I dont look at the bad, I look at the facts

Share some facts, then - and your sources

It depends on your perspective. Your perspective on whether you've committed a crime or not.

tools of state oppression or guardians of my virtue and wallet?
i guess all cops fall between these two posts. of more importantance is the people giving the orders, the cops are just following them.

that said i cant stand young punk cops who think 12 months training and a badge gives them the right to be a prick.

but i do like my cop tv shows, the shield and the wire both rock.

and my favorite cop....DI rebus

Ive found the police here in australia to be good

Don't break the law and the police leave you alone!

"Don't break the law and the police leave you alone!"

really dude.

thats like saying "if your not a terrorist you have nothing to worry about" in response to the patriot act

How paranoid can you get?

very.
up to this point though it's proven to be a very helpful paranoia.
anyway this is about police, not me

I haven't encountered the police very often but whenever I have, they've been very courteous, professional, and helpful. They get a bad rap and I'm not sure why. It's the same with lawyers, I guess... somehow all the lawyers I've ever met have also been right upstanding citizens, too. The only professions where I have habitually seen less-than-ideal manners and less pleasant people are the poorer paid ones, like bus driver, garbage collector, classroom teacher, etc.

I <3 cops

I prefer them to our criminals

same thing mostly.

While I am not a criminal, my experiences with the police have been generally negative....

in my opinion if you're police encounters have been positive you likely either privileged or submissive

Pandarsenic, what kinds of negative experiences with police have you had?

Police across North America are murdering people with the Taser.

This concerns me.

Prior to this systemic abuse of authority, I would have been inclined to agree with DbJ's "good and bad in all professions" viewpoint. The way that North American law enforcement circles the wagons and covers up every time there is a taser related fatality makes me sick.
There has to be SOME transparency. I pay a lot of bloody taxes.

I like them. They prevent people from murdering me.

My personal opinion, I hate cops. Before anyone here, such as Invictus, implies that I must be a criminal to not like the police force I have not committed a crime.

In my experience the police are ignorant. They handle situations poorly, do not understand exactly what has transpired, and are easily mislead.

I would also like to state that the vast majority of them are hypocrites when it comes to traffic laws. If I could arrest one for every time I saw him/her for rolling through a stop sign I would have my quota a hundred fold! I digress, they may not all be so bad, but in my experience they all suck.

I like the idea of Law enforcement officials. (Though the entire profession of Policing has some logical inconsistencies).

On the flip side, I do think the RCMP in Canada have a lot of issues with transperancy and responsibility. We've had our share of covered-up Police mess-ups and I'm sure the US has much of the same. It is just a general self-interested mindset that needs to change.

Also, I've obviously met a couple bad apples, but the profession as a whole is filled with overwhelmingly decent people. Like every single other profession.

Of course, when I'm breaking the law I like to avoid Police, but I don't hold it against them for trying to catch me.

And finally, I don't really think Police are the devil incarnate, always out to get me and trying to kill me whenever possible. Insane paranoia and I don't along too well (Diplomacy has taught me what true paranoia is....)

@maple:"Police across North America are murdering people with the Taser."

murdering? Doesn't that imply some aspect of intent? Do you really think that the accidental death of a suspect after being Tased - rather than shot, by the way - is due to intent on the officers part to kill the suspect? If it's his intent to kill, don't you think that their firearm would be much more reliable considering deaths by Tasers occur in about 1 in 10,000 incidents, while death from firearm (especially someone who has been trained in their use) is closer to 1 in 2?

Throwing the term "Murder" around in this context is the equivilent of soraf throwing the term "racism" around when someone doesn't agree with him about being more popular than Sicarius.

My own experience with police has been mixed. I'm no model citizen, and when I have been in the wrong (even when I refused at the time to believe it) I thought the cops were a bunch of facist pigs, but when I've needed their services (when my apartment got broken into for instance) they were very helpful and polite. I guess that goes to show you that they are looking out for the honest citizens and out to get the bad ones - even if, as in my case, they have been on each side of that line.

@philcore.
As a private citizen, if I perform a direct action upon you, that I know might cause you to die, then I am charged with murder.

I like the band a lot.

"Pandarsenic, what kinds of negative experiences with police have you had?"

To quote another poster... "In my experience the police are ignorant. They handle situations poorly, do not understand exactly what has transpired, and are easily mislead."

Most of all, it just seems like they don't give a damn about those they are supposed to be serving and protecting.

@mapleleaf - not true. At least not under the US criminal code. Murder has to have the intent of ending life. Otherwise it's manslaughter at best. And in the case of self defense or defense of others, even if I perform the direct action of shooting you in the head, I am not guilty of murder because it's justified. The police are doing a less extreme version of this when they try to control someone with non-lethal means such as tasing. Sometimes, this unfortunately ends in death, but it's still preferable to shooting them isn't it?

I can speak for my experience with the Concord, CA police.
Tasers are a non lethal solution that gives the cops something between
charging in with a baton and shooting someone with real bullets. It has been used here with what I think is success.
The police here have shown fairly good judgement over all though there has been some incidents involving my family and friends where things were not handled that well. However on the whole they are actually fairly good.

Cops do have a bad job...they do all the dirty job of catching criminals and preventing crime and all those things, for a not-too-impressive salary. Then when they mess things up just a tiny bit then everyone points their finger at them and say, "How outrageous!"

Poor them...Sicarius...try being a cop tomorrow. You'll see why.

canadian cops will give you a ticket and then apologize about it.

its a hard profession to be in, and like any job there are people who are good at it and people who are bad.I have met good cops and some very bad cops. I do think it depends on the country (not in a my cops are better than your cops sort of way), as in in america the cops carry guns, so if they mess up, theres a greater chance of serious injury, hten say in england where the majority of cops dont carry guns.