Author Topic: petty abuses of power  (Read 2436 times)

yesno

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petty abuses of power
« on: July 30, 2008, 10:17:40 AM »
I've been following this story of the cop who attacked a biker and then lied about it.  For some reason, these petty abuses of power -- harassing protesters, telling people that it's illegal to take pictures of things, etc -- just really put a burr under my saddle, as PFT would say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/nyregion/30about.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/nyregion/29critical.html?fta=y

http://gothamist.com/2008/07/28/cop_caught_on_video_assaulting_cycl.php



todd

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2008, 11:08:04 AM »
Wow... that makes me so mad.

ericluxury

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2008, 11:10:39 AM »
At least the cop in question paid for his idiocy and will likely regret it for the rest of his life. Being a cop isn't the greatest job in the world but its certainly more exciting than a Union Square grocer and it has a pension. I'd love to know what the conversations he has with his father and possibly grandfather considering he is a 3rd generation cop.

Why does the adversarial relationship with cops and bicyclists exist? I get why cops don't like Critical Mass and I understand the looks of hatred I've gotten from cops while riding in it, but cops seem to have a problem with bicyclists even outside of that context.

todd

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2008, 11:18:46 AM »
At least the cop in question paid for his idiocy and will likely regret it for the rest of his life. Being a cop isn't the greatest job in the world but its certainly more exciting than a Union Square grocer and it has a pension. I'd love to know what the conversations he has with his father and possibly grandfather considering he is a 3rd generation cop.

Why does the adversarial relationship with cops and bicyclists exist? I get why cops don't like Critical Mass and I understand the looks of hatred I've gotten from cops while riding in it, but cops seem to have a problem with bicyclists even outside of that context.

Meatheads in general have something against bikes, I'm not sure why.

dave from knoxville

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2008, 01:00:55 PM »
At least the cop in question paid for his idiocy and will likely regret it for the rest of his life. Being a cop isn't the greatest job in the world but its certainly more exciting than a Union Square grocer and it has a pension. I'd love to know what the conversations he has with his father and possibly grandfather considering he is a 3rd generation cop.

Why does the adversarial relationship with cops and bicyclists exist? I get why cops don't like Critical Mass and I understand the looks of hatred I've gotten from cops while riding in it, but cops seem to have a problem with bicyclists even outside of that context.

His dad was quoted as saying something along the lines of you gotta do what you gotta do to make an arrest, so I don't think he's too cut up about it.

Emerson

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2008, 02:29:46 PM »
y/n,
That's one of the reasons I fled Chicago so eagerly. The police and city government were so abusive that it was a running joke, and everyone had pretty much given up.

When I worked in bars, I usually went to the local "cop bar" after closing. Why? Because cop bars never close. Who's going to make them? And if they try, this might happen:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260288,00.html

This was the big one, which will never be resolved at this point:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/policetorture/050402/

It involved Richard M. Daley, who is basically Mayor Quimby, a loveable rouge who shits on the city, laughs, and gets 99% of the vote, because no one expects anything else from him.

I'm sympathetic to most cops, on a personal level. But it's way too much power for any one person to have.
"You said it. I didn't."

Jason

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2008, 02:42:37 PM »
Finally, a cop doing his job.

yesno

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2008, 02:52:00 PM »
I'm sypathetic to most cops, too. I just don't like the petty harassment side of things. I'm not qualified to comment on broken windows stuff or community policing. I'm just bugged by harassment of people who aren't even close to breaking any laws or even acting in an unruly way. I also get annoyed at the common cop belief that if a cop says it, it's the law.

Buy I've got nothing but respek for the Bunks and Stottlemeyers of the world.

Emerson

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2008, 03:04:00 PM »
Most of my "total time logged in" has been spent hypnotized by Jason's sig file.
"You said it. I didn't."

AllisonLeGnome

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2008, 10:09:59 PM »
Why does the adversarial relationship with cops and bicyclists exist? I get why cops don't like Critical Mass and I understand the looks of hatred I've gotten from cops while riding in it, but cops seem to have a problem with bicyclists even outside of that context.

Today I was outside the museum where I work along a pretty busy street and a whole pack of policemen (no women, and there were at least two dozen of them) were riding bikes down the road extremely slowly. Only the last two had uniforms, but the rest were all wearing helmets and had their holsters/belts on. It was bizarre.

Fido

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2008, 11:17:01 PM »
My uncle was a cop, so I'm obviously sympathetic to the men and women in blue.  I also carry around in my head his statement, of which he was undoubtedly not the originator, that a considerable percentage of cops are really members of the law enforcement community for the right reasons (the "Joe Fridays" of the cop world); a considerable percentage are doing it because it's what they do, and it's a job (and not the easiest one in the world); and a considerable percentage would be criminals if they weren't cops. 

Trotskie

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Re: petty abuses of power
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2008, 11:37:21 PM »
(Not related directly to this particular incident) but I wonder if we are going to see an evolution in the NYPD to include an increased cops-on-bikes presence.  It seems like there is no current deployment that can police riders, a growing presence on the streets.