O.T.: Police Harassment
01-20-2003, 07:09 PM
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O.T.: Police Harassment
Recently, California ran an email forum (a question and answer exchange) with the topic being "community policing". 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 2000 people. About 60% of those copse are on patrol, where we do most of the harassing. One-fifth of that 60% are on duty at any moment and 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 a 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, 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 one of the code phrases we use. Then we come out and give special harassment. Another popular one on weeknights is, "The kids next door are having a party." There is endless phone calls of people needing harassment.
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting their music, cars with expired registrations 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 drugs in their cars, or they are drunk, or have warrants out for their arrest. 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 Professions.....They all 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 violationg 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. I 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 like the fact we keep the streets safe for them.
Next time you are in my town, give me a single finger wave. That is a signal that you wish for me to take a little closer look at you, and maybe I'll find a reason to harass YOU.
Looking forward to meeting you."
"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 2000 people. About 60% of those copse are on patrol, where we do most of the harassing. One-fifth of that 60% are on duty at any moment and 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 a 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, 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 one of the code phrases we use. Then we come out and give special harassment. Another popular one on weeknights is, "The kids next door are having a party." There is endless phone calls of people needing harassment.
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting their music, cars with expired registrations 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 drugs in their cars, or they are drunk, or have warrants out for their arrest. 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 Professions.....They all 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 violationg 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. I 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 like the fact we keep the streets safe for them.
Next time you are in my town, give me a single finger wave. That is a signal that you wish for me to take a little closer look at you, and maybe I'll find a reason to harass YOU.
Looking forward to meeting you."
01-20-2003, 07:21 PM
#2
Re: O.T.: Police Harassment
Originally posted by thisistank
Next time you are in my town, give me a single finger wave. That is a signal that you wish for me to take a little closer look at you, and maybe I'll find a reason to harass YOU.
Looking forward to meeting you."
Next time you are in my town, give me a single finger wave. That is a signal that you wish for me to take a little closer look at you, and maybe I'll find a reason to harass YOU.
Looking forward to meeting you."
uppy:
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01-21-2003, 01:34 AM
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I myself get great enjoyment by messing with the police, when I know I have nothing to hide. A good friend taught me this trick about when police want to search your vehicle, when you have nothing to hide. Read very carefully. The cop ask you if he or she can search your vehicle because they want to see if you have any illegal contraband in the vehicle. After asking them why they want to search and them giving me the run-around B.S. and I know they cannot search without probable cause(its my right), I say except for the glove box or the center-console you may search the rest of my vehicle. I have nothing to hide, but they don't need to detain me either. You have to say the except part first or before you GIVE PERMISSION. Otherwise you are giving permission and "making up rules". That won't work I tried it. The whole time they are searching the vehicle they have one eye one the part you told them they could not search. This works well for cops that you don't like or don't like you or small town cops or cops trying to make a name for themself. When asked why they cannot search the specified area simply reply "because I don't want you to". This really pisses them off. Tell them if they want to search it they will have to call in a warrant.
They don't mind detaining you why mind detaining them if you have nothing to hide why do they want to search you? Cops use to harass me for loud pipes and tinted windows. And they love to write tickets. Most of the time you are getting a ticket anyway if they are seaching your vehicle so why not have a little fun.
They don't mind detaining you why mind detaining them if you have nothing to hide why do they want to search you? Cops use to harass me for loud pipes and tinted windows. And they love to write tickets. Most of the time you are getting a ticket anyway if they are seaching your vehicle so why not have a little fun.
01-21-2003, 04:29 AM
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Thats just great, while you are wasting their time and my money, maybe someone is breaking into YOUR house and putting your family at risk. No, I am not in law enforcement and yes when I was 16 I burned rubber and smoked illegal things ("60s") but I grew up and became a citizen. Walk a mile in someones shoes before you condemn them. Just my opinion, our freedoms say you are welcome to yours.
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