide by FREEDOM of SPEECH like our FEDERAL and STATE Government have to.
You don’t like it here? Then post someplace else. Period
Some COPS have been given the chance of REBUTTAL and have been ALLOWED to post here their points of view. However, for what I’ve seen so far is that all they do is to TRY to JUSTIFY any MISCONDUCT by POLICE that is discovered and made public on the Internet.
I do applaud when I read a post by a Cop or a BADGE-LICKER [be it Common Sense, PSOSGT and T] where they ACKNOWLEDGE that there are deficiencies and corruption in the Police that need to be fixed and when they also acknowledge that there are MANY [yes, MANY] corrupt Cops out there as we can read at http://www.INJUSTICEEVERYWHERE.com, not just…”a FEW bad apples”.
What I criticize is when I read posts by them TRYING to JUSTIFY the UNJUSTIFIABLE.
That’s all.
Carlos
@ PSOSGT and other LEOs here.
What are your opinions on the Twin Rivers Police Association that used to sell a shirt that depicts a young child behind bars with the phrase “You Raise ‘Em, We Cage ‘Em.” ?
Was it wrong? Why yes or why no?
Just asking out of curiosity.
Another reason you can not trust any LEO’a, ” To lazy to look up the laws “?, give me break how can anyone look up a law when laws stacked on top of laws are changed almost on a weekly basis ?. The truth is and LEO’s refuse to admit it, they have way to much power and they tend to manufacture laws and make up infractions as they go, I can’t even count the times LEO’s have bragged to me about how the lied to get someone arrested.
My advice to LEO’s is start treating people as you would want to be treated, stop lying and be a peacemaker, and I just bet you will not be like you are, more hated than Politicians and you will get way more help when your butts are in a sling.
I wish we could make it mandatory for all police Chiefs to be elected across the USA , so when their Police act like Children, we can fire them.
Simply by having this site, you elevate police to a higher status.
If you and your friends were involved in a fight outside a bar, no one would care. If you get arrested, no one really cares. You get into a fender bender, its not a huge deal. Once you toss in the title of ‘police officer’ into any news story, there creates greater interest. By your act alone, you give importance and status to the police. You say badges don’t grant more rights, but they certainly require greater restraint and responsibility and higher status then yourself. You have given the police the prestige and social status even though you dislike them.
Of course, there have been cops who have commit crimes. Obviously, but I dare say I could find 20 news stories to 1 where someone on drugs, or in the course of getting drugs, committed the same acts. But that’s just 3 lines in a police log or 30 seconds on the early news. If you toss in that title, now is important, now people care, even though most of you hate the police, your transfixed on them.
@Longglow. I can find any law in a matter of seconds including who sponsored the bill, how it was re-worded in either house before making it to the floor, corrections, deletions, who voted ‘nay’ or ‘ya’ – its truly not that hard. You should try it. And typically you can’t ‘fire’ an elected official. Its typically a recall, that takes a majority of voters and from the numbers I’ve seen on his site, and the YT, the Copblockers are a small minority voice in their community. (I doubt Pete or Adam can vote)
Can I answer about the T-shirt. I think it’s hilarious. You have to just see it the right light. I end up dealing with. Butt loads of kids doing stupid stuff all the time. Driving like idiots. Breaking in cars, houses, businesses. Stealing stuff. And a lot of their behavior is drug related. My point is, where are their parents?? A bunch of these parents are probably fans of this site and hold some of the dope love ideas that float around here. Instead of raising there kids to respect other people, they leave these kids to t.v. and Hollywood liberals to do raise them. That what the T-shirt means. YOU raise them to act like you (dope lovers that care about nothing but yourself)and here I am to have to deal with more of societies problems. So thanks for raising the future.
There many not be very many new criminal laws, but it sure seems like there are. Maybe they are just now being enforced?
At my blog, I keep a list of things that I have documented people getting into trouble for. Many of these cases have resulted in legal issues for the person:
http://www.technicallythatsillegal.com/p/list.html
So t. you lop all kids without distinction, as criminals stealing stuff doing drugs and their bad parents are entirely at fault.
Respectfully sir, with this type of biggoted attitude, you should not be a police officer.
In your assumptions above, you would see a kid and right away profile them as suspicious criminals.
Probably you dislike my post, but hey, this site is full of dysfunctional dope lovin Hollywood liberals anyways, right? ;)
@old man: Don’t be an idiot trying to make a stupid point. Of course not all kids. Of course it’s not always the parents fault. But if you can’t see that there are a lot kids commuting an awful lot of crimes. And if you can’t see that there are a lot of parents that either turn a blind eye or actively fight that “it ‘s not my kid”‘ then you either can’t see or have your head stuck in the sand. Talk about generalizing everything.
Again, don’t just be N idiot for the sake of being an idiot. Is the T-shirt in bad taste…yes. is there a lot of through to it??? Sadly, yes.
@ old man. I have a problem with the t-shirt!! It’s wrong. “you raise them, we cage them”.. The people we tend to “cage” aren’t normally “raised” by parents. – slight attempt at humor. But there is alot of truth in it. Do I think it’s wrong? no, Poor taste, a big yes. But for every questionable cop shirt, we could probably find a dozen anti-cop t-shirts that say much worse things.
@lowglow. you really don’t need to look up any laws. Most stuff is common sense. You shouldn’t hurt anyone, you shouldn’t take stuff from others, you shouldn’t go into places that you know your not supposed to be in, if you can’t buy it at wallmart, it’s probably illegal to possess or smoke. This covers the majority of laws out there.
“Most stuff is common sense. You shouldn’t hurt anyone, you shouldn’t take stuff from others, you shouldn’t go into places that you know your not supposed to be in, if you can’t buy it at wallmart, it’s probably illegal to possess or smoke. This covers the majority of laws out there”
Except when it doesn’t. Wiretapping laws, anyone? Threatening someone with LIFE IN PRISON for taping a police stop. Cops who do not know the fucking gun laws of their own state.
And that implies you were actually in violation of anything or even seeming to be. Misreading of warrants, shooting family pets when the officer is afraid of the scary yellow lab, running someone down because you as a cop cannot be bothered to put your lights on when zooming to a routine call at 100mph (wife of braves trainer in Atlanta).
Your pat answer is cute, but useless.
The best truth I have ever seen in writing was the cop who said if you follow someone for a few miles, you can ALWAYS find probable cause for a traffic stop.
Any thoughts, brave boys in blue? Is that true?
@ t. thanks for the compliments. ;)
To you, everyone’s an idiot no matter if they say something you disagree with or not. :)
You really come across like a hothead that loves to talk down at people.
Anger issues?
Respect usually goes both ways.
Old man: Did you read your post that I responded d to? The one on 02/22 @ 11:18 am. Re-read it and get back to many with some more sill statements about name calling and being a hot head.
Lakewood: As usual you get part of an issue right. But just to center you on one thing from your many rants. The wire taping issue. Now where I work and live it’s not illegal to record someone without their knowledge. Some places it is. In the places where it’s illegal,; T’s also illegal for the police to do it without a warrant. Don’t get confused (something that is all to easy for you) because it’s either legal or illegal where you live. Things aren’t the same everywhere. The states also have constitutions that govern them. It’s not just so easy and simple like you want to think it is. Lighten up and brighten up a little.
@lakewood “Your pat answer is cute, but useless.”
Picking out a story that happened here, and 1 over the and 1 5 years ago is retarded as well. Wiretapping.. don’t have them laws here. And Ademo or who ever is on trial know’s the law, or at least thought he did. He went digging for police info, did it wrong from what I gather.
1000′s of people are killed each year, but all sorts of people, Some drunks, some by people who are simply running to the store for some milk. Just because a cop kills someone doesn’t mean that there is some huge nationwide crisis with the 750,000 cops out there……..