One of my friend's who's a cop posted this the other day in a reaction to a different 'omg the cops are abusing their power' video:
Since starting my career in policing, it has changed tremendously. I would never recommend the career to anyone. The media, including social media has made it easy and cool to say F**K the police. The prevalence of this can be seen even on Facebook, where people are listed on my friend list, commenting on a variety of videos or other posts, supporting the bashing of police, without knowing the facts. Police constantly deal with a segment of the population that represents roughly 5% of the city. I am not referring to any race or fiscal demographic, but speaking in general terms. The police in any given city know the names of the people that we deal with regularly. Heck there are units within Police Services that are dedicated to some of these individuals, such as Habitual Offenders, or Stolen Auto or Drugs....That leaves a population of about 95% of the city that we do not come into regular contact with. That is a good thing. However, when this segment is contacted, it is usually for something minor such as bylaw infractions like speeding, or noisy parties.
I have been given speeding tickets, because guess what...I was speeding. I deserved it because I broke the law.
On the not so frequent occasion, we attend to your house because someone called 911 and asked for us to come. The call was made at the time, because someone, somewhere along the line thought police intervention was required. Now this is where it gets interesting...if you are unhappy with the outcome, you complain. If you think the police have an attitude, you complain. If you are arrested and don't comply and get injured, you complain. But usually, it's a friend of a friend that complains, then the whole incident gets worse like an old legend, and doesn't contain any real facts. What everyone forgets is that police are human. You have no idea whether or not the last call he or she was on, was trying to save the life of a baby not breathing. Or they just dealt with taking a statement from a sexual assault victim who'd been raped by his uncle. Or a domestic where the man beat his wife and she is too fearful to say anything. Police try their best to compartmentalize everything they deal with, so that they can take the next call. And the next one. And during many of these calls, people shout at police. Confront police. Make situations worse. The police then make split second decisions based on their training and experience, which sometimes become scrutinized for weeks, months and sometimes years after the fact.
I have friends that are plumbers, electricians, miners, athletes, fire fighters, lawyers and everything in between. There is no other career that has glorified the injuring of the workers employed in that field. No other career that the workers are specifically targeted for the uniform they wear. I've never read an article that urged people to stand against the fire fighters because they used too much water and flooded your house. All lawyers because yours overbilled. The car salesman gouged you. The clerk at the store was rude. If you don't believe that the police are specifically being targeted, google it. Search how many officers have been hurt or shot and killed lately for no other reason than the fact they are police.
For anyone who has had dealings with the police, (it is a very small segment of the population), there was a reason you came into contact with them. Whether it be positive or negative. In most cases, police are only called to incidents where bad things are happening. We don't often get invited to BBQs.
Police may stop you while riding your bike with no headlight at night....because he knows that in that neighbourhood, the citizens have complained about B and Es by someone on a bike at night. It might not be you, but he would be negligent if he didn't check you out. You should be happy he checked you out, he's protecting your property.
She might be rude (in your opinion) when you are the homeowner of a noisy party that is tying up 10 officers because you thought it was a good idea to have 150 people at your house, on a quiet street. Your neighbours want you to be quiet, they're the ones that called.
You might have been "thrown" to the ground when you were asked to keep your hands out of your pockets at the assault with a weapon call. The police don't know who has the weapons, and need to figure it out quickly. If you match the only description given, they probably think you are the suspect, even if the real suspect left. So comply. I want to go home to my family at the end of my shift.
No, I didn't sign up to be police officer knowing I would spit at, and pushed, kicked and bitten. Sworn at by kids. Laughed at by parents. Lied to by many. I wanted to help. Help people that felt that they needed my help.
I guess my point is this. I know that many of you have never dealt with the police. If you have, the incident was probably normal. Very rarely, if anytime, have any of you had a negative encounter with the police, in which your rights and freedoms were violated. So please, I beg you, jump off the bandwagon of police hating. Get angry that criminals (people breaking the law) are being allowed to run free. No matter what, we will come when you call. We will never turn our backs on you. If you have a positive encounter with the police, post it. I dare you. If you get a ticket that you deserved, own it. If you get arrested because you deserved it, own it. And if you teach your kids that it's ok to treat the police in the same fashion that is shown in the video posted...shame on you. This video never went viral. I am very fearful of where we are headed as a society. And take that for what you think it's worth, but I see a lot of things that you have no idea even happens, because it never makes the paper.
Before you post or comment about police without knowing all of the facts, do your research.
