As the night hours tick along, I know I won’t be sleeping any time soon. With nothing to do I have resorted to scrolling through slop. It seems apropos to delve into the paranormal but all of those videos are either staged, or at the very least anticlimactic. You would think by now someone would have captured something substantially ghostly or alien on video but not really.
Compelling is the best we can do apparently.
Instead I am finding myself watching police audits. I don’t know why other than it warms my cockles to see authority figures who abuse their authority get their comeuppance. Having been the subject of many unpleasant encounters with law enforcement I have a pretty deep disdain for cops. At the same time I understand they have an impossible job to do and are absolutely necessary.
Imagine a job where you have to deal with dead bodies, abused children, drug addicts, armed and violent criminals, and basically every insane and disgusting behavior a human is capable of. All the while you are rarely welcome in the space you need to be in, and even if you do your job perfectly people want to spit in your face and sue you.
I respect the job needing to be done. It is the jobs that don’t really need to be done that bothers me. Now, I am going to make some gross generalizations. I think that is fair given the history cops have of profiling the public.
Cops have a long history of being overzealous. They want to police people. They want you to be a criminal. They get excited when they get to put their hands on people or get to use their ass beating training. Why else would they look for minor crimes to engage citizens over? They want that small crime to lead to a bigger crime.
More arrests equals more money for them.
More arrests means a better career reputation.
More arrests justify the need for more cops.
I get it. Being the super cop that has a hunch that leads to the takedown of a major criminal probably gets your cop dick hard. Most of the time though, it’s just harassment. A non-zero amount of police encounters are totally unnecessary and escalate to criminal charges simply because the cops showed up and made things worse.
Whoops. We will send them for de-escalation training we swear.
Cops are on a major power trip. It’s in the way they stand. It’s in the way they talk to people. It carries into their interpersonal relationships and they are never really off duty. The have qualified immunity so they stretch those boundaries knowing full well the majority of people are not going to push back.
Then, if someone does push back they get to wreck their shit. The other gang members, I mean cops, are going to join in, twist the reports to cover everyone’s ass, and in not so rare cases have judges and a court system that will side with them. A cop has to do some straight egregious shit and get caught on camera for there to be any real consequences.
Even then you can watch a group of cops beat the brakes off of Rodney King and then watch them all walk away unscathed. Body cams mysteriously stop working or have no volume. Additional charges are tacked on out of spite. Ask the wrong question with the wrong tone of voice and it goes from a detainment to an arrest.
The ego on these fucks is enormous. Try not answering a question when you don’t have to, or worse, try not identifying yourself when the law says you don’t have to. Cops have a major hard on for getting your ID and they will fuck you up if you refuse. Exercise your First Amendment rights in front of these fools and watch what happens.
You will learn real quick you have the right to remain silent.
Yes. I want cops to handle criminals and make life safer for the general public. No, I don’t want cops to treat citizens as de facto criminals needing to prove their innocence. Yes, I want them to be able to do their jobs. No, I don’t want that job to be beating the fuck out of people or shooting them because they are drunk or having a mental breakdown.
Whoops. We will send them for Constitutional Law & Use of Force Thresholds training we swear.
I know cops get a bad rap, but the disdain for policing in this country didn’t fall out of the fucking sky. Cops are trained to lie to you. It is illegal to lie to them, but they literally use lying as a tactic to get you to admit to something that can and will be used against you. A lot of the time they don’t fully understand the law or patently ignore it in favor of policing.
You can argue it in court.
Okay, but that is an even fuckier fucked up system. Instead of allowing a regular citizen the option to engage the courts in a reasonable way, the state has created this convoluted game of wordplay and procedures requiring many years of advanced education and proof that you understand how to play the game.
If you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed for you.
Well that sucks for two reasons. Somehow I am supposed to trust that a court appointed attorney is going to be on my side, and second, you have to be pretty fucking poor to meet the standards. Either way you are likely better off hiring your own counsel. Even then you have to weigh the cost of fighting to the cost of accepting a plea.
The court will always try to plea because guilt is better than innocence for the state every time.
It is a state system so of course there has to be a barrier to entry. Of course it has to be complicated. Of course it has to burden the citizen and not the state. Why would the government make it easy for its citizenry to stay out of the grip of the government?
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?
What God?
Who’s God?
What kind of childhood bullshit pinky swear on you moms grave kind of shit is this? I am supposed to take this process seriously when the guy in charge is in a robe and plays with a tiny hammer?
Objection!
I didn’t know that wearing a certain costume was going to change the impartiality of these proceedings. May it please the court, go fuck yourself.
If you manage to go to trial they will try to get you a jury of your peers. They use this term loosely. A gang banger is not going to get a jury full of other gang bangers. Like almost everything when it comes to law, the common definition is not the same as the legal definition. Your legal “peers” are not people like you. They are anyone dumb enough to not be able to get out of jury duty.
Or they are psycho enough to want to be there, which might be worse.
Okay so now you have a jury. The judge definitely will not let you know about jury nullification, and I doubt the lawyers will bring it up either. This is when a jury decides to acquit a defendant, even if they believe the defendant is guilty, because they view the law as unjust or the punishment as too harsh.
I am betting a lot of drug possession cases would have been nullified if the jury was a bunch of drug users, and were told nullification was an option, but it doesn’t work that way. The way it works is to drain your finances as much as possible for as long as possible until you give up and take the plea. It’s a shitty thing to be out here calling “justice”.
All of this is to say I have been to jail. That shit is not fun. I have also taken some hits to the face and that isn’t much fun either. In the end I can hold a lot of hatred in my heart for how things are but still behave in ways that keep my teeth in my mouth and my ass out of a cell.
So I tell my kids that they need not be intimidated by a uniform. I tell them they have rights and they need to exercise them. I tell them that most authority is false and they need not kneel to it simply because other people do. I tell them to say as little as possible and avoid interactions with the police unless absolutely necessary.
I also tell them to say yes, sir, and no ma’am. Be polite to the guy with the gun and an itching desire to use it. Let them play their game and don’t argue. Keep your mouth shut and don’t do stupid shit. Take what they give and deal with it later. Try to record everything and sue the fuck out of them if they violate your constitutional rights.
Also, learn your fucking rights!
They are pretty simple. Talk whatever shit you want, carry a gun, don’t let anyone search your shit, and go vote.
Or don’t.
Voting is a whole other bullshit exercise. . .