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In reply to the discussion: I've known a LOT of cops [View all]
LooseWilly
(4,477 posts)us "Scumbags".
Lived and worked (driving a taxi) for plenty of years in Oakland, CA. I've chauffeured drug dealers, pimps, hookers and assorted hustlers all over the place, and never gotten treated as shitty by any of them as I have been by the police— especially while on the job.
On the street I was just a strange tattooed blue-hair... hassled only when there was some spare time. On the job, I was once pulled over just because taxi detail "didn't recognize me" (— as if those cops knew every cab driver by sight, bullshit).
I got lucky though, having never rated being handcuffed and having my head slammed on a squad car doorjamb while being shoved into the car (as I saw the cops doing to one poor young black dude as I drove by in some random crappy neighborhood, gratuitously). Neitherwise though, of course, did I ever have the cops respond to a call or ever render any assistance except as a theoretical threat I was once able to use to pressure a dealer into paying the cab fare of a run-out neighbor by conning him into believing that the police were liable to actually respond to a 911 call (& by spooking the buyers by loudly proclaiming the cops were on the way).
Ironically, when I got paid and held up my end by calling 911 to cancel my call for the police— I got 911's voicemail. By the time they called me back I'd nearly forgotten why I'd called in the first place.
The cops? At best they're a threat to use against the paranoid (though, dealers have every reason to believe they will get police attention... it's only everyone else that gets ignored, at best, by those fuckers). At worst, they're a hassle for everyone who isn't "plugged in" to whatever circles of local power exist... or a serious threat to the well being of anyone who's obviously not a part of that nepotistic network.
To be honest, I trust Mexican Police more than US Police. At least they'll treat me with some respect as a probable tourist.
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