Do you do anything to inconvenience or make life hard for the police?

No, I would never do anything like that. They do a very hard job for not much pay. Society would be nowhere without them.

Yikes! I feel ya, but I can’t assume that every police person is corrupt. I have police officers in my family who are quite nice, friendly and very helpful.

I will say that I generally have a negative view of police, but I wouldn’t go that far.

There’s always the crooked cop, all cities have some. Police brutality, exploitation, what have you…but I think it’s wrong to define the entire police force based on what some cops do. They’re human beings, you’re bound to have some bad apples. That said, if I knew a cop who was an asshole, I might avoid having anything to do with that one cop. But not all cops.

Have to agree with @tinyfaery. While I’m ambivalent concerning many police actions I wouldn’t dare do anything to inconvenience or make things more difficult for them.

Part of my reason concerns being Black. Mostly, though, it has to do with common sense. Why provoke someone who can throw your ass in jail…or in the very least, make life difficult for you?

Depends. I don’t trust cops, in general, but I do know a few educated, sensible cops. I know cops who have the interests of the neighborhood in mind. I also know of cops who are corrupt and steal from drug dealers and hit up hookers, and all kinds of other things.

If a cop came to me for help, and they do, on occasion, I go through my normal process to figure out what they are up to (just as I would figure out what any researcher is up to) and then I give them advice about how to accomplish their goal in an ethical, scientific manner. That’s my job, and I don’t help them do anything illegal or underhanded.

Is that obstruction? Maybe. Maybe not. You can lead a horse to water. You can’t make it drink.

When cops ask me to do something that violates my rights, I may give them a hard time about it, but I’m not going to disobey and get sent to jail. I have better things to do with my time.

You live in Spain, don’t you? They may have a different take on things there. I don’t think all cops are great, but I don’t lump them all in as bad either. I can’t imagine what “boycotting” them would mean.

Wow…just wow. You’re lucky the guy didn’t rap you on the head for verbally assaulting and slandering him for his profession.
No, I do not. I am a model citizen other than my occasional Happy Brownie moments which I make no apologies for, but…I do not grow it, transport it, or otherwise involve myself in anything that could get me in trouble with the law. There are good cops and bad cops just like there are good and bad people in every profession.

I think you crossed a big line in your ranting and assumptions of this person. Bad on you.

I really think it depends where you live. I live in a small village outside a larger city. I don’t think I would want much to do with the cops in the city, but out here, I have had to deal with my local sheriff’s station once or twice and from my personal dealings and what I have read and seen of their work, they go about their work quietly and efficiently.

In New Zealand, I had some less than positive altercations with my local police station, but that had more to do with my ex-fiancé abusing his new found power as a cop, but when the dust settled and I went in and spoke to his supervising officer, I found him respectful and sympathetic.

If I lived in other countries, I know I would probably have a different attitude and expectation of the local police force. I know it is strongly related to culture and justice.

No way man.
You can’t just like make assumptions about them based on their profession, not all cops are bad you know. Plus I don’t want to end up in jail or something.

There are good reasons that certain populations really fear the police. As a white middle class guy, I have less contact with the police, but I do hold a great distrust and fear of them. I think I may have told the story in some other thread, so I won’t again. But it was an event that happened when I was 18 or 19 that led to my eye-opening “oh, so that is what people were talking about” experience. Also, I have witnessed police behavior during demonstrations that have made me sick.

However, I would never try to piss them off any more than I would our local mob. Rather than antagonize people with pretty serious power, I’d rather change the fact that they have serious power.

No, not at all. The police here are mostly very decent.

I hate stereotypes of any sort. People are people and I always give them the benefit of the doubt. I was raised to respect any police officer. I still hold law enforcement officials in high regards.

I can’t imagine a single scenario where this would be anywhere on the radar.
Would love to drive one of their cars though, blues and twos blaring away.

Respect the badge and the badge will respect you.

@bucko I’ve heard so many stories where that is not true. I may respect the badge, but if there’s an idiot behind the badge, he is still an idiot even if I respect his badge.

@bucko – That is just not true.

Cops only give the assholes a hard time.

Let me just clear something up here. All cops are bad, there is no such thing as a good cop, if you are a police officer, you are a bad person by default, for agreeing to earn your living blindly serving whoever is making the laws at the time.

A cop is much more likely to pepper spray a protester, or give you a bullshit driving ticket, than he is to come and save you from something.

For every instance you can name of a cop doing something good, I can name 10.000 instances of them doing something bad. They are a force for bad.

@bucko Remember what you said in the future, at some point in your life, a cop is going to give you a hard time, on that day, please come back to admit you were wrong, or to confess that you are now an asshole.

EDIT: I also find a lot of the statements here, to be very cowardly. The same kind of cowardly submissive statements that allows these people to continue to exist.

@poisonedantidote

Well…ya know…your behavior could also be labelled as being a young rebel punk.
Nothing new here, it’s all been done…yeah, kill the pigs..I lived through that era.
Youthful militant views are nothing new.
If you spouted off your mouthy little attack on me at my age I’d smack you silly kiddo. lol

Correctional officers are the real pieces of shit.

@Coloma Ad Hominem argument. Nothing of any substance to say, no decent rebuttal, so you just try to label me as a punk to poison the well, a cheap tactic indeed.

@poisonedantidote I gave you my rebuttal. There is NO NEW NEWS UNDER THE SUN and you behaved like a punk. That IS my rebuttal. haha

@poisonedantidote – I disagree. There is definitely a difference in the roles of the police in different parts of the world. There is a lot of corruption in the system, but here in my suburban area of the US, most of the local officers are regular guys doing a job. Some have chosen law enforcement as if to prove something and in order to be able to bully others around, but I find those personality types are more often on the state level. Many local law enforcement officers in American suburbia have fairly quiet days, with some traffic stops and domestic disputes and shoplifters. They don’t have to deal with protesters much around here, either. Crowd control usually means the Independence Day Parade on the 4th of July. They also are not expecting to deal with a Sandy Hook School shooting massacre when they join the force – you could see how traumatized they were for having seen what they saw.

In some smaller countries, it seems as though the police are more closely tied with the government and the military, too. Things are run very differently around the world than in the US, so that’s why you’ll get a very different opinion of the Police from Americans. Of course, as @SABOTEUR points out, the opinion of the Police in America will also differ if you are not caucasian. I knew racial profiling happened in the past and in the south, but I didn’t think it was really an issue in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast where I live, until I was in a relationship with a black man for several years. I then saw how differently he was treated and how much more often he got pulled over than my brothers (except when they had long hair and were assumed to be druggies) and other white guys I know ever did.

@bucko – Cops give whomever they assume are assholes a hard time, and they make many rush judgements based on appearance. Experiences with law enforcement vary greatly depending on where you live and what physical demographics you fall into.

@poisonedantidote – I also wanted to say that double-standards suck. If you don’t think it’s right for someone to download an illegal copy of Windows, kudos to you for standing up for your principles. Discriminating against someone because of their profession is still discrimination, though – or do you refuse to download any pirated software for anyone?

If you work on the death-star for Darth Vader, you are on the bad guys team, even if you are just a technician who does it to feed their family, you are still bad.

People who work as police, have “sold out” so to speak, and have aligned themselves with the bad guys, thus making them bad by default. It does not matter if their family think they are good, or if they have a minimal role to play in a rural area, they are still serving the bad guys.

Are you okay?

@bkcunningham I am just a bit pissed off because a good friend of mine got shot with a rubber bullet, and was beaten with sticks, for her crime of trying to get home with her shopping for her kids. She showed me the footage that was recorded by a local restaurant owner, she did nothing to provoke anyone, was just walking down the street, 2 streets away from were the main protest was happening.

But hey, I should relax, all the family and friends of that cop probably think he is a good guy.

The worst part is, this is some cop from the mainland that has been shipped over to deal with the protests going on, you know, the protests we allegedly have a right to. So we can’t even find out where this fucker lives to pay him a visit.

Cops are very tough when they have their riot gear on and are laying in to you with a team of fellow scum bags, but they are not so tough when they have a potato sack over their head, and have a bunch of guys hitting them in the knees with a mallet.

@poisonedantidote Not “cops”....SOME cops. That is indeed an unfortunate situation,if your account is accurate, but you cannot blacklist an entire group. For every bad cop there are 50 decent ones.
You are also advocating an insinuating you would go and seek revenge, of a violent nature, which puts you in the exact same category as “scum.” How do you reconcile them apples?

You are willing to cause harm and suffering to other innocent people ( the officers families ) by re-enacting the very thing you are outraged at. No logic there, and certainly no level of emotional maturity.

No I don’t. I don’t always agree with police activity and I would protest formally against activity I think it is inappropriate. I don’t verbally or physically attack individual police officers. For all you know this guy is a good cop, doing a decent job. Not all police officers are bad people. Many of them do the job because they believe they are doing a service to their community (and because it’s a job, they get paid and I would hope they get reasonable health benefits etc.). One day I might need those police officers to look for my missing child or to try to find out who harmed someone I love.

Keep in mind too, they can share your information. So if you start getting pulled in every five minutes, well you should have a good idea why that might be. After all if you have assumed they are all guilty, you can’t really complain if they treat you the same way. I hope this guy behaves with more dignity than you did and doesn’t get his mates to do this.

@Coloma no, ALL, cops are bad by default, all of them. There is no such thing as a decent cop, period.

As for revenge, I have no problem with it, it does not put me in the same category as them, my friend is innocent, the cop is not. As for the pain caused to his family, what about the pain caused to my friends family.

Is it logical, is it emotionally mature, no… but it is the right thing to do, and it sure feels good.

This question is now abandoned

Uh…no. It’s not my battle to fight. Cops have never done anything to me to require vengeance.

I’ll never understand why so many people despise police officers. What’s the alternative? Sure, some if them are dicks, but is that not true of certain people in any profession?

I know I said I had abandoned the question, but:

http://www.fluther.com/153879/are-all-pedophiles-bad/

Emotive language in disguised as logic running in circles I am afraid.

I don’t know where @poisonedntidote lives but it sounds awful.

No, why give the poor underpaid abused bastards more of a hard time.

As much as I loathe the police and desire their power to be greatly diminished, there are some pretty insufferable assholes who believe they are “fighting the power” by behaving like total f*cktards. Example. Cops scare the hell out of me, but this piece of trash is actual justification for the existence of cops. Too bad really. He thinks he is doing the complete opposite.

Then there are these kids: Example. While it is troubling that these imbeciles are walking around playing Rambo (and are allowed to do so), I appreciate the behavior of this video recorded cop. It would be nice if we could record every interaction with the police. Every one.

Nope I have no need to give them a hard time and anyway you get idiots in any walk of life and not just in the police for example when I was at university and working at night in a supermarket a guy thought he was Billy Big Balls because he was allowed to do the wine order but that doesn’t mean I would then give anybody with the name Ernst or Gallo a hard time because of it.