Here in the United States it seems law enforcement can't go a day without killing someone (actually they average about three a day). Between that and the trial that just ended, there's seems to have been little else filling up the news cycle as of late. By now we've all probably heard what the media has to say on the topic so let's switch things up a bit.
My question for the hive today is this: What's the police like in your (local) area?
There's no right or wrong answers, I'm just curious what your experiences with law enforcement have been like. Before covid came along I was fond of staying in hostels, swapping stories with strangers there was half the fun (and what gave me the idea for this post)
In the rural area where I grew up, Johnny Law was largely absent There were a couple of town cops, an occasional state trooper, and an itty bitty sheriffs department to cover the entire county (about 211 sq mi (550 km2)). Nobody ever really bothered calling them because by the time they actually made it to you the situation was more than likely over (one way or another).
I was cool with the ones we did have but I was kin to half of them (there is considerable flexibility in how laws can be applied when that is the case) and most of them were at least a little crooked. The sheriff is an elected position there, we had a couple sheriffs in a row leave office and go straight to the penitentiary. They seemed to think that protecting the local pot industry was part of the job but Uncle Sam disagreed. One of them was buddies with the governor though so he quickly got pardoned...
Here in the city they're still of marginal utility and about half crooked but there's a damn sight more of them. For some reason, the 'dumb hillbilly' act seems to work quite well with them as a 'get out of jail free' card as long as I'm not too inebriated. I still haven't decided whether I should be amused or irritated by this but it is what it is.
While there's no love lost between me and law enforcement, I'm not writing this to start an 'I hate the cops!' bitchfest (although I'm not discouraging it either). A few years ago I had a rather interesting conversation with a Saudi about their religious police (at a hostel in Colorado of all places). I'd read of the religious police in books and online but had no real conception of what exactly they did or how they did it. Conversations like that are what I hope to spark with this, more a discussion on differences in policing and perception from place to place than 'Cops good/bad!'.
The good ol' boy network was alive and well where I grew up, is there something similar where you live? An East Berliner that I met at a hostel in Idaho made the observation to me that 'Cops here are your enemy,' which I found striking considering where he grew up. How do you see the cops in your area vs elsewhere? I've read of places where cops regularly solicit/accept bribes, anybody live somewhere where that is the norm? Here that will just catch you an extra charge (and a felony at that) but if you know the right lawyer and have the cash they can make most things go away (I know an individual who was arrested at least 9 separate times for felonies in a single year, cost them 30,000 USD but it all went away).
I'm trying to keep this fairly broad because nobody experiences things exactly the same. We all see much the same things in the media, how does your experiences differ from that? I'm about to head into work so I may be a little slow in responding but I look forward to hearing from y'all. Some of these photos I've posted before, they're included for illustration rather than photo contests.
Y'all be good or be good at it!