Say Anything Blog

I was watching Cops the other day. On the screen an officer was patrolling a street looking for someone who had vandalized some cars in the neighborhood. He came upon a young black youth who was wearing clothing that matched the description of the wayward vandal. The officer pulled over to talk with the youth and was immediately met with a barrage of profanity and general ill-will.

What a punk, all the officer wanted to do was question him.

As I began to wonder about this young man's parents his mother put in an appearance. She raced out of a nearby apartment building and was immediately in the officer's face with her own stream of profanity. She accused him of being a racist and only questioning her child because he was black. The officer soon had both the mother and her child in handcuffs and hauled them off to the station.

Personally, I think he was more than justified to do this. When an officer stops to question you, cooperate. That's all you have to do. I'm sure the officer will be more than polite if you don't call him names. Variations of the scene I described above happen every day for some of these officers. How can we expect them to put up with it day after day?

I know that in the past many of the officers have been unfair to citizens based on race or other issues, but when did we decide to stop giving them the benefit of the doubt? There are a lot of ways to deal with an officer who has detained you illegally or otherwise acted inappropriately without cursing him, etc. There are perfectly legitimate places to take your grievances about an officer, either to court or to your local city councilman. If your complaint is legitimate it will be heard and action will be taken. Your complaint is less likely to be taken seriously, however, if you verbally assault the officer and otherwise make an ass of yourself.

This is especially true if your children are around at the time of your involvement of the officer. How can you expect your children to grow up as law-abiding citizens if they observe you rant and rave at the highway patrolmen when he pulls you over. Your children aren't going to respect the law if you don't respect the law. As a matter of fact, your children could probably benefit from some interaction with the men and women of law enforcement. These people are the pillars of our society and the example they set can be very inspiring for young adults. I'm sure any officer you see, as long as he/she's not otherwise busy, would be more than happy to talk with your youngster and teach him or her some of the basics of police work.

Having come from a law-enforcement family I can tell you that for the most part all these officers want to do is get their job done and leave as quickly as possible. They know its not pleasant for you to have them around and they understand that you're nervous. My father was an officer for well over two decades and still gets nervous when he's pulled over by an officer. Its a natural reaction, but being rude to the officer is not going to help the situation.

The officer has a job to do, let him get his job done and you'll both be rid of the uncomfortable situation.