I was watching an episode of Law & Order SVU the other day, and was struck by how much Detective Olivia Benson cares about people. It really struck me as strange, and so I thought about it a bit... and I realized, I have never had a positive experience with law enforcement.
- When I played football in high school, the local Virginina cops would use racial profiling to pull over my teammate's cars on the way to practice. It got to the point where the black players would get out of their own cars, and ask the white teammates to drive.
- Later in high school, my family experienced a serious crime. The detective who came to my house was an evangelical Christian, and spent his entire investigation trying to convert our family to his religion. I'll never forget his first visit, where he started quoting scripture to explain that the emergence of the modern state of Israel was proof of the Bible's literal truth. My sense at the time was, perhaps a home visit during a criminal investigation is not the best venue for this sort of wisdom.
- A few years ago, I was assaulted on the streets of New York. Immediately afterwards, I ran up to a nearby police officer and explained what had just happened - I thought he would want to possibly chase down and apprehend the assailants. But I could tell when he looked at me that all he saw was extra paperwork. He said, "I guess I could take you to the nearest station and you could file a report there." I just walked away.
- Recently, the police blocked off a block or two near our office and flooded the area with officers in order to do crowd control. Most of the crowd was low income and poorly educated, since they were there for an impromptu job fair for poorly paid retail positions. The police treated EVERYONE there like they were criminals and idiots.
The only time I have ever had a positive experience with police is when I ask for directions. Anyway, maybe I am biased. I would like to believe that there are Olivia Bensons out there who really care about my safety and well being.
Have you ever had a positive experience with law enforcement? If so - please share specifics stories, and restore my faith in the police!
Comments (76)
i remember my husband was on his way to his great grandma's funeral (like his mom) and he went through a road block. we hadn't been living here too long, we had moved from Mississippi. well, his inspection sticker had JUST run out and we had yet to put NC plates on the car... the man stops him and was just totally rude to him. told him to pull over. well, chris was already upset and crying, and told the man he was on his way to a funeral. the cop was like "that's NOT my problem" and asks to see his license and registration "If he's even got one, HAHA" in his exact words... WTF?? then the cop goes and gets his stuff and SITS in his patrol car with some young teenage girl, laughing and talking! chris was about to be late for the funeral, so he went and beat on the cop's door and told him to give him a ticket or take him to jail. luckily the cop just gave him a ticket, which my brother in law got dropped of course... but geez. how rude can you get???
ok, sorry for the ramble. have a lovely day!
*Jac*
gotten 3 warnings and
no tickets. i like Law
and Order SUV.
I was married to a cop for a time. No, I can't say as I've had any positive experiences with cops while being married to them or not married to them. Ha!
So much for the illusion.
~g~
I'm sorry, John.
my dad has part of the las vegas police department over his house on a monthly basis. they call get together and make homemade meatballs, sausage and gravy. it's a very italian thing.
but outside of knowing these police officers, i have never had a decent experience with them.
My apartment was burglarized in college. I called the police twice. No one showed up. While I was working in retail, I called the police because a person was threatening people inside the store. The police never showed up and called 6 hours later asking if everything was okay.
I know a couple people in law enforcement and I don't fault the individual police officers but yeah... something isn't right.
Elizabeth Smart. Everytime an Amber Alert ends successfully. Everytime an Amber Alert doesn't end successfully and I see a great many dejected officers. Yeah, there are jackasses running around in a uniform, but you can't generalize on the basis of a few. For every one jackass, there are two or three good ones. I've had my run ins. But I've also had far more times where the local police have been very helpful to a scared or angry me. They've gone out of their way to do what they can for me--when my purse was stolen out of my apartment and I was sitting not ten feet away. When I had a car accident and was this close to freaking out completely, because it was my Mom's car and the car was totaled. When I got pulled for a routine stop and the officer had to search my vehicle thanks to the law--passed by politicians, I might add, not the cops--and he kept apologizing but it was his job. They took care of me, kept me safe and calm. They take care of us all, putting their lives on the line daily. Even the jerks earn my respect for that.
Hope that helps.