Comment Re:The answer nobody likes... (Score 1) 286
Hi there. Atypical sometimes Slashdotter here. I don't think that *all* cops are out to get me, but of the few I've interacted with, 90% of them have been absolute self-absorbed jackasses who think that anybody who isn't wearing a badge and a uniform is "the enemy" until another member of their little "sanctioned street gang" informs them otherwise.
I seriously have less to fear from the *actual* gangbangers, drug dealers, and criminal miscreants in my town than I do from the police, and I'm not part of the "criminal element." I've had firearms stuck in my face by police twice, and never once from a "criminal" thug. An no, in neither situation were weapons present (other than the officers), nor was the officer in a tactically disadvantageous position (quite the opposite), nor was any *remote* threat present to the officer's safety, or anyone else's.
Among my friends, I have seen more damage done to their persons, lives, and property by police than by "criminals" by a factor of 5. In my own life, it's a factor of 2, because I don't particularly go anywhere or do much of anything, and I avoid law enforcement like the *plague*... (to the extent that I refuse to leave the house on any days or go to any locations where high law enforcement presence is likely to be found.)
I will not call police for any reason. I'll either deal with the issue myself, or I'll just suffer the loss and go about my day. I've never once personally witness a case where a situation was improved by the presence of a "law enforcement officer" on seen, but I've seen many cases where it was made considerably worse for the victim.
So, in a nutshell, f**k the police. I want nothing to do with a gang of powertripping thugs who possess a societally granted monopoly on acceptable violence and who are conditioned to view policing as a "war" in which average citizens are either "enemies" or "enemies we don't know about yet." I don't care if a few of them are decent human beings. I'll stick with the thugs and gangbangers and drug dealers and thieves, because they're more reliable and reasonable.. And you can occasionally defeat them.