Why People Hate Cops
It seems Jersey Troopers are upset that they’re taking public heat for breaking the law over the Corzine matter. When people point out that cops and Governors should obey the very laws they force us to follow, an appropriate response would probably consist of little more than agreement.
Cops, though, are habitual breakers of laws. It is a job perk and they don’t tolerate anybody messing with their privileges, so some Jersey Troopers have a different response: they’re going to bring the righteous smackdown and ticket anybody (except cops and family, of course) who strays so much as one mile over the speed limit.
These guys are so corrupt that their response to a charge of exempting themselves from the laws they force on us is… to tighten the screws on the laws they exempt themselves from and force on us. And then they wonder why cops have a bad name.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Just as a reminder of how NJ’s finest “serve”
Clocked at 95 MPH in the 65 MPH zone, the convoy of about a dozen vehicles was asked to pull over by Augusta County, Virginia Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Roane. Six of the New Jersey police sped away without stopping.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
No problem. Everybody that gets a ticket refuses to plead guilty and demands trial. By jury if New Jersey has it. That would be a monkey wrench in the road-tax collection racket.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I solve that problem by having as little to do with the Garden State as I can get away with. The whole state is a toilet. Sadly, there’s no other way to get to the rest of the Northeast. Fortunately, I don’t visit the rest of the Northeast as much.
It’s the only place I can get good scotch, though, sadly.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
First of all, let’s correct the headline on the story. Most people don’t hate cops. I have a son and a brother who are cops. I don’t hate them. However, if I were to learn that they were criminals in uniform, then I would.
What we hate are CIUs (criminals in uniform). When a cop breaks the law, he is not a cop, but a criminal, no different than any other skel he looks down on.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
>When a cop breaks the law, he is not a cop, but a criminal, no different
>than any other skel he looks down on.
Sure he’s different. Unlike any other skel, all the other cops will cover up for him, make sure he only gets a slap on the wrist, etc.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
what straightarrow said. but, having spent my formative years there, I do hate jersey.
May 4th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Fact is, police departments are very consciously organizations that protect the ability of their own members to break the law with impunity. A friend of mine is a cop who once had the misfortune of busting another cop’s nephew on a DUI. The next day, his transgression was announced at roll call and he spent the next several months enduring all kinds of harassment, much of it illegal.
I’m happy to draw a distinction between cops who obey the law and criminals in uniform. I know precious few of the former, though, and I see examples of the latter almost daily. As for whether the prevailing attitude towards cops is positive or negative, I find it instructive that when I run into an off-duty cop alone in bar, they’re usually reluctant to confess to their occupation.
Warrior classes tend towards corruption and oppression. Cops might be a necessary evil, but let’s not pretend the evil doesn’t run all the way through culture of privilege and arrogance.
May 4th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Straightarrow, I wish I could make that distinction, but it is becoming pretty clear that CIU is the official department policy in most jurisdictions.
May 4th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
You might not know about this one, but it is more of the same:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/dallas/stories/041207dnmetredlights.3051d8c.html
May 4th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
If we’re going to drag firemen into it, how about this?
Firemen, too, get away with breaking the law. It bothers me less, though, because firemen aren’t tasked with enforcing the law the way governors and cops are.
May 4th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
“Sure he’s different. Unlike any other skel, all the other cops will cover up for him, make sure he only gets a slap on the wrist, etc.”-Stormy Dragon
No, that doesn’t make them different, that just makes them another criminal gang, albeit with a stricter dress code. and better connections.
I cannot argue with Phelps or Brutal Hugger, I actually adhere to their stated opinions myself. But I don’t hate cops. I have known some decent ones. Every one of them has suffered some type of retribution for being honest and decent from the other officers. None of the ones that make my list buckled, some did die. I hate criminals. Until we quit confusing the issue, though, cops are going to continue to get away with the abuses. As long as they get away with the abuses Law Enforcement agencies are going to continue to attract exactly the wrong kind of people.
I know one way of stopping it, but it is too bloody to be attractive and it may be too early in the game to use it if we can possibly do it any other way.
One of the things we must insist upon is proper labeling. Something we do not get. A cop gets the public benefit of opinion for being a police officer, no matter the crimes he has committed. We must start to bury our news media in complaints when they refuse to label them or at least their actions criminal. We must contact advertisers and tell them why we won’t buy products advertised in that media if they won’t tell the truth. We must mount recall petitions when DA’s fail to charge or improperly charge criminal cops.
The Kathryn Johnston case is a perfect example. Felonies were committed prior to and in conspiracy of committing another felony which ended in murder. Everywhere in this country this amounts to first degree murder. Yet two of these sonsabitches got to plead to manslaughter, as though this were unintentional or an accident. The third isn’t even charged with the death but with a bunch of lesser charges that guarantee him almost no jail time, if any.
But to date, I have not heard one call for a federal investigation into the case targeting the DA. Nor have I heard any call for his prosecution for criminal misconduct or malfeasance and misfeasance, nor have I heard any call for the mildest measure appropriate, an election recall to remove his crooked ass from office.
I don’t hate cops, I hate crooks and I refuse to call a crooked cop anything but a crook. I have done so more than few times. I have even been threatened for it, but I gave him his choice, he could get me to court and prove me wrong (which he couldn’t do) or he could meet me, which he was loath to do. He was a crook, he did get away with it for awhile and while I was no longer there the whole department eventually came down. I don’t know if my noise about it helped it come about, but I hope it did.
Sorry for the length, at my age one has lots of memories, and when you finally get hold of one you hate to let it go, don’t know when you’ll see it again.
May 4th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
I’ve been up and down the Garden State Parkway 50 miles every day since his accident. I travel counter-traffic, so the road is open. I generally drive 85 in a 65 mile zone with gusts to 90.
I’ve seen one cop pull someone over in the past month, and the guy passed me like I was standing still.
There are always a lot of cops around on the GSP, and their hiding places are well known to people who travel that road every day. I’ve seen nothing that suggests to me that the troopers are engaging in anything new.
Probably the only state organization that has any respect with the public are the Jersey Whites. The politicians certainly don’t.
May 5th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
A writer claiming the moniker “UncommonSense” advised, “Just hang out in the right lane doing 70 and pick off the first (expletive) that goes by, shouldn’t take long considering our plummeting respect.”
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And a attitude like that’s going to improve their image?
FYI NJ State Troopers, respect is EARNED!
May 5th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Now you know why they’ll let you into New Jersey for free but you have to pay to get out. Everyone is willing to pay to get out.
May 6th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Ok, everybody, time for a giggle.
May 7th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
LEO’s like this are not cops, they’re PIGS.