What's Wrong With American Cops?
Discussion
Something I notice is how much support US Cops get from the community whilst behaving like this. It seems acceptable to beat the odd good guy in case the bad guy skips a beating.
There is a sort of blind respect/worship/support/deference towards anything in a uniform. My favourite example was in the big queues at Heathrow immigration last year. Brits in the queue started getting really gobby and stroppy towards the Border Force personnel manning the passport desks. In response plod marched up and down the queue in twos armed with H&K sub machine guns to keep the peace. The response to this in the USA would be silence and gaze aversion (judging by the number of examples of "don't eyeball me boy! U wanna go to jail" seen on cop shows and youtube eye contact is a crime). The response at Heathrow was the whistling of the Laurel and Hardy theme and a group of lads from Manchester singing "we paid for your 'ats". The Brits found it funny and it passed the time. The BiBs took it in good humour (if they were pissed off they hid it well). Yanks in the queue were getting genuinely upset, a bit frightened and a quite aggressive in their "you really shouldn't do that to the cops".
There is a sort of blind respect/worship/support/deference towards anything in a uniform. My favourite example was in the big queues at Heathrow immigration last year. Brits in the queue started getting really gobby and stroppy towards the Border Force personnel manning the passport desks. In response plod marched up and down the queue in twos armed with H&K sub machine guns to keep the peace. The response to this in the USA would be silence and gaze aversion (judging by the number of examples of "don't eyeball me boy! U wanna go to jail" seen on cop shows and youtube eye contact is a crime). The response at Heathrow was the whistling of the Laurel and Hardy theme and a group of lads from Manchester singing "we paid for your 'ats". The Brits found it funny and it passed the time. The BiBs took it in good humour (if they were pissed off they hid it well). Yanks in the queue were getting genuinely upset, a bit frightened and a quite aggressive in their "you really shouldn't do that to the cops".
Tannedbaldhead said:
mercfunder said:
A lot of these are lifted from news channels, which would tend to indicate that these are the exceptions rather than the norm.
Not defending bad cops anywhere, but in a society where anybody can carry a gun, sometimes its best to get the first strike in.
I agree with this but at the same time when u find youtube is full of this sort of thing it's hard not to notice there are an awful lot of exceptions happening compared with over here. Not defending bad cops anywhere, but in a society where anybody can carry a gun, sometimes its best to get the first strike in.
As for the whole right to bear arms thing the sooner the Americans give it up the better if a consequence is the way a lot of these cops are behaving.
mph1977 said:
Hardly , it also doesn't explain while small town cops in Buttf
k co. are so gung ho - when if there were any genuinely serious crime in that area the State Police and /or FBI would be taking over ...
As I've said the average state trooper isn't known for their softly softly approach to the job.Probably rightly on the law of averages.k co. are so gung ho - when if there were any genuinely serious crime in that area the State Police and /or FBI would be taking over ...Elroy Blue said:
People don't video Police doing a good job. You Tube isn't the font of all knowledge.
I agree with both your points.That said, looking at how few similar post are up on Youtube "starring" UK BiBs (I can think of about three which isn't a lot), the fact that on the odd occasion our cops do let themselves down it's still nowhere near as violent as their US counterparts. Even when we take into account the fact the USA has a much larger population and number of Law Enforcers the proportion of these events (also bear in mind most were from news stories not posted directly to Youtube) showing up on youtube with US cops behaving so outrageously it's hard not to see them and not accept there is a problem.Tannedbaldhead said:
Elroy Blue said:
People don't video Police doing a good job. You Tube isn't the font of all knowledge.
I agree with both your points.That said, looking at how few similar post are up on Youtube "starring" UK BiBs (I can think of about three which isn't a lot), the fact that on the odd occasion our cops do let themselves down it's still nowhere near as violent as their US counterparts. Even when we take into account the fact the USA has a much larger population and number of Law Enforcers the proportion of these events (also bear in mind most were from news stories not posted directly to Youtube) showing up on youtube with US cops behaving so outrageously it's hard not to see them and not accept there is a problem.I have contact with a US Police Dept on a regular basis and visit them whenever I'm in the US. Ordinary people, doing a difficult job. They also do huge amounts for their local community in their own time. The thousands of ordinary interactions they have with people every month aren't 'newsworthy'. Despite this being the norm.
If you think American police all act as seen in a very tiny minority of edited videos on YouTube, you are very much mistaken.
And if you think that tiny minority of incidents are bad, you should experience routine policing in the Far East, the Middle East, the sub-Continent, Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and South America ... to name but a few.
The American law enforcers I've had dealings with we're all professional ... even if the Highway Patrol officer who booked me for: "Passing those cayars like they was standin' still", had never heard of mouthwash.
Streaky
And if you think that tiny minority of incidents are bad, you should experience routine policing in the Far East, the Middle East, the sub-Continent, Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and South America ... to name but a few.
The American law enforcers I've had dealings with we're all professional ... even if the Highway Patrol officer who booked me for: "Passing those cayars like they was standin' still", had never heard of mouthwash.
Streaky
All of the interactions I've had with US police have been broadly more positive than the UK police. It's a different job over there - because they have to assume every car they stop has a gun in it, the stakes are a bit higher. Despite that, and provided you "play the game", they've always been very courteous to me at least.
Not a cop and probably not a leg man. Sorry if it's been posted already:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=26f_1371005234
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=26f_1371005234
In the interest of balance, the first time I went to TX. in the mid '90s, we got lost crossing town from the airport. It was raining.
I walked up to an officer in a stationary police car with my right hand tucked inside the left front of my unzipped jacket trying to keep the rain off of the map I was clutching. I think I thought perhaps this isn't too clever, but he was fine not in the least jumpy and more at ease and approachable than the immigration chap that looked at me and my passport and asked me the purpose of my visit.
I walked up to an officer in a stationary police car with my right hand tucked inside the left front of my unzipped jacket trying to keep the rain off of the map I was clutching. I think I thought perhaps this isn't too clever, but he was fine not in the least jumpy and more at ease and approachable than the immigration chap that looked at me and my passport and asked me the purpose of my visit.
Tannedbaldhead said:
As for the whole right to bear arms thing the sooner the Americans give it up the better if a consequence is the way a lot of these cops are behaving.
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