Originally posted by Airhead
<> Concho, Maverick and Dune. I believe you all fight the good fight and without people like you we'd be less of a society.
You're right for the most part, Airhead. 95% of cops fight the good fight and we could not live the way we do without them. The other 5% it seems, were somehow placed (by some higher power) in Los Angeles County. While living there a few years ago I was harassed twice. Once for walking up Sunset BLVD in the Palisades at 3 in the morning, from the local Vons Supermarket to my apartment and the second time while riding in the back seat of a car that got pulled over fir a traffic violation. The first time the bastard spent 10 minutes questioning myself and my two buddies on why we were there, who we were, where we'd gone to highschool and other banalities. While I don't blame his vigilance(since it was late and we were three very young guys strolling around in a nice neighborhod), his attitude totally sucked. We were cooperating to the best of our abilities, were sober, and he still threatened to "get out of his car" after my friend answered the question of where he went to high school with: 'I graduated two years ago', and then, before finally pulling away, he actually made us thank him for the trouble of stopping us. He was older, bald and very pissed to be alive. We agreed that the most unlucky person in the world was the guy's poor wife.
The second time I got pulled out of the backseat and forced to do a field sobriety test because I didn't have a seatbelt on. It was a younger cop this time, and he claimed that I was 'giving him s**t' when he shined his light into my eyes through the backwindow. All I'd done was put my palm up to block the beam. Nevertheless, I told him that I wasn't giving him any s**t, that I respected his position and the work he did. After that he shook my hand and calmed down.
There is nothing scarier than a cop that's abusing his power. In my mind, that rare creature is nothing but a thug in uniform, paid and protected by the state. To the rest of the guys, like the plain-clothes officer who helped me push my dead truck through a nasty intersection last winter, and the guys who each day put themselves on the line defending lives of people who are often unworthy of such defense, salutes are most definately in order.
