MadModder
The Breakroom => The Water Cooler => Topic started by: 75Plus on June 17, 2011, 07:04:37 PM
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Recently, the Chula Vista, California, Police Department ran an e-mail forum (a question
and answer exchange) with the topic being, "Community Policing."
One of the civilian email 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) Sgt. Bennett,
obviously, a cop with a sense of humor replied:
"First of all, let me tell you this...it's not easy. In Chula Vista, we
average one cop for every 600 people. Only about 60% of those cops are
on general duty (or what you might refer to as "patrol") where we do most
of our harassing.
The rest are in non-harassing departments that do not allow them contact
with the day to day innocents. And at any given moment, only one-fifth
of the 60% patrollers are on duty and available for harassing people while
the rest are off duty. So roughly, one cop is responsible for harassing
about 5,000 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 10,000 or more people a day.
Now, your average ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds long. This gives a
cop one second to harass a person, and then only three-fourths of a second
to eat a donut AND then find a new person to harass. This is not an easy
task. To be honest, most cops are not up to this challenge day in and day out.
It is just too tiring. What we do is utilize some tools to help us narrow
down those people which we can realistically harass.
The tools available to us 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 used often. This means we'll come out and give somebody some
special harassment.
Another popular one is, "There's a guy breaking into a house." The
harassment team is then put into action.
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They
like to harass the drivers of speeding cars, cars with no insurance or no driver's
licenses and the like. It's 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, they are drunk, or have an outstanding warrant on file.
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.
STATUTES: When we don't have PHONES or CARS and have nothing better to
do, there are actually books that give us ideas for reasons to harass folks.
They are called "Statutes"; Criminal Codes, Motor Vehicle Codes, etc...
They all spell out all sorts of things for which you can really mess with people.
After you read the statute, 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 trying to steal a car. Well, there's this book we
have that says that's not allowed. That meant I got permission to harass this
guy. It is a really cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well.
We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass. And we get
away with it. Why? Because for the good citizens who pay the tab, we try to
keep the streets safe for them, and they pay us to "harass" some people.
Next time you are in my town, give me the old "single finger wave."
That's another one of those codes. It means, "You can harass me."
It's one of our favorites.
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We have just had the Isle of Man TT races on the island.
over 200,000 bikers imported just for a week of racing and enjoyment which as you can image takes some policing.
Here's how our police harress them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1HqiUeKpyg&feature=youtube_gdata_player (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1HqiUeKpyg&feature=youtube_gdata_player)
John S.
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Brilliant!!! Only in the IoM!!
thanks John
cheers
bp
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How to do it! :clap:
Thanks John.
Cheers
Dennis
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Quality clip John
Sad thing is, you'll probably find that some politically correct do-gooder has had copper suspended for inapprpriate behaviour :doh:
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quite right too.... no way he should get away with behaviour like that :bang:
he should chat up girls on his own time :)
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Quality clip John
Sad thing is, you'll probably find that some politically correct do-gooder has had copper suspended for inapprpriate behaviour :doh:
Actually, if its who I think it is, he's been promoted and is now the Insp. in charge of the Road Policing Unit (http://www.gov.im/dha/police/road_unit.xml) !
Dave
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Many years ago coming home from Aldershot and passing the Farnborough Air Show, there were the Rozzers directing traffic armed with water pistols, not quite as good as Manx constabulary and if done now the armed response units would take a very dim view. Oh, how I miss the good old days of innocent fun. :(
Ned
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While we are talking about police I thought I would share this video. The clip is from a kids TV show from a few years back. The PO was patrolman Owen Dacey, one of St. Louis PD's finest. He not only handled traffic at one of the city's most difficult intersections, he added a bit of entertainment while doing so. The intersection was very busy due to the entrances and exits of Interstate 70 Hwy. along with the traffic on East Grand and Broadway. The street names were changed for the TV show. Sadly Officer Dacey passed away in late 2009.
Joe
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Two true tales about the Police in the UK......
Tale 1 - In 1971 I was riding a 500cc 1936 Rudge Ulster to work. This bike had NO silencers (two pipes), the open pipes ended at the rear wheel spindle. It sounded wonderful. Approaching a junction where there was a Policeman on points duty, he stopped all other traffic and waved me through indicating that I should go faster. This happened every day for a week, until the traffic lights were working!!
Tale 2 - In 1974 whilst running in my recently rebuilt Norton 650SS on a run somewhere near Guildford I came up behind a Policeman on his Norton Interplod. It was at the time of a countrywide 50mph speed limit. He was doing about 70 to 75 mph. I tucked in behind him....at a safe distance!! We were pretty much nose to tail for about 20 miles at speeds up to about 80mph. Eventually he turned off with a cheerful thumbs up and a wave!!
cheers
Bill Pudney
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(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4342085524_f19014f691_b.jpg)
This delightful young lady is a Pyongyang traffic girl..... they stand out in all freezing weather directing traffic.
Even when there is no traffic, they rotate on their podiums like automatons but do not be deceived as they are altert and any black car will find the way is clear just as it arrives at the intersection.
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Joe,
I remember seeing that on the news one night or at least remember seeing it on TV. Can't make out the year. The car's and truck's all look very "vintage". :D
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Bernd, Dacey was active in the 60's and 70's. The old "Candid Camera" TV show ran a segment on him. I tried to locate a copy of it but was unsuccessful.
Joe
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I always found this one hilarious.
It has some cussing..fyi.
How not to get your ass kicked by the police. http://youtu.be/uj0mtxXEGE8 (http://youtu.be/uj0mtxXEGE8)