The Law Police

BlueMark

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Feb 22, 2003
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I have pretty regular contact with the Police (part of my job) and on the whole they are pretty good people and do a difficult job quite well. Privately I have a couple as friends and regularly go to the footy with them.

There are some who are jerks and get off on a powertrip and there is a problem with corruption amongst some, but on the whole I have a fair bit of respect for them.
 

Goldenblue

Norm Smith Medallist
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Aug 2, 2001
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BlueMark said:
I have pretty regular contact with the Police (part of my job) and on the whole they are pretty good people and do a difficult job quite well. Privately I have a couple as friends and regularly go to the footy with them.

There are some who are jerks and get off on a powertrip and there is a problem with corruption amongst some, but on the whole I have a fair bit of respect for them.


Summed it up well.

I have a couple of mates who are cops and I have a lot of respect for them as I have heard a lot of stories from them and what crap they have to endure. Good blokes, like their jobs, hate the public, but at the end of the day, they do what they do best and uphold the law.
 
May 16, 2001
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What we need is more cops out on the street, booking people for speeding and littering. Perhaps the councils could hire them back on a casual basis to issue parking tickets?

What I dislike most about the Police Force as a whole (or hole) is its use as an economic and political football. Fines should be put back into developing strategies, practices, systems and infrastructure to minimise the instances of or repair the effects of the infringement.

Instead it goes into new and improved ways to book people for speeding.

Statistics on crime should be processed by wholly independant bodies. You can't stop the results from being massaged but at least you can have an independant collection and analysation process. Instead you have politically minded leaders within the forces fiddling the figures aiming to grab more resources and devoting time to protecting their own reputations over the well-being of their officers and the community.
 
Apr 24, 2013
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IAMJUNGLEMUFFIN

Cancelled
Feb 8, 2010
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The last 2 interactions I've had with police:

Guy steals $20 out of my wallet, cops get involved and ask the guy did he take the money out of my wallet, to which he says yes, the cop then looks at me and says 'Nothing we can do, this is a civil matter'. Like, wtf, the guy just admitted to taking money from my wallet without my permission and there's nothing you can do?!?!?!

And the last time was when a group of half a dozen lads tried to jump me. I leg it and phone falls out my pocket and by the time i realise it (5-10 sexonds) scumbag has grabbed it and taken off. Go report it to the cops and am told it wasn't stolen, it was lost and if it's handed in they'll let me know. I tried to clarify that it was stolen and then the cop threatens me saying im trying to change my statement and I can be arrested for it. ******* blew my mind.

I used to think they were the good guys, but now I can see it's just a paycheck for them and they don't actually gice a *. No respect for them any more.
 
Nov 28, 2011
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My fav was the time my ex was living in st kilda and she woke to someone trying to open her bedroom window - she freaked and called the cops - the rocked up 40 mins later and start asking her questions like 'do you have any disgruntled exs? most break ins like this are for sexual assaults' (why would you say that? ) anyway they leave as they were useless and my ex goes to sleep in her housemate's room for the night as she still shaken up - they felt a draft after a while and they get up and the dumb pigs had left the back door wide open from when they had a look outside - you cant script that s**t - the next day there was a fit found outside her window so it was probs just a junkie shooting up - but to get a call about a potential house invasion and leave a door wide open after leaving is dumb as dogshit stuff
 
Apr 24, 2013
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Mom Gets $3.3mn After Cops Executed Her Innocent, Unarmed, Mentally Ill Son on Video

Lakewood, CA — On July 6, 2015, Susan Berry was worried about her son’s behavior. He came home after being fired from his job at the pizza parlor and had been getting no sleep. So, his mother and his brother, a police officer, called authorities to receive a medical evaluation. Instead of medical evaluation, however, her son John Berry, 33, received a pack of assassins.

According to the LA Times, last week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $3.3-million settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Berry’s mother and other family members, who alleged that deputies used excessive force against Berry.

John Berry suffers from schizophrenia and, according to his family, he was clearly off his medication. When police arrived, he attempted to get into his car and drive away. Instead of de-escalating the situation by allowing the entirely innocent man to drive away, officers began escalating violence.

Berry had done nothing wrong. He was only attempting to get away from what he likely perceived as a nightmarish threat when he was met with pepper spray, tasers, and baton blows.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies claim that Berry rammed them with his car. However, his vehicle was clearly free of front end damage that would have resulted from ramming a car.

According to deputies, the tasers, pepper spray, and baton strikes weren’t working, which is likely due to the fact that Berry suffers from schizophrenia. When Berry attempted to put his car in reverse, multiple deputies pulled out their guns.

Deputies proceeded to unleash a fury of bullets into Berry’s front windshield. He was struck 18 times out of the 50-plus rounds fired at him — and he died on the scene.

“He was unarmed. Didn’t do anything wrong. Hadn’t violated any laws. Wasn’t a danger to anybody,” attorney Steve Carlson said.

“We agonize because we try to understand, and there’s no possible way to understand what happened,” Susan Berry said.

Last year, prosecutors declined to file any charges against the deputies — Anthony Johnson, Michael Bitolas, Roberto Solorio and Eric Saavedra — saying they acted in “lawful self-defense and in defense of others” when they extrajudicially murdered Berry — on video.

“I just wish they had better training. He didn’t hurt anybody. He didn’t do anything that day,” sister Melissa Berry said.

Even if Berry did pin one of the officers behind his car, the lack of training and subsequent violent escalation by police against a mentally ill man was undoubtedly the cause of it. If Berry presented such a significant threat of running over officers, why was there an officer in such a vulnerable position?

This case is merely another indicator of police departments grossly lacking the training to deal with the mentally ill.

As the Times notes, LA county spent nearly $51 million in settlements last fiscal year to resolve legal claims against the Sheriff’s Department. From 2011 to 2016, 74% of the department’s excessive force payouts, which totaled nearly $89 million, stemmed from shootings.

California law states law enforcement must be trained to interact with mentally disabled people.

This has obviously not yet happened.

The officers’ actions were so unscrupulous that even a fellow cop, Chris Berry, John Berry’s brother called them out this week. “This is not how you treat the mentally ill,” Chris Berry, 39, said Thursday.

“They absolutely escalated the situation,” said Berry, who works as a federal police officer at a veteran’s psychiatric facility in Long Beach and witnessed the entire incident. “They treated him like he was a suspect and they were gonna take him into custody.”

In December, the department began a 32-hour training course that teaches cops how to de-escalate situations in order to avoid the tragic outcome like Berry’s. So far, only 518 of the 17,694 employees of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department have taken the course.

Calling 911 in Los Angeles for help with a mentally ill relative or friend is still a crap shoot — even if you get one of the 518 cops who went through the training — and should only be used as a last possible resort
.

Full video below. WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT



 
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