[Godstud]

I'm not talking about anything of the sort. I've never given so much as a penny/baht to a police officer. I find your cynicism annoying.

Criminals always tend to have a big problem with police.

[Dagoth Ur]

As does anyone who the police thinks looks like a criminal. If you don't look square you will have trouble with the police.

[jessupjonesjnr87]

I'm not talking about anything of the sort. I've never given so much as a penny/baht to a police officer. I find your cynicism annoying.

Criminals always tend to have a big problem with police.

Haven't you openly admitted on this forum to bribing traffic police in Thailand?

[Godstud]

I'm saying that people DO pay 100-200 baht INSTEAD of getting the 500 baht ticket, but NO, I have never had to do so. I am licensed, registered and insured. I am, and have always been, a law-abiding citizen(for the most part). If I get a ticket, then so be it, I deserved it!

I did have a friend who got in an accident with a Thai motorcycle driver. The police didn't look twice when they noticed the registration was on the day of the accident. The guy on the motorcycle went to get registered immediately after the crash... Good thing the police knew the motorcycle was at fault(passing while turn signal on).

[anarchist23]

I have heard that the Thialand police take bribes so basically it is one law the rich and another law for the poor. I have lived in India for some time. Police bribery is rife, if a foreigner is busted for cannibis he pays a bride or face imprisonment. If an American gets busted he has to pay a massive bribe. Basically the amount of bribe is variable depending how wealthy you are.

[Godstud]

The traffic fines are so low that even the POOR can afford to pay the traffic fines. They are not comparable to Western fines, in any way. They are far easier to avoid, too. They don't have speed traps. They have checkpoints, that if you know where they are, are easily avoided.

ALL people face a fine or imprisonment and many a family pays to keep their troubled kids out of jail. Yes, it can be like you suggest, but at the same time, generally it's not. I wouldn't say it's any worse than the Western system.

[anarchist23]

I wouldn't say it's any worse than the Western system.

^
You can't be serious. In the UK if a copper stopped me for a traffic offence and I offered a bribe I would be in deep shit. In Thailand police bribery is accepted, they allow adult and child prostitution to continue for example.

[Pants-of-dog]

You see, I have no fear of police, in any way, shape, or form, because I am not breaking the law. I will never be shot by a policeman, or beaten up, because I know how to deal with the law, and police. The people who encounter problems are the people who see the police as adversaries.

There is no end to the number of stories of innocent people killed by police. http://www.innocentdown.org/

The trouble is that we have no idea how many of the killing are justified, and moreover, we don't even have a good number of how many people die at the hands of police each year.

[Joe Liberty]

Most police are just trying to uphold the law. This is taking the examples of bad apples and making them representative of the whole. Yes when you grant authority some people will abuse it, but I am sick of people blaming law enforcement officers for what is really the fault of politicians.

There's plenty of blame to go around.

I agree with you, politicians have given the police far too much power by making far too many things "illegal". The USSC, except for a couple of exceptions, routinely expands police power.

But the cops themselves share some of the blame, as we are seeing more and more on camera.

Please note that the actual title of the job is law enforcement. The role of an officer is not to decide which laws are right or wrong or to decide what amount of equipment is justified to carry, this is what our legislators decide.

Actually the police do have some discretion, and that's as it should be, I don't think we want them to be mindless soldiers, do we? Speaking of soldiers, that's part of the problem: many police these days are ex-military who've been trained that anyone not wearing a uniform is The Enemy. That's not traditionally the mindset of an American cop.

People say that cops randomly gun down innocent people. Okay so we live in a society where people routinely pack heat so they have to be worried.

There are a dozen professions which are statistically more dangerous than "cop". And people have been routinely packing heat for two hundred years.

If you don't like it lobby for stricter anti-gun proliferation laws like one gun a month laws.

Wait, so if we think the police and laws are too stringent, we should lobby for more laws?

I'm sure there is some racist scumbag out there who is using a law enforcement career as cover for his desire to oppress minorities, but probably upwards of 99 out of 100 uses of force were when the police officer legitimately feared for his life.

I seriously doubt that ratio. They seem to be much faster to pull the trigger now than they ever have been, and that's partially because there are rarely any consequences beyond a few days' paid leave.

People say cops have too many military style weapons. Well who sets the budget? Cops are not immune to politics, it is politicians who set the budgets and approve these things. Vote them out.

The problem with that is there is nobody to vote in who thinks any differently.

The point is probably 95% of complaining about police officers should be directed to the legislators who actually make the laws. Police officers don't get to just choose which laws to enforce or they will lose their jobs. We have the power to vote for different elected officials in America. It confuses me to no end the amount of complaining about government that goes on in this country while we still continue to reelect upwards of 90% of incumbents who run for reelection. Then people say we need "term limits" and limits to stop lobbyists from affecting "career politicians." Well maybe just not vote to reelect them next time.

Again: that doesn't help when two factions of the same party are the only options on the ballot. Voting simply doesn't work.

[keso]

Have you noticed the heightened anti-Police rhetoric coming from both the Libertarians and the Left? It is as if the police are under constant assault by the 'mah rights' crowd and the 'that's rayyyyycisssss' crowd, with no letting up.

The Libertarians & liberals that shill for these causes are the useful idiots.

In response to the OP, we could easily subsitute [teacher, conservative] for [police, liberal] in the original post and have a characterization, or rather, an overcharacterization, that is incredibly similar in both the overgeneralization of the police and teachers as well as simplifying of the left/right dichotomy.

It is interesting how the Cliven Bundy issue became a, "federal government," issue rather than a police issue.

However, when we look at the demographics of the [police] versus the demographics of [teachers], we find some interesting things, I think. One has a considerably higher of [white males] than the others...We need to save people from getting killed needlessly by teachers, like we need them to be saved from the police.

Freedom? Which one gets more money thrown at it? Police departments, or school districts? Which one does the right want more accountability from? JUST ONE, which one does the left want accountability from? Both.

Rhetoric, at best.

[KlassWar]

The elites militarize the police as a terrorist tactic against the working masses, a psyop to prevent the working class from realizing that they so outnumber the class enemy and their attack dogs that if they truly united and set out to exterminate class enemies, their attack dogs and their worthless collaborationist families they would be utterly unstoppable. Let's face it, every cop, every military officer, every big businessowner, every class enemy in a position of bourgeois authority... There's people who know where they live, their daily routine... And plenty of those people are working class, with inherent proletarian class interests that can only be realized and actualized after crushing every enemy on their path.

The class enemy projects an illusion of power to preserve the illusion that they are unassailable, rather than the surprisingly easy to flay alive paper tiger that they truly are. Simple as that.

Enlisted troops and junior officers often side with the Revolution when the time comes, police are almost invariably utter scum that will stick with the class enemy to the bitter end, scum deserving nothing more than being utterly disempowered, utterly brutalized until their personalities shatter and then starved and worked to death on a Gulag.

Individually, siding with the working class when the hour of reckoning comes covereth a multitude of sins... But at a more general level let's not bullshit ourselves and call a spade a spade and scum scum.

[Godstud]

In Thailand police bribery is accepted, they allow adult and child prostitution to continue for example.

Yes, Bribery is accepted. Imagine if you will if UK paid their police officers $10/hour. Do you think there'd be no chance of them accepting bribes? The problem has more to do with how much government employees are paid.

No, prostitution is illegal in Thailand. Do they turn a blind eye to it? Yes, because it's culturally accepted.

No, child prostitution is VERY illegal in Thailand. They do NOT turn a blind eye to it. Whoever told you otherwise is completely in error.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/PM ... 08756.html
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/children-f ... e-exposed/
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/thailand-prost ... ar-1468645

Where do you think the pedos who look for the underage prostitutes come from? Look in your neighbourhood.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/296914.stm (They are working with Thais to find the pedos)

Remember the UK's famous "Gary Glitter"? He was refused entry into Thailand, and deported from Vietnam.

There is no end to the number of stories of innocent people killed by police.

While in the backyard of the home, Ramirez exchanged gunfire with deputies, the release stated.

That's not "innocent." I have a better chance of spontaneously combusting, than being killed by police. Should I carry a fire extinguisher?

Wait, so if we think the police and laws are too stringent, we should lobby for more laws?

The US needs to realize that it has to get stricter gun controls. It should also be amending the second amendment for modern life. People don't need a fucking gun, and it only makes policing more hazardous. I'm not talking about reducing clip size of assault weapons, but removing them entirely, along with handguns. Then strictly regulate and control who has them. It HAS worked in other countries, and there's no reason it can't work in the US. It WILL, however, take a cultural shift for it to happen. People are too wrapped up in their own personal liberty that they can't see that the liberty of ALL is being denied by their own selfishness.

[Pants-of-dog]

While in the backyard of the home, Ramirez exchanged gunfire with deputies, the release stated.

That's not "innocent." I have a better chance of spontaneously combusting, than being killed by police. Should I carry a fire extinguisher?

Selective quoting at its best!

I will now show the sentence you quoted in bold:

An innocent homeowner was mistakenly killed and a parolee was fatally shot by deputies early Saturday after an hourslong hostage situation and standoff in Pico Rivera, authorities said.

During the search, Ramirez ran out of a home, jumped a back fence and then broke into a home in the 9000 block of Rosehedge Drive, which was occupied by an unknown number of residents at the time, according to the release and Lt. John Corina of the Sheriff’s Department.The incident began around 4:30 p.m. on Friday when deputies were searching for 24-year-old Cedric Ramirez, who was wanted on two felony warrants, a news release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

While in the backyard of the home, Ramirez exchanged gunfire with deputies, the release stated.

“Within seconds of their exit, an adult male suddenly appeared in the doorway,” Chief Bill McSweeney, of the Sheriff’s Department’s Detective Division, said at a Saturday evening news conference.Deputies were able to open the front door and started escorting multiple people from the home. However, as they were being taken out, the Ramirez allegedly shot a second time at deputies, who then returned fire and retreated to the front yard, according to Corino.

“Believing the man was Ramirez, a deputy fired two shots at that man,” who then dropped to the ground, unconscious, McSweeney said. He was later recognized to be 54-year-old Frank Mendoza, a resident of the home.

However, if you read the italicised text at the beginning and end of the article, you would know that the homeowner who was shot was not Ramirez.

[Godstud]

Accidents do happen, pants-of-dog, but this is not an everyday occurrence.

[anarchist23]

The words of brainwashed slave. " The police are here to protect us and our property. They do a fine job."

[Godstud]

Oh STFU anarchist 23! I am not a brainwashed slave anymore than you are a drooling idiot.

If you don't act AGAINST police, you never have a problem WITH the police. FACT. If you're a rebel and cause problems, then it should come as no surprise when you have run-ins with them.

I don't look at police with the same antagonism that you do, so that reflects on how I communicate with them. Thus, I have no problems, whereas you do.

[anarchist23]

Luckily we are not all the same. Unfortunately the police are tools of the wealthy, privileged and elite. The Thialand police have the reputation of being corrupt and criminals pay them off. Child prostitution is rife in Thailand and the police do fuck all except take bribes. You live in a sad country. Don't bore me.

[Pants-of-dog]

Accidents do happen, pants-of-dog, but this is not an everyday occurrence.

Actually, since the police themselves do not keep a database on people killed by law enforcement officers (LEO), we have no idea if they happen every day. They might.

If you don't act AGAINST police, you never have a problem WITH the police. FACT. If you're a rebel and cause problems, then it should come as no surprise when you have run-ins with them.

Actually, people who are completely innocent do get shot by the police. If you are black, it is even more likely.

[Godstud]

Child prostitution is rife in Thailand and the police do fuck all except take bribes. You live in a sad country. Don't bore me.

You are incorrect(as usual). You know fuck all about Thailand. Stick with your pos Ireland and leave my lovely Thailand alone. It's a happy lovely country full of amazing people. Stick with your potatoes, green clovers and Lucky Charms. Don't pretend to know that which you do not.

What do you know about police in Thailand, anyhow? What you read on some fucknut's blog? I am a volunteer police officer with the police force in my area. I know more about the police here than you will ever know.

Underage prostitution is viewed as just as ugly here, as it is everywhere else in the world. Quit trying to make it seem otherwise. A person caught engaging in child prostitution is as likely to end up dead in the Mekong River, as he is to be imprisoned. That some "farang"(foreigners) end up missing or dead is because they are seeking this sort of thing, and locals or police catch up to them.

This is a prime example of anti-police rhetoric though anarchist23, although aimed at another country's police, by an ignorant ethnocentric foreigner.

[Verv]

Some thoughts:

(1) Militarization is an interesting consequence of prolonged warfare & overpreparation.

The reason why they have so much gear, as smarter analysts who are even Libertarians have pointed out via Reason TV and such, is because we've been throwing tons of money into wars about 'terrorism,' and thus have massive surpluses in goods, and the notion is that 'terrorism can strike anywhere.' Previously we had no concept that the Viet Cong or the Nazi Germans could/would blow up a building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but now we think so, and think of it as a possibility...

And then there is the concept that it means political death to any politician to not be prepared, whether it is for a hurricane or for a terror attack, and to 'cover their ass,' every politician and mayor will take as much military grade gear that they can from the DoD that gives it out as candy.

On some level, this is the culmination of unrelated philosophies & policies, and we find ourselves in the puzzling she don't wanna fuck me, thug, but she wanna fuck my tattoos situation that the philosophy team Young Thug & Jose Guapo pointed out in their hit song. While the motives are not what we expected (she wants to fuck ME), the result is the same (we are getting fucked, if only because there was a desire to fuck our tattoos).

In this sense, we end up getting fucked not because there was a desire to fuck us, but because there was a desire to fuck our tattoos (or the potential terror threats), and it all works out the same.

(2) If 95% of cops aren't the problem, then you must let it rest.

Roughly 1 in 5 African American men between the ages of 18 and 30 is either in jail or on probation or in some other function being punished / rehabilitated by the Department of Justice. Yet, few people here would say that black men between 18 and 30 are "the problem" and must be feared or demonized.

the argument is, in fact, that since Af. Am youngsters face far greater issues (poverty, fatherlessness, urban decay) than most Eur. Ams, they are more likely to end up violent or resorting to substance abuse.

Now, take the Police: their entire job is the monitoring and combating of crime, and being involved in thereby necessarily violent and messed up situations. One can imagine how this is even a corrosive force on the psyche of the Police.

(3) Thanks for the Metas.

Special shout out to posters like Klass War that provided a deeper analysis fo the situation, which is desired.

(4) Thanks for the Personal Stories & Anecdotes,

like Cartertonian, who is in the position to say the majority of the Police are good; these stories are worthwhile.

(b) Hate your memes unless the source is obvious and it isn't overly flambouyant

Should I post graphic pictures of victims of day-to-day, non-Police crime, to get people riled up for tougher police enforcement?

Should I post suspicious numbers with no obvious source?

Well, basically, I think we agree I shouldn't post political memes, and neither should you.