If you haven't actually violated any law, and you're patient and polite, nine times out of ten you won't have any issue with them. They're there to do a job that is absolutely necessary and which frankly most of us are too chicken shit to do ourselves. There will always be criminals. I don't care how many drum circles you attend, there will always be rapists, murderers, thieves, con men and drunk drivers. Somebody has to deal with them and we pay taxes to fund the police so they can do it instead of us, and they do a much, much better job at it than we would.
We're not expected to run into a burning building. We're not called on to chase after a maniac with a gun. Nobody calls my ass up to go intervene on some guy punching his wife in his house, and thank goodness for that. All you have to do is watch a few episodes of Cops to understand the bullshit these guys have to put up with from the absolute bottom-rung of civilized society every day, and you wonder why they're dicks to you when you give them attitude.
Think about what a shit job it is. The default position of everyone you meet is going to be wary anxiety or distrustful dislike. Almost nobody is happy to see you, ever, no matter what. It's your job to wrestle that drunken child abuser to the ground, even though he's spitting at you and puking in your squad car, because there's nobody else. Naked dude fighting off demons with a samurai sword on the sidewalk? You and I get to walk away. They don't. And this is their day job. If I got into an argument with some jackass trying to shoplift or whatever, that'd be enough to ruin my day. For them it's another day at the office.
I've been pulled over about a dozen times. Only ever got one ticket, and that's when I accidentally ran a stop sign right in front of a cop (was lost, looking at a map, whoops.) Every other time I've just been polite, explained the situation, owned up to my mistakes, and they usually let me go. I am white, however, so there is that.
My father was a cop for twenty years. I was practically brought up in the station. As I grew older he told me a few secrets of the trade.
Yes, there is a 'real' speed limit that isn't posted, but it changes from time to time to keep people off their guard.
Giving people tickets, citations, or taking them to jail means a lot of work, so the default position of almost every cop is to want to give a warning, unless for some reason or another they can't (such as catching you going 40 mph over the limit or driving drunk or w/e).
He told me that he usually gave warnings to nice people, but anyone who told him he should be out catching 'real' criminals, or that they pay his salary with their taxes, or pretty much anyone who was ever a dick to him, got a ticket.
So be nice, and you'll have no problem. Also, not breaking the law is a great way to not have to deal with them. But I guess that goes without saying.
Hate them all you want Warborn, but if there's a dude breaking into my apartment and I'm holed up in the bathroom with the door locked, it's not your ass I'm calling to bail me out. I don't care how many tae-kwon-do classes you've taken at the Y.
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2012-06-11, 07:46 AM
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