Dealing With Snakes in Spades · 2:47am Dec 17th, 2017

Pointless rant incoming

(Shattered Skies chapter releases wednesday, the need to know releases a week from wednesday)

I find that I'm starting to want to do more of these. There's something therapeutic in it, when one is dealing with BS I guess it's good to have some sort of Outlet.

Not many of you know this, mostly because I keep it to myself, but at one point I was a police officer. I know, insert random memes about cops, donuts, and then bombard me with random accusations.

I was one, but I am no longer. I'm still open to the possibility of me working in the field, however, at this point my life I consider that to be very unlikely, and not for a lack of trying. I mean what can you say about the field that hasn't already been said? Everyone says corruption and the accused say innocent. I'm really just writing this just to vent, probably a horrible idea to have this written down on the internet. I'm sure any Department would love to see this and be like oh ho ho he's not a team player burn him at the stake hur-dur-dur.

I both have a problem and do not have a problem with law enforcement. Whether individuals in the field want to admit it or not, that line of duty is riddled with nepotism and gang like behavior. I worked for a decent amount of time at a police department, the identity of which and the size of which will remain an unknown. Why? I don't want any future prospect or business asset to stumble on this and bitch up a storm that I wrote it. You can cite my write to free speech, but I will explain this more in a moment as to why free speech doesn't count in this field.

As I mentioned before, law enforcement is extremely gang like. Some departments have made strides to break this and become more like a corporation but the vast majority, I feel, still adhere to the US versus them mentality and that in and of itself fosters a gang like atmosphere, at least in the way it's executed despite the intention to be otherwise.

A quiet school of thought in enforcement is that it takes one to beat one. As a result you have individuals who are essentially criminals and often times find themselves slipping into illegal behavior mostly cause they believe they can't be touched. Now, don't get me wrong, in one age this was appropriate but it is no longer.

Working for this department, I never really had any issues while working there, I showed up on time and I did my work and at the end of day I went home. My issue was what I overheard other officer saying, what I saw them do, and stories about the past that I became aware of. I never professed this as being a reason, or being a contributing reason, as to why I left but it was. I'm referring to, of course, profiling and what I've come to call undercover racism. (No, I'm not doing the cringe lord thing and crying racism cause of something I disagree with, but true clear hate toward someone different) I know take a seat it's really hard to take in I know it's a New Concept. I'm being facetious that was a joke.

I'm writing this now because I believe it's time and my experience with law enforcement these past few years has slowly turned me against the current system. Now sadly, in such a field complaining about such an issue will not help, rip that bandaid off now. Intellectually one would think "well just get them caught in the act and then expose them", but within a gang like atmosphere unless it gets horrible outrage from the public, nothing happens.

Luckily by now, I have lost interest in the field and have begun steps to doing my own thing, making my own money to where nothing they say would interrupt such an action. But I like playing things safe.

I could go into many stories and instances where I saw fellow officers acting in a way that was very unfair to an individual that I believe was based on a perception of anything from wealth to race. And in case this department gets uppity and wants to come after me I did not mention their name nor did I mention the location or the names of said individuals. 🦊

But sadly, on a more personal level that's not even the worst that they do. Some departments require that you do a term of reserve work. Now Reserve work means that you are able to initiate arrests, basically you do the exact same job a police officer does but you are not paid. They have these individuals out there and at the end of their reserve stint they can turn around and release you and basically have used you for free labor. It's voluntary and fully legal.

These guys and girls have lives, families, bills, only to receive a big fat fuck you. They go to the academy sometimes on their own dime and then this happens.

But Fox, surely at least some of those are warranted?

And right you are. There are a few people that should not be in law enforcement some people that are hired shouldn't be in and some people that were not hired should be in. Such is life. But I don't know, it could be my Millennial mindset, could just be how I was raised. I believe a hard day's work should amount to well-earned pay. But it doesn't stop there.

Sometimes, and I believe this to be so in my case, these departments will cut you loose after having done x amount of work paid position or not and then when you try to go to another department they will essentially bad-mouth you. Even if you passed all your tests, and I assure you they are many. Why bad mouth you? Because they want to make it seem that them cutting you was justified.

Even the process for law enforcement is rigged against the applicant. The application process both shows that the department is trying to screen their applicants, but in doing so they have the ability to profile even harder. With the vast majority of police departments you need to pass a physical abilities test otherwise known as a pat. In my state you have to do a few minutes of sprinting and crawling and dragging dummies to and fro and test firing a empty firearm maybe some swimming, the lot. Once that's done you need to go through oral board, very hectic because sometimes they Grill you hard unfairly. The oral board I never had a problem with, but my real problem was the polygraph.

Now despite what you might read on the internet and what people might tell you, the polygraph is little better than a coin toss. They strap you in and they ask you the same questions over and over, looking for your subtle cues and then they try to jump on those subtle cues to make it seem like you're lying, this in and of itself is just a form of hazing they will force on you. You can turn it down but they will auto reject you. This step is known bullshit and they only keep it around to have a reason to reject applicants they find superficial issues with. Failing these can be used to autoreject you from future prospects.

And intellectually I'm sure many of you think it shouldn't and you're right it shouldn't ruin job prospects but the fact is it happens all the time.

The issues with law enforcement is varied and just getting in is a spider webbed issue. But let's say you make it past the hiring process you get on. Hooray they give you a badge and a gun and then they stick you with a field training officer. Hooray right? No.

I grew up in a law enforcement and service-oriented family there's some other things that occur naturally job-wise in my family but that's one of the big ones so I'm able to say this with full confidence because I'm told so by people who have since long retired and are now long dead, also because I've seen and experienced it. If, this field training officer doesn't like you then you're pretty much screwed. Your hiring process does not stop when they give you a badge and a gun that's when it really starts. Some places require that you stay on the road six months before they let you on your own, this fto has 6 months to flunk you, sometimes it's even sooner than that if it's bad enough. Because who are the higher-ups going to listen to? You, a greenhorn, or some guy that's been on the road for 30 years? Not really a hard choice on that one putting bias aside. So that's another problem I have is no accountability among training. Hell, sometimes will put you with somebody that's not a fto and then we'll just fabricate a bunch of bullshit still putting you in the doghouse.

Now let's say you get off your field training time, you've been lucky enough to avoid the guillotine long enough to get your own squad car on your own shift, making your own calls. You're still on the chopping block, if you do not play along with the majority of the people that you work with, you will get isolated and thrown under the bus any chance that comes up. I was told long ago law enforcement is not about what you do it's about the lack of what you do. Now within the saying, at face value it seems very lazy. But the meaning behind it is it's not about the accolades that you earn and not about the lives that you help, it's about how much trouble you get in and how well you do at covering up your bullshit. I learned this as I saw it happen to the people around me. Now some of it was very warranted, while others, frankly, they were not. It all depended on if the higher-ups like you. This is life, I know shit sucks, but when it's this blatant and outright set against you stuff needs to change.

Now ,we arrive at the profiling and the low-down racism that happens. Just to state, I never felt like I belonged with law enforcement. I have very solid unwavering views on a lot of topics and while I had kept my mouth shut for many of the instances that I thought were very dishonorable, with time it became very apparent that I was silent about it and so I was asked a few times covertly what I thought on certain matters and despite my best attempts to remain silent on it my intent shown through.

For example, we have a program within the in-car system that runs license plates, I'm sure every single Department across the United States has this. However, it is against policy and actually made highly illegal for an officer to run somebody's plates and information without there being a legitimate reason behind doing so. So one day this vehicle comes by, and at the time my fto said follow that vehicle. Now, I'm not from the most kindest place in my state so I know how to spot someone whose from a low-income area which is where I came from. This vehicle was in a very abnormal color, a neon, and it had very recognizable features like Chrome big rims. She wasn't doing anything wrong, she wasn't hurting anybody, she was going to work. Now having been on fto and being very aware of how law enforcement operates I went ahead and I executed the order of following the vehicle while he performed a license check, he ran her information under the guise of verifying identity. There were various instances like this and I'm ashamed to say that I participated long before I finally started to feel comfortable to challenge it. As I've stated, I'm no longer there. But now that I'm out of the field I can run my mouth about it.

My family tells me I'm too kind for my own good

But this isn't to say that there are not good honest righteous cops on that department, because there are some of the best people I've ever met. But the biggest problem in law enforcement, more than racism, more than the profiling, even more than the misuse of force. The biggest issue in law enforcement bar none is the tight-lipped gang nature that is as traditioned as Bagpipes and the concept of carrying the shield. The US versus them mentality keeps people from challenging status quo. At this department one officer followed an individual of a different race into a bathroom beat the crap out of them for no established reason and lied about it on an official report. At the end of all of this it was swept under the rug. Why? Nepotism and the tight-lipped nature. And suddenly calling union rights but that's something else entirely.

There are some people, people I don't talk to anymore, that believe there should be no law enforcement that if law enforcement didn't exist everybody would just respect everybody else. I believe this to be not only false but incredibly ignorant. I think the real solution to both law enforcement and crime is education coupled with reorganization. If you want to ignore this next part feel free to, this is just me answering a question or concern that I ask myself.

When you get arrested in Most states you go to arraignments, at an arraignment the state tells you what you're charged with and they schedule you a real court date and there's about a half a dozen other things that happen but essentially that's kind of what goes down and one of the questions they ask you is your last level of education attained. There is a positive correlation between lack of education and crime. However, there is also a correlation between individuals who can't find jobs and crime. Many people who run drugs start off just trying to make a little money to get by now I'm sure you think of individuals who want to be Tony Montana but realistically it's usually people that try to make ends meet and then fall into that lifestyle.

There should be a high school class teaching you what your rights are. Not go to a YouTube video for some guy who doesn't know what the hell he's talking about in a state that you were not in, as in there are a lot of laws that are state-specific so the YouTube video that you're watching might not pertain to your state and you're only going to succeed and pissing off cop and having him come after you for some dumb shit.

Tl;dr

Cops do a lot of fucked-up shit and the way they go about doing things causes the problems they are trying to fix. And we as a society don't necessarily help either.

I think the best way to help law enforcement is to shut it down. I think a new establishment needs to be made, a new security Force, and it needs to be under strict scrutiny and needs to be crystal clear at all times. Additionally, I think it needs to be run on a governmental level, no individual locations that can hide corruption by hitting 'Delete', I know government isn't the most trustworthy thing and I have my own ideas about government and about how that's where all problems need to start to be fixed. But in an idealistic world law enforcement all together needs to be shut down and restarted. Like a Nintendo 64 that froze; turn it off take the cartridge out blow all the crap out throw it back in and restart.

I once believed wholeheartedly that if I got high enough I could change law enforcement, but when the roots of the tree are rotten there's nothing that can be done but to rip it up and replace. There must always be a system of balance, we need a regulating force, but the one in place does not and will not work. Like much of the establishment left over from our forefathers and generations before us it is now incumbent upon us to uproot and change what they've laid.

or at least, that's what I believe.