To protect and serve.

Just my own personal feeling about the police.

Isn't that what the code of all the police forces are "to protect and to serve" the community?  So why is it to me as if all they do is harass people.  There has never been a time in my life that i've come in contact with a police officer that they didn't have a huge chip on their shoulder and wasn't a complete a*****e.  Does wearing a badge make you better then people, is it suppost to give you a sense of superiority because to me it has a whole other meaning.  I once dreamed of being a police officer and helping my fellow citizens out. I thought it would be an amazing feeling to wake up everyday and do something good out of the goodness of your heart for someone else. Like I said to "protect and to serve", but see in my eyes the police are nothing but a legalized mob made to try to push people around and to harass them. Why is it if your a young teen that when your pulled over your asked to step out of your vehicle to be searched?  To me I don't see how they go hand in hand last I checked the laws were created so everyone would be treated equally but that's not it @ all.  I think even pre-being pulled over your judged by race, gender, color.  Why is it that we are now guilty until proven innocent?   I can tell you this much from the moment your pulled over your fucked, whatever the cop wants to give you your getting. Weither you were doing two over the speed limit or ten it's whatever he feels like writing down.  The cop is in a s****y mood then I feel sorry for you because your the one who is going to suffer, cop needs to make his quota well guess who's going to cover it?  You are, which ever unlucky person to come his way next.  I think a lot of police officers have a serious control complex, it's almost as if they were the kids who got picked on when they were in school and shoved into their lockers or had their books knocked on the floor when they were traveling from class to class. And instead of trying to man up and be the boss back then they took everyone's s**t and now they feel like redumping it on the rest of the world. "To protect and serve" so why is it anytime you ask a cop for some help he's short and rude with you, very unhelpful in every way possible?  And when you look @ the physic of your local police force, seventy five percent of them look like they just came out of an all night party @ Dunken Donuts.  I wish @ times to myself that I could be the "BAR" @ which a police officer made the police force or not, kinda like a physical test. They could say "go" and I run and if they can catch me they can keep their job. In my heart I know that there would definitely be a new line @ the unemployment office the next day.  How can you "protect and serve" if you can't even run, what good are you to the badge that you wear?   To me like I said before it's all a scam, a legalized mob trying to get your money. They could give one f**k less about your well being they just want you to pay up. Why can you go to court and they will drop the points but not the ticket, it's not that they care about your insurance rate going up, they just want you to pay the fine that affects them. They get their money you get to go on your way. Same with probation, you can pay "us" money and you don't go to jail. But if you miss one payment, see you in thirty days.  My car recently got stolen did the police care... well when they showed up an hour and a half after I called them I realized the answer was no. I do however remember when I was a few years younger and my neighbor called the police on me for having a party and they showed up in moments making all kinds of noise to give me and my friends tickets for underage drinking treating us as if we were public enemy number one.  Just remember if you ever get in trouble keep one thing in mind, if you have money don't sweat it, it's all their after.

Author's Note

Feel free to express how you feel about the police you've be in contact with in your life, and share similar stories either good or bad. Who knows maybe you have a good one to tell about the police i'd like to hear it.

Reviews

[Bennett Logan]

You clearly have some very strong opinions about the police, which is understandable, especially if you've had negative run-ins with them. Through my teenage years and into my early 20s, I had a relatively heavy driving foot. I got pulled over for speeding a good few times and the officers were generally less than friendly.

One time, I was riding in my friend's car and we were pulled over by the police. We were pulled out of the car, searched, insulted, and then they ripped the car apart, clearly looking for something. They didn't find anything and then cited the reason for pulling us over as a tail light being out. The tail light was fully operational. It was completely humiliating. My friend's father was outraged and demanded an explaination as to why we were treated in such a manner. He actually hounded the Chief of Police until he'd meet with us. As it would turn out, we matched the profiles of some guys who had been breaking into and stealing money from video poker machines. The Chief told us that he'd carry out disciplinary action against the offending officers, but who knows if he actually went through with any of it?

Anyway I don't particularly hold anything against the police, even the officers who pulled me and my friend over that night years ago. They have jobs to do, and they do it. And if I had to deal with the kind of people that police have to deal with on a regular basis, I'd be a little crass too.

As far as this piece is concerned, I'd suggest some of the same things that I suggested about your life/death piece. You have a lot of thoughts here. All they need is some organization to better get your point across. I'm not suggesting that you compose a full-blown five paragraph academic essay, but there should definately be more of a progression. Start, for instance, with the harassment, move on to the dirty politics, and then end it with the irony of "To protect and serve."

Other than that, I'll agree with Mr. Chang's review. Definately read this out loud and you'll catch some of the run-on sentences.

Again, I enjoyed reading about your opinions. You definately have an interesting ideas and I want to read more. Keep up the good work, sir, and have a good weekend.

[Dustin Chang]

They got it down to science nowadays. You take a personality test and the result tells you that you would be suited for being a law enforcement personnel, you'd consider that possibility. But the thing is, you gotta keep an open mind. Personally, I've met some helpful police officers in my lifetime. You gotta take them individually, not categorize them as one bad entity. After all, they are not robots. That said, I think there are something in the idea of being an authority figure. I myself have no desire to be one but there is this German movie called Das Experiment based on an Austrian college lab experiment where group of students are playing prison inmates/guards. The results were not pretty to say the least.

There are some spelling issues with this piece- "your/you're" and some continuous sentences that could be separated. Read it out loud and you can correct those errors pretty easy.

I have a short story concerning one of my cop experience called Five Blocks of Suspense. Check it out if you can.