Police Harrassment

jimtoo

Moderator
This was posted on RV.NET. I think it's great.

A little 'cop humor'......

Police Harassment

Recently, the Chula Vista, California Police Department ran an e-mail forum (a question and answer exchange) with the topic being, "Community Policing."

One of the civilian email participants posed the following question, "I would like to know how it is possible for police officers to continually harass people and get away with it?"

From the "other side" (the law enforcement side) Sgt. Bennett, obviously a cop with a sense of humor replied:

"First of all, let me tell you this...it's not easy. In Chula Vista, we average one cop for every 600 people. Only about 60% of those cops are on general duty (or what you might refer to as "patrol") where we do most of our harassing.

The rest are in non-harassing departments that do not allow them contact with the day to day innocents. And at any given moment, only one-fifth of the 60% patrollers are on duty and available for harassing people while the rest are off duty. So roughly, one cop is responsible for harassing about 5,000 residents.

When you toss in the commercial business, and tourist locations that attract people from other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is responsible for harassing 10,000 or more people a day.

Now, your average ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds long. This gives a cop one second to harass a person, and then only three-fourths of a second to eat a donut AND then find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. To be honest, most cops are not up to this challenge day in and day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is utilize some tools to help us narrow down those people which we can realistically harass.

The tools available to us are as follows:

PHONE: People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus on a person for special harassment. "My neighbor is beating his wife" is a code phrase used often. This means we'll come out and give somebody some special harassment.

Another popular one is, "There's a guy breaking into a house." The harassment team is then put into action.

CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars with no insurance or no driver's licenses and the like. It's lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for nothing more obvious than running a red light. Sometimes you get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have drugs in the car, they are drunk, or have an outstanding warrant on file.

RUNNERS: Some people take off running just at the sight of a police officer. Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after them like a beagle on the scent of a bunny. When you catch them you can harass them for hours.

STATUTES: When we don't have PHONES or CARS and have nothing better to do, there are actually books that give us ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are called "Statutes"; Criminal Codes, Motor Vehicle Codes, etc... They all spell out all sorts of things for which you can really
mess with people.

After you read the statute, you can just drive around for awhile until you find someone violating one of these listed offenses and harass them. Just last week I saw a guy trying to steal a car. Well, there's this book we have that says that's not allowed. That meant I got permission to harass this guy. It is a really cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well.

We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass. And we get away with it. Why? Because for the good citizens who pay the tab, we try to keep the streets safe for them, and they pay us to "harass" some people.

Next time you are in my town, give me the old "single finger wave." That's another one of those codes. It means, "You can't harass me."

It's one of our favorites.
 

slmayor

Founding California Northern Chapter Leader
I love it! Nephew is highway patrol and I'll have to send it to him. as well as all my cop friends. :))
 

fhollan

Well-known member
Good Job!

After 33 years of being a cop and now retired, that's the best explanation yet of "Police Harassment".
 

yondering

Retired-Full Timer
Reminds me of Sheriff Buster Kerns answer to the question " guess you haven't met your quota for today " . He had us deputies answer this way - " well, you see, we really don't have a quota, we used to have a quota, but now we are allowed to write all the tickets we want " . From the good ole days, God Bless ya, Al W
 

Tom_Diane

Member
So its true, I had a parent tell me once that the local law was harrassing their son only because he was and going to under age drinking parties. He had no other vices such as breaking and entering or any theft of any sort just wanted to party with his friends. He got ticketed maybe once but it seemed to the parents that every time he attended one of these parties which was weekly, the cops showed up half the time and there fore they had it in for their son when other kids had multiple under age violations over a 2 or 3 year period. It seemed to them that he couldnt do anything with his friends because the cops would somtimes show up and they would have to scatter thru backyards and alleys. I' m not that kid but I did attend underage parties as a teen, many MANY, years ago I now understand why I got caught only once, it was police harrassment all the time.
 

HarleyRyder

Retired Gunslinger
Reminds me of Sheriff Buster Kerns answer to the question " guess you haven't met your quota for today " . He had us deputies answer this way - " well, you see, we really don't have a quota, we used to have a quota, but now we are allowed to write all the tickets we want " . From the good ole days, God Bless ya, Al W

As a young patrol officer many years ago I finished writing a citation when the "harrassed violator" accused me of having to meet my quota. I couldn't help myelf and replied, "Why yes I do and with this one I get a microwave oven."

My supervisor was not amused when he received the complaint.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
It is funny how when we do something wrong (illegal) and get "caught" it is harassment and when someone else gets "caught" they are doing their job. I don't know how many times I was told by the professional criminal that it was okay as they knew I was just doing my job, and yet when I gave the honest citizen a traffic ticket I was harassing them. Come on...get real....it was only a ticket. I guess nobody likes to get their hand slapped. That was a good post.
 

HarleyRyder

Retired Gunslinger
It is funny how when we do something wrong (illegal) and get "caught" it is harassment and when someone else gets "caught" they are doing their job. I don't know how many times I was told by the professional criminal that it was okay as they knew I was just doing my job, and yet when I gave the honest citizen a traffic ticket I was harassing them. Come on...get real....it was only a ticket. I guess nobody likes to get their hand slapped. That was a good post.

Jim-

So very true. The "pro" might run from you, fight with you and try to hide but when caught it was just part of the game. No hard feelings and they would accept the consequences.
Bob
 

jayc

Texas-South Chapter Leaders
What is amazing is the change in attitude when we were promoted and could not laugh at some of the things that were said to people. We had to lose all sense of humor, overnight. I guess that why we were paid the big bucks.....NOT!
 

tkdmike

Member
A friend of mine in Austin, Texas stopped a young lady who adamantly told him that under no circumstances could he writer her a traffic ticket. When he asked her to explain herself she said, "Well, I was in traffic court this morning taking care of another ticket and had a talk with the judge. He told me that I could not get another ticket for two years! So, you cannot write me a ticket." She seriously thought she was under the judge's protection and the police could not harrass her with tickets.
 

yondering

Retired-Full Timer
WOW, this could get crazy. Stopped a young lady for speeding, she said it was my fault, because she said she saw a sign that said speed was radar controlled, so i was not doing my job. another case of DWB. God Bless ya all, Al W
 

jayc

Texas-South Chapter Leaders
Jim I think it means Driving While Blonde.....no offense to any light-haired people.
 

chasdvorak

Well-known member
Yes Ma'am that's true......

My favorite, which was only used once or twice, was the lady that said, "Is it true that policeman don't give pretty ladies a ticket"?

And the reponse...."Yes ma'am that is true, now what would you like to post for bail, your license or a cash bond". (Pretty ladies already get too many breaks in life). :)
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
Ok, you know what DWHUA stands for...Driving With Head Up A.. Should be a legal charge. A couple of other charges I would like to see are ... Felony Stupid and Lying to the Police.
 

talley

Well-known member
And then there is the "police supporter" businessman who wants his speeding ticket dismissed. Does not claim harrassment, admits he was in a hurry. When it is suggested that he take a defensive driving course to dismiss the ticket.... he does'nt have the time. Moral... support the police because they do a good and necessary job for society... not because you expect entitlement to favortism!!
 
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