Perhaps I'm blowing some hot air as your quote says. You are absolutely correct Big E, when one has spent enough time on the streets, one definitely witnesses some things that blow the mind (no pun).
And you are also correct that no real conclusions can be drawn about the officers conduct based on what we are given here.
This good cop bad cop debate always pops up and their is never any middle ground on it.
I'm not gonna say that they are all bad because that is just one extreme and I know better, But I've known many cops where I grew up in LA and let me tell you, they are some of the MEANEST, most SADISTIC people I've known.
I'm not a cop but I have a good understanding of the job (believe me) and I know why some can become the way they do. But alot of the guys I've known , I knew before they became cops and they've always been bullies since we were kids. It's like dealing with 6'4" , 270 Lb. child throwing a temper tantrum with a bat or a knife.
I don't mean to make a joke of the job, and maybe comparing a grown, two legged animal to a child is giving the criminal too much credit. I've seen guys kick in the windows that are supposed to be unbreakable, I've seen a 130 lb girl fight off three big mooses for deputies (who I might add, showed incredibly professional restraint when I would have just put a fist across her jaw), Like I told Cuts recently...Scene a lot of stuff. It was EVERY day for me growing up and also for many others.
And just as cops become hard to regular people's BS because of all the crap they've had to tolerate from the real animals; regular people also become numb to the idea that cops are people too.
But they have less sympathy for cops because civilians KNOW... I know that I couldn't get away with half of the stuff that they've witnessed cops doing.
For me personally, if the suspect was a
known POS, I could easilly overlook that "accidental" gut shot or "tripped and fell on his face". I'm sure
you know that often times it may end up being more than what the court is gonna do. I think what really bothers me is the verbal abuse.
Many of these cops, just like the criminal, have mouths that could make a sailor cringe (and I'm an old sailor). I know that sounds crazy, "uh yeah, he FELL... repeatedly". I'm ok with that. Hell that's what the neighborhood told the cops when they handed a black and blue Richard Ramirez over to the police.
But the crap talking, antagonizing and verbal abuse after the guys already been subdued (seen more of that than any thing else)... I don't know. It seems to piss a suspect off even further and unnecessarily. In LA it is usually one of the main reasons that so many cops get beat down. Yeah people, in LA cops take a beating all the time, but it's not made widely publicly known.
LAPD and LACSD have a very high turnover rate. And a very low percentage of cops will ever make it to what I've heard referred to as a natural retirement. In other words a retirement not due to injury or psychological reasons or death or quitting etc. etc. Yeah...It's a damn tough job. But like Super Chicken once said "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it Fred".
There has to be some balance on this issue and I can understand how working in LE yourself, you want to give your community the benefit of the doubt. But it was my friends dad (an LACSD narcotics detective) that told me "even with cops, like criminals, for every one that gets caught there dozens and even hundreds more incidents that go unchecked". The official statistics mean SQUAT on both sides. They can be manipulated in the same manner that the gun grabbers do theirs.
And this guy was one of them MMMMEEANNN ones. Hell, he even hated other cops.
I don't hate cops but I look at every single one I see with that same poker faced, scrutinizing X-ray set of eyes that they all have. Surely you know the look to which I refer
. I'm uncomfortably toooo familiar with the psychological nature of the beast. It's the job they chose and it's the price they pay for the burden of power and authority that they carry.
Peace to you all.
