Monday, September 19, 2011

Over-Zealous Cops

    I'd like to talk about a topic that is related to my situation, and that is the police.  I have never felt very comfortable around the police because they always make me feel (and often treat me) like some sort of criminal.  I know I'm not a criminal, but unfortunately all it takes is one over-zealous cop to tarnish your record forever and actually make you a criminal on paper.  It seems like our system has become obsessed with raising revenue, and in doing so have decided that being complete assholes to normal citizens in order to take their hard earned money for simple, small infractions (often to ridiculous laws).

    Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good cops out there, but it seems a large percentage of them didn't get the memo about 'protecting and serving.'  many officers have taken to harassing and demeaning productive members of the community simply in order to make a buck for the state.  I've been fucked with so many times that my heart still races when a cop gets behind me while i'm driving, even though i'm not doing anything wrong.  A cop can pull you over for ANY of a number of reasons if he wants to.  The is no escape from being pulled over if the cop feels the urge to pull you over.  no matter how perfectly you drive, he can find a reason, and once he does he can use his own discretion to determine how much harassment you deserve.  Unfortunately for me, I seem to encounter a lot more dick-headed cops than ones that treat me as a human deserving of a little respect (the same respect they DEMAND from you).

    All in all this is a result of allowing certain people that don't do something (like smoke weed for example) to judge those that do, and it allows those people to decide what the punishment should be for a totally victimless crime.  Here in Florida, we actually have mandatory minimum sentences for certain amounts of marijuana (mandatory 3 years for 40 plants, for example).  By doing this, we are allowing our prison population to explode with "criminals" who have never committed an act of violence or stolen a thing.  The cost of housing and feeding these "criminals" in those prisons for all those years is not cheap, and of course it is the tax payer that foots the bill.  I don't want to get off track too much, so I'll address marijuana legalization in a future blog.

    My main point is that when the cops are around, I don't feel safe.  Instead I feel like if they wanted, they could find a reason to fuck with me and make my life miserable.  That is the power that we afford them, and many of them choose to abuse it by clogging our courts and prisons with people who have committed no real crime other than one made up by snotty assholes that were given an ounce of power themselves.

Until next time,
-C0c

2 comments:

  1. The prison system is actually lucrative, rather than costly. They set up manufacturing and/or phone service businesses. The prisoners work for much less than subcontracting the work to a 3rd world country. Even though crime has actually gone down, the prison industry has expanded.

    Here in Canada, our current vile rightwing PM wants to copy the US system of private prison industries. He's trying to increase the sentences for non-violent 'crimes', esp weed, and he wants to build more prisons.

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  2. I think that you are seeing this whole drug and law issue kind of wrong perspective. You are not punished because of a direct morally wrong action but more indirect by the crime of not paying sales taxes. U harm the economy by investing in the black market. Under a juristic AND politics pov u simply lose. The substance must be legal for your possession (at least) to tear the carpet from their (->whole judical system) feet.

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