This Just Makes our Wounded Society Even Sicker
Storm-Trooper in Peace Officer Uniform
I drive a taxi and at about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, I was tired from a long shift and heading home. As I was about to round a corner, a City Bylaw Enforcement Officer turned onto the street. He observed me doing an action which appeared to be lighting a cigarette. -Screech!- His brakes matched the siren that was likely wailing in his mind – ‘LAW BREAKER! LAW BREAKER!’ He stabbed a pointing finger at me! So I stopped and rolled down my window.
“If I EVER see you smoking again,” the Peace Officer’s tone of voice was as an Army Drill Sergeant hopped up on Meth-Amphetimine, “I’ll tow your F*CKING cab!”
This was not an immanent shoot-out situation, my demeanor was calm and at the very worst, this was a situation involving a (largely unpopular but also minor) city smoking bylaw. The decidedly hostile peace officer was blowing it completely out of proportion. But presumably part of his annoyance came because doing an investigation and perhaps writing a citation, would have kept him from his next destination, which was obviously the nearby coffee shop.
I wrote a note to city council about the incident – not that it is likely to accomplish any purpose, but to put me onto a hit list. And I’m writing about it here to express my belief that people should one day stand up against this police abuse that can range from gross over-reaction to minor things, and up to a gang of thug cops murdering an innocent, unarmed man in the Vancouver airport terminal.
Some very SICK people in uniform are the CAUSE of many societal problems, including the rapidly diminishing public respect for police. And nothing official is done about it because law has granted itself immunity from prosecution, and even from unbiased investigation.
Shame on us as supposedly civilized people, for allowing ourselves to become ruled by such a corrupt, greedy, domineering, and evil system. WOW! That sounded harsh, but consider the minor incident that I started this post by describing.
It happened in the late afternoon of a Saturday and the peace officer has doubtlessly just started his 4-midnight weekend shift. He expects (and as the bully he is, he eagerly anticipates) some good fights with intoxicated people. In preparation for his shift, he has already loaded up on shots of testosterone and whatever other chemicals the police use to boost their aggressiveness.
Given the pharmacopia of hormone unbalancing drugs brewing inside the peace officer, I can well imagine his inner turmoil. If he was to be late for his coffee, he wanted to be able to at least pummel me for my cavalier attitude towards his precious bylaw, to which he owes his very existence. But by being peaceful and affable, I’m not allowing him to escalate the encounter up to the excessively violent that he wants – so that pisses him off even worse – hence the yelling, foul-mouth cursing and threat of the maximum fiscal censure of tow-charge+fine+whatever-else. Is this is beneficial for our society over the long haul?
We as citizens should demand that a body that is entirely separate from policing and law, be empowered to investigate and issue binding directives to policing and law: IE to have manditory drug testing for the police. And we should do it soon! Consider this, the Nazi SS had an unfettered and excessively violent hand, BEFORE the death camps came about. Those who don’t learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repete them.
Tags: peace officer, police, Smoking
