This is why people hate the police

What makes it worse is that they're deliberately trolling poor/low income neighborhoods.

http://sfbayguardian.com/2011/08/23/caught-rat-trap

****Things are not always as they seem. That's a lesson Matthew Martinez and Thad Conley learned the hard way — each of them after becoming unwitting targets of San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) sting operations that landed them in San Francisco County Jail, bewildered.

It was early October of 2010, and Martinez had just finished his shift as a chef at a San Francisco restaurant and was headed home when he encountered a man who seemed very intoxicated, near Eighth and Mission streets. The man asked him for a cigarette, so Martinez handed him one.

But then the man gestured to his chest, a move Martinez later explained he interpreted as an invitation to take one of the crumpled dollar bills that was spilling out of the disheveled drunk's pocket, as payment for the cigarette. Martinez testified in court that he took one dollar, but tucked the other bills safely back into the hapless individual's pocket.

As soon as Martinez had the bill in his hand, he was surrounded. Not only was the man who'd wanted a cigarette not drunk, he was a police officer. One of eight police officers. The undercover officer gave an arrest signal, and seven cops who had quietly been standing ready closed in, placing the 28-year-old chef under arrest.
*

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And if they do, they usually just get fired for things that would land anybody else in jail. Or they get sued, in which case the taxpayer foots the bill, not the cops.

each arrest and house prisoners, go to court, etc, ...... I honestly don't get the point. Why on earth are they doing this?

They are different than you and me. If we see someone behaving badly, we express our disapproval. They, on the other hand, have been allowed to express their disapproval with arrests, Tasers, beatings, pepper spray, and jail cells.

cost of all these really stupid arrests? I understand they have no empathy or regard for right and wrong, I really, really don't understand how very stupid they must be to not get that their city, state budgets can't afford shit like this. I don't mean to sound callous talking about money, I absolutely hate this kind of thing, and wish they'd be fired and sent to jail themselves. I just wonder what it will take to stop it.

probably the most liberal city in the country. Very strange...

ten years. Im over there most weekdays and travel all over the city. I'm a middle age man, I look like Joe Citizen and normally dress in what's called "business casual".
The closest I've come to a "good" interaction with an SF cop was a couple of brief conversations I've had with the older bike cop who patrols North Beach. He's nearing retirement age and savvy enough to turn off his inner asshole when it isn't needed.

ON its surface SF may appear very liberal but if you get a really close look you'll find something very different especially among SF's "finest".

Just because San Francisco is a predominantly liberal city doesn't mean that all of the citizens, employees, and institutions are.

If these "few bad apples" had to explain their behavior to a citizen review board, and if chiefs and mayors had the damages docked from their pay, then things would change.

The biggest assholes with the most arrests and convictions get the Bacon.

When it comes time for any layoffs, guess who keeps their jobs?

More Bang for the Buck.

..The DEA Undercover Agent snorts the cocain. then he picks up the $600 in cash from a dice game that was in progress just a few minutes earlier.

The SWAT team comes thru the door.. guns blazing and dogs barking.

The DEA Undercover AGENT then exits with his high in tact... and $600 in his pocket.

Everyone else goes to jail....

Geo Prisons, Correction Corporation of America, Judges, Attorneys, Clerks of Court.. everyone makes money!

Thank GAWD we protect our children.

They used to love beating the shit out of teenagers in my neighborhood for crimes such as "standing at a corner". If you let them get their rocks off and took the bruised ribs they would let you go, if you raised a hand even to block a punch, you would be arrested for 4 or 5 charges, one to justify stopping you the rest for things like resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

I was lucky, they only beat me up twice and each time I was let go, I knew others that faced more beatings and jail time for "resisting".

Only rich people trust cops as far as I can tell, perhaps some working class folks that never had a run in with them as well I suppose.

There was another time when I was arrested for a few felonies for playing hand ball, but I was not beat up that time, I did have to accept the lesser made up felony and serve five years probation however, so that was not a great goodness for me at the time, I would have preferred the beating.

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...there is horse-shit, and some people should not be police officers, as evidenced in this instance, which occurs in schools, the military, politics, etc.....BUT, if you have ever, and that doesn't exclude your future, been or will be in a position that will have you screaming, begging, and hoping that a police officer will show up to save your ass, I'm sure the opinion may change. There are sorry motherfuckers everywhere, but labeling an entire group because of the behavior of a few does not seem logical, nor does it seem "progressive/liberal". Thanks.
quickesst

The corruption is systemic. The good ones don't stay cops long. The good ones being the ones that are willing to report malfeasance on the part of their fellow police, since the law is supposed to apply to everyone. They're drummed out pretty quickly.

No, I've never been in that position nor will I ever be. And it's fucking silly to claim "Well if you're ever going to be robbed you don't get to complain about police beating minorities and inventing crimes for the pure hell of it." It's a complete non sequitur.
If a member of the fire department comes over to your house to kick your dog and set your couch on fire, can I claim you have no right to complain if you'll ever use the fire department? Of course not. It doesn't work for cops either. Especially since it isn't uncommon for calling the cops just makes the situation worse.

You know what isn't progressive or liberal? Insisting on respect for a badge no matter how many lives are broken by people with that badge. Authority worship is for right wingers. It's practically what being a right winger IS. Even the ones that despise the government have just decided they like a different authority better.

- and we're still married 26 years later. :-)

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There are two kinds of civilians in society: criminals, and those who haven't been caught yet.

That's the cop mentality for ya.

are represented because the group is made up of members of society as a whole - which has good and bad.

It seems to me, hating an entire subset of society just because some of its members are corrupt, is discriminatory/stereotyping/racist/etc.

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Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Why make it black and white, when it obviously isn't? Cops are just people doing a tough, important job we can't do without. It's a big deal when they do it badly because the consequences can be so devastating. When they do it well, it mostly doesn't make the news.

But it demeans the whole point of talking about very serious, very important police misconduct to turn it into a wholesale attack on the entire profession.

...not want the police "trolling" through? I'm betting a lot do. I'm betting the good outweighs the bad, although any bad is too much.

Really?
A few bad cops equals justified hatred of police?
Suppose I did the same towards African-Americans after viewing a few shootings and a murder on the news...all guilty parties being African American.
Can I now say this is why people hate blacks?!
That's what you sound like - those rednecks talkin' bout them blacks.