Authority

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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 9c080.html

In Dallas a cop stopped a football player whose mother-in-law was dying, and lectured him for a period of time over what the cop could do with his power, essentially threatening him.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs ... arrest.php

In Galveston, a group of plainclothes cops attacked a girl claiming to mistake her for a prostitute. The girl suffered severe injuries then, and currently suffers from psychological damages. The girl must go to trial for assaulting a public servant.


What do these instances mean for the law? Are these just instances of bad apples? Are there no bad apples in these examples? Or are legal enforcement agents oppressive due to institutional factors?

Thoughts?

I have very little contact with cops but I would not argue with one. A policemen(at least in Finland or in the USA)is armed and the law is almost always prejudiced in his or her favor. It seems reasonable that most cops are relatively decent but I have no way of knowing. If a policeman permits anyone to successfully challenge his or her authority his official capability is lessened so cops are very sensitive - perhaps over sensitive to even the slightest challenge to their authority and is, on the average, not punished for administering physical aggression. This makes them very dangerous animals and it is not a good idea to challenge them.

I am of the generation that was brought up to respect police and their authority, however over the years I have lost trust in policemen and justice systems in general. Having witnesses several police officers attack a man who was simply walking along on night, minding his own business, my respect for the police has plummeted. News stories indicate that some officers are little more than thugs in a uniform. More an more abuses of their authority are caught on camera phones and end up on youtube giving damning indictment against them. However, this deterrent to police abuse of power has now been banned in the UK, it is a criminal offence to film an officer and punishable with stiff fines and even prison.

Stanford prison experiment.

Also, I agree with Sand- around such authority figures as cops, you really have to walk on eggshells.

I have had only bad experiences with cops.

I think that people who are given power will always abuse it. it's human nature. also, it's a part of this job to threaten and intimidate, so it's very easy for cops to cross the line.

Personally, I will admit to only having bad experiences with cops.

The police are evil.

I have said many times, and I will say again, that the two major activities of a police officer's daily routine are

a) sitting around eating doughnuts
b) making kids cry.

It's probably in the job description. Those with an ounce of integrity need not apply.

Cops are like every other group of people on earth, they are comprised of both honest folks and a**holes.

I've had both good and bad experiences with cops. Bad being given tickets, good being allowed to go on a four-hour ride-along and talking with a cop who had shot a suspect with a gun. He wasn't broken up about it, the suspect hadn't died. I've talked with some people who have had bad experiences with cops, most of them seem to have started with a bad attitude before the cop started talking.

Being a cop is never going to be fun. Their entire career consists of talking with people who have had bad days and then dealing with the ones who caused them. So they'll have bad days too, and the last thing they want is another a**hole giving them crap over a traffic ticket. So normally I'm very polite, and I figure that being polite might soften their attitude.

On the other hand, they'd better have a warrant to search my house or my car, and they'd better put everything back where they found it. Mutual respect is key to my treatment of others.

Yes, bad apples. I think the real problem here is the media shows only the bad. You just do not see news reports about the police officers out there truly helping people or the ones saving lives. The public would rather watch the footage of them doing dope and beating teenaged girls, so that is what they show us.

This is really interesting. I have had a lot of interaction with cops and other figures of Authority. In my pragmatic Identity politic days I worked fro Greenpeace as ships cook. Also I have always had a tendency to not show a great deal of respect towards authority, even to the point of back chatting a judge (very nearly got me a contempt charge)

Pretty much each interaction has been different. Although I have never had a particularly bad experience. I think it is plausible that the extent to which an authority figure will use their authority depends on how much permission you give them.

For example, Some years ago I along with a colleague was arrested by the US coastguard. We were all in inflatable boats and the Coastguard grabbed my mate first, he was immediately subservient, calling them sir and obeying all commands, instead of respecting his compliance they roughed him up. I refused to come onboard their boat until they had sat him up and ceased their behaviour. They complied with this.
Once on board I spoke to them as if I had known them all my life and jokingly admonished them for their behaviour, my colleague continued with his Yes Sir NO Sir behaviour and continued to receive harsh treatment.
They seemed genuinely confused how to deal with me, I was not disrespecting them nor was I giving them the respect/subservience they were used to

I have seen this type of scenario played out several times.

Of course you are going to get control/authority freaks but I think you can limit their behaviour by being using a balance of respect for their authority mixed with a sensible dose of your own over them.

Although the time that I reasoned with a cop that I was a tax payer and therefore his employer didn't go down to well, probably made the difference between him arresting me instead of a verbal slap on the wrist

I haven't really had any experiences with cops, but I have noticed that, like someone else posted, most problems people have with cops or other authority figures tend to start from an attitude problem. That said, I think cops (and authority figures in general) tend to be really sensitive and demand more respect than is perhaps due to them. Whether cops are inherently bad people, the nature of a position like the law enforcer will tend to distort people's behaviors. My dad used to be a volunteer cop, and once he had observed the general douchebagginess of his colleagues, he always made a point of being more respectful and not abusing his position.

twoshots has had fairly positive experiences with cops, although as a matter of principle he is not too sure about them in general. They can be dicks, sure, but if they don't have a problem with you they tend to be fair dicks.

Nonetheless, as a whole, they nature of the establishment means that cops will tend to abuse their power on the whole I suspect.

May that have something to do with right-wing/conservative ideology/policy and given that that happened in Texas (red state), at least from the news article, or does this sound too biased?

I dunno, I actually just selected 2 news stories I remembered from some blog readings. It would have been better if there were other news stories, but I don't know why Texas was in both of the major stories that caught people's attention.

You insulting my attitude?? YOU INSULTING MY ATTITUDE, PUNK?????

I think there is a sensitivity, and a feeling that this power, melded with fear, will force others to do as they want to be done.