Mark Sman
12-22-2005, 04:17 AM
________________________________________
Recently, a California website ran an e-mail forum (a
question and answer exchange) where the topic was "Policing
the Community."
One of the civilian email participants posed the following
question: *"I would like to know how it is possible for
police officers to continually harass people and get away
with it?"*
>From the "other side" (the law enforcement side) a cool cop
with a sense of humor replied:
It is not easy. In California we average one cop for every
2,000 people. About 60% of those cops are on patrol, where
we do most of the harassing. One-fifth of that 60% are on
duty at any given moment and are available for harassing
people. So, one cop is responsible for harassing about
10,000 residents. When you toss in the commercial, business
and tourist locations that attract people from other areas,
sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is
responsible for harassing 20,000 or more people each day.
A ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds. This gives a cop one
second to harass a person, and three-fourths of a second to
eat a donut AND then find a new person to harass. This is
not an easy task. Most cops are not up to it, day in and
day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is utilize some
tools to help us narrow down those people which we harass.
They are as follows:
PHONE:
People will call us up and point out things that cause us to
focus on a person for special harassment. "My neighbor is
beating his wife" is a code phrase we use. Then we come out
and give special harassment. Another popular one on a
weeknight is, "The kids next door are having a loud party."
CARS:
We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive.
They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting
music, cars with expired registration stickers and the like.
It is lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for
nothing more obvious than running a red light. Sometimes you
get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have
drugs in the car, are driving drunk, or they have an
outstanding warrant.
RUNNERS:
Some people take off running just at the sight of a police
officer. Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after
them like a beagle on the scent of a bunny. When you catch
them you can harass them for hours.
CODES:
When you can think of nothing else to do, there are books
that give ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are
called "Codes" Penal, Vehicle, Health and Safety, Business
and Professional Codes, to name a few. They spell out all
sorts of things for which you can really mess with people.
After you read the code, you can just drive around for a
while until you find someone violating one of these listed
offenses and harass them. Just last week I saw a guy smash a
car window. Well, the code says that is not allowed. That
meant I got permission to harass this guy. It is a pretty
cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well.
We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass.
And we get away with it. Why? Because the good citizens
who pay the tab actually like the fact that we keep the
streets safe for them. Next time you are in my town, give
me a single finger wave. That will be a signal that you
wish for me to take a little closer look at you, and then
maybe I'll find a reason to harass YOU.
Looking forward to meeting you!
Recently, a California website ran an e-mail forum (a
question and answer exchange) where the topic was "Policing
the Community."
One of the civilian email participants posed the following
question: *"I would like to know how it is possible for
police officers to continually harass people and get away
with it?"*
>From the "other side" (the law enforcement side) a cool cop
with a sense of humor replied:
It is not easy. In California we average one cop for every
2,000 people. About 60% of those cops are on patrol, where
we do most of the harassing. One-fifth of that 60% are on
duty at any given moment and are available for harassing
people. So, one cop is responsible for harassing about
10,000 residents. When you toss in the commercial, business
and tourist locations that attract people from other areas,
sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is
responsible for harassing 20,000 or more people each day.
A ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds. This gives a cop one
second to harass a person, and three-fourths of a second to
eat a donut AND then find a new person to harass. This is
not an easy task. Most cops are not up to it, day in and
day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is utilize some
tools to help us narrow down those people which we harass.
They are as follows:
PHONE:
People will call us up and point out things that cause us to
focus on a person for special harassment. "My neighbor is
beating his wife" is a code phrase we use. Then we come out
and give special harassment. Another popular one on a
weeknight is, "The kids next door are having a loud party."
CARS:
We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive.
They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting
music, cars with expired registration stickers and the like.
It is lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for
nothing more obvious than running a red light. Sometimes you
get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have
drugs in the car, are driving drunk, or they have an
outstanding warrant.
RUNNERS:
Some people take off running just at the sight of a police
officer. Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after
them like a beagle on the scent of a bunny. When you catch
them you can harass them for hours.
CODES:
When you can think of nothing else to do, there are books
that give ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are
called "Codes" Penal, Vehicle, Health and Safety, Business
and Professional Codes, to name a few. They spell out all
sorts of things for which you can really mess with people.
After you read the code, you can just drive around for a
while until you find someone violating one of these listed
offenses and harass them. Just last week I saw a guy smash a
car window. Well, the code says that is not allowed. That
meant I got permission to harass this guy. It is a pretty
cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well.
We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass.
And we get away with it. Why? Because the good citizens
who pay the tab actually like the fact that we keep the
streets safe for them. Next time you are in my town, give
me a single finger wave. That will be a signal that you
wish for me to take a little closer look at you, and then
maybe I'll find a reason to harass YOU.
Looking forward to meeting you!