It is my belief - backed by absolutely nothing - that in past years, police departments accumulated a large cadre of people who were complete ass-holes. They were the people who as children were the neighborhood bullies, and wanted to continue in that capacity as adults, choosing to wear a blue uniform to accomplish that. Not all cops were bad, of course, but a lot of them were.
Until very recently - when no sane person would want to be a cop - the level of cops was improving dramatically, with most having relevant formal education, having been tested psychologically, and so on. Today, they are generally pretty good people, at least in my limited experience.
But I thought it might be fun to mention examples of policemen being dicks - just for the fun of it.
When I was a Yoot, my family could not afford to own a functioning automobile. We drove around in clunkers that had been given up on by others, and we got running again with twisted coat hangers and duct tape. Since we live in Pennsylvania where there was a state inspection every six months, we were in a constant scramble to keep the cars running, and to find garages where the inspectors were not so particular - if you catch my meaning.
One day, my brother and I were driving in the small city of Wilkinsburg, looking for one of those dubious mechanics shops, and we happened to turn down the wrong way on a one-way street. A Wilkinsburg police officer saw us and immediately pursued us (for about fifty feet) with siren howling and red lights blazing. When he came up to the driver's side window he of course asked to see our "papers." Well, the driver's side window didn't operate. If you cranked it down it would not come back up, so we had propped it onto permanent closure to avoid problems.
My brother started to open the door to hand the cop our stuff, and he IMMEDIATELY drew his gun, pointed it at my brother's chest and demanded that we both get out of the car and "assume the position." We didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but did our best. He seemed so frightened that I feared he might shoot one of us by mistake. He kept us there for about ten minutes while he called in our names and license number, for fear that we were Bad Guys up to something nefarious. We were, respectively 17 and 16 year-old white kids, both wearing T-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops, driving a ten-year-old Ford coupe. Talk about "profiling." I don't think we got a ticket for that episode - it was a big issue because of the possible impact on our insurance premium - but we did experience some real fear for a little while.
What a dickhead.
While golfing yesterday, a friend related how, while riding a motorcycle in high school, he T-boned a car that had run a red light, destroying the MC and much of his body, and then was cited for loss of control of his vehicle. It didn't stick.
What a dick.
Until very recently - when no sane person would want to be a cop - the level of cops was improving dramatically, with most having relevant formal education, having been tested psychologically, and so on. Today, they are generally pretty good people, at least in my limited experience.
But I thought it might be fun to mention examples of policemen being dicks - just for the fun of it.
When I was a Yoot, my family could not afford to own a functioning automobile. We drove around in clunkers that had been given up on by others, and we got running again with twisted coat hangers and duct tape. Since we live in Pennsylvania where there was a state inspection every six months, we were in a constant scramble to keep the cars running, and to find garages where the inspectors were not so particular - if you catch my meaning.
One day, my brother and I were driving in the small city of Wilkinsburg, looking for one of those dubious mechanics shops, and we happened to turn down the wrong way on a one-way street. A Wilkinsburg police officer saw us and immediately pursued us (for about fifty feet) with siren howling and red lights blazing. When he came up to the driver's side window he of course asked to see our "papers." Well, the driver's side window didn't operate. If you cranked it down it would not come back up, so we had propped it onto permanent closure to avoid problems.
My brother started to open the door to hand the cop our stuff, and he IMMEDIATELY drew his gun, pointed it at my brother's chest and demanded that we both get out of the car and "assume the position." We didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but did our best. He seemed so frightened that I feared he might shoot one of us by mistake. He kept us there for about ten minutes while he called in our names and license number, for fear that we were Bad Guys up to something nefarious. We were, respectively 17 and 16 year-old white kids, both wearing T-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops, driving a ten-year-old Ford coupe. Talk about "profiling." I don't think we got a ticket for that episode - it was a big issue because of the possible impact on our insurance premium - but we did experience some real fear for a little while.
What a dickhead.
While golfing yesterday, a friend related how, while riding a motorcycle in high school, he T-boned a car that had run a red light, destroying the MC and much of his body, and then was cited for loss of control of his vehicle. It didn't stick.
What a dick.
