MX-727
LIFETIME SPONSOR
- Aug 4, 2000
- 1,810
- 13
Here goes:
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Recently, Californian ran an e-mail forum (question and answer exchange)
with the topic being "Community Policing". One of the civilian e-mail
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 cops 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 a
code phrase we use. Then we come out and give special harassment. Another
popular one on a weeknight is, "The kids next door are having a party."
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They
like to
harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting music, cars with
expired
registration 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 they have drugs in the
car, are drunk, or have a warrant.
RUNNERS: Some people take off running just at the sight of a police officer.
Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after them like a beagle on the
scent of a bunny. 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
violating 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 that 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
--------------------------
Recently, Californian ran an e-mail forum (question and answer exchange)
with the topic being "Community Policing". One of the civilian e-mail
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 cops 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 a
code phrase we use. Then we come out and give special harassment. Another
popular one on a weeknight is, "The kids next door are having a party."
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They
like to
harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting music, cars with
expired
registration 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 they have drugs in the
car, are drunk, or have a warrant.
RUNNERS: Some people take off running just at the sight of a police officer.
Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after them like a beagle on the
scent of a bunny. 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
violating 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 that 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
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