There certainly are bad police officers out there, and there, and probably always will be.
I remember as a white kid, watching a white police officer beat a young black boy's legs for no apparent reason. (that was around 1966) Another time, a couple of us teenagers were were hanging out in our friends car talking (we had no drugs or alcohol), and the police pulled up next to us. While one officer asked asked my friends some questions, another officer shone his huge flashlight in my eyes, and told me to "wipe that smile off your face, or I will wipe it off for you". (I was squinting because of the flashlight)
Then in 1973 while working as an armed guard, the guard that relieved me bragged about how he would shortly be a city cop, "so I can kill some "niggers". But the "best" was yet to come... When my first wife put in a false complaint against me and the police locked me up, they would not let me make one single phone call, and they started packing street thugs in with me in the filthy 5x8 or whatever it was little cell with fecal matter written all over the walls. When I heard someone in the next cell try and kill themselves, I was very shaken up. But then when a woman upstairs started screaming like the cops were beating her during intense questioning, my body gave out and I had a "nervous breakdown". While lying on the cell floor not able to feel or move my arms, two police officers kicked me all around my neck, to see if I was "faking" the breakdown. And I will never forgive the sergeant who personally locked me up, as he was one of my best friend's father, and I had been in his house with his son many times in the years leading up to this terrible incident. The jerk did'nt even contact my mother to let her know what was going on...
Yes, there are MANY bad cops out there unfortunately, and it will do us no damn good putting blinders over our eyes to that sorry fact. The only good thing to come out of the whole affair was that the female judge saw right through my lying ex-wife's eyes, and dropped the case. But from then on, I never looked at the police in the same old naive way anymore...
One more incident with bad cops. In the 1970's someone stole my car out of my workplace parking lot, and the police found the car and I went about my normal business, thanking my "lucky stars" that the car was not seriously damaged in any way. But one night shortly after that, when I was the last to leave work one night, a squad car pulled
me over and demanded to see my license as he informed me that I was driving a STOLEN CAR! I calmly told him that this was in fact MY car, as your department had found it some number of days previously. He said" "Let me see your license"! I said officer, you are not going to believe this, but my wallet is in the glove compartment, and I know you will not want me to get it out, because you might think I have a gun in there or something, so please put me in the back seat of your patrol car so you can get it out yourself. He said" "Don't worry, I'm watching you, get the wallet". I said: "Are you sure, why don't you just put me in the patrol car"? He said: "Go ahead, get your wallet"! Afraid of making him any more angry, and extremely tired from working long hours, I went for my wallet, very slowly... I popped open the glove compartment, and then I turned my head around. There was his gun, a few feet away from my head, and time seemed to slow down as he cocked the trigger... Then in a tremendous act of bravery and stupidity, I cussed him out for lying to me, and told him to pull the trigger... Pull the "bleeping" trigger I yelled, blow my head off you lying S.O.B.!!! Apparently the slimeball was not ready for that reaction, as he eased the hammer back into the gun, and THEN the idiot decides to handcuff me and put me in the back of his patrol car. By this time, another city patrol car pulls up, and says to the offending officer: "What are you doing, we found this guy's car the other day, he IS the owner"! Duhhhh. Then the jerk tries to apologize to me after almost blowing my head off for no reason, but I would have NONE of it. And because I complained about this incident, they created more trouble for us, but that's another story. Bad cops yes, all over the place, and I realize that the majority of them are NOT bad, but it's that awful minority (substantial minority from my lifetime experience), that gives them their bad reputation. Yogi |
