Crimes of Class
January 15th, 2006 by GoldFalcon
I don’t watch COPS. I haven’t since the late 1980’s. There are a lot of good reasons for this, but people in law enforcement tend to misunderstand when I start to talk about militant, insular cultures that cultivate an “us vs. them” mentality or when I shoot off on one of my rants about how federal and state police agencies represent the one thing the founding fathers were most afraid of: a standing Federal Army that had the ability, numbers, training, and arms to occupy and subdue the populace.
You see, being a former paratrooper I understand not only the isolation of cop culture, but the separation one feels when one willingly re-socializes one’s self. This happens in the military (commonly called soldierization or some such) during the first two weeks of Basic Training. It is a calculated time period designed to strip you of your manners, habits, world view, status, and identification. It forces you to become part of a collective that works toward a common goal, builds unquestioned obedience and loyalty and builds incredibly strong interpersonal relationships. It builds confidence, pride, proficiency and trust.
It also sets you apart.
Many a vet will tell stories about feeling uncomfortable and ill at ease around civilians ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years after the fact of their service. I feel ill at ease and out of place around civilians in eye-to-eye settings more than a decade after my training. For those who go on to take some form of advanced training such as Special Operations, Airborne, Rescue, or Drill Instructor training this sense of separation can be even more acute.
This same dynamic phenomenon translates into Emergency Services, Police Work, and Fire and Rescue.
As with the military services, the more one advances above, the more insulated one is, and the more remote one feels. It was a struggle for me to view the civilian inhabitants of Fayetteville, NC as humans. They were American citizens, sure, in an abstract way. But they were fodder, civilians, sheep, to be condescended to and pitied. Of course, they viewed me as a walking paycheck, waiting to be exploited. The same is true of Civil Servants. They start to view themselves as a community unto themselves, separated and better, or more honest, nobler, more sacrificing than those dirty, faceless masses that they protect.
It is a byproduct of the training I think, but a potentially dangerous one.
As a soldier, I would have happily invaded Fayetteville, NC, or Jacksonville, NC, or Raleigh, or Asheville or any other place that they pointed me. Civilians weren’t real people to me, and if the President had given me a lawful order to go, go I would have –with a smile on my face.
That’s what cops do.
So tonight I watched a bunch of guys on COPS ruin several lives. A sixty-five year old guy got busted for trying to buy half a dozen rocks of crack. It was a sting. The drug dealers were cops. Next guy tried to buy $100 worth of rock. He was driving a $36,000 truck that he will likely lose (property used in the commission of a drug crime is subject to forfeit and sale at government auction). At the end of these busts the cops were happy. Ecstatic. High fiving. “There’s another one off the streets!!!” As the 65 yr old crack addict was carted off to jail. “Let’s go get some more!” as the 35 year old small business owner has his truck confiscated and is hauled away on a felony charge.
The drunk driver from the previous segment who drove his car into a house and ran from police is only facing two misdemeanors.
Later, the cops might get together and drink a lot of beer. They’ll celebrate a good day at work. As they should, they did their job. But should it be their job? What is the rationale when you ask a police officer why a guy who wanted to alter his brain chemistry needs to go away for two years? It’s against the law.
That’s it. Simple. Straightforward. Myopic. It’s against the law.
That’s just how I want the cops to be, just like I want the soldiers to follow orders at all times. That is a great police force and a great police attitude.
But we, the people, set that agenda. So, tonight, whenever those poor fellas were shaking about their lives being over because they wanted a few crack rocks, with cops applauding each other, some Congressman was pulling in a ten thousand dollar check from a corporate contributor. Small check. But it will cover the cost of a high class escort in D.C. for an evening. Maybe score a little coke or X from the call girls.
If you or I have a wreck in a vehicle for which we are not licensed and someone else is hurt we can expect a criminal summons. Gov. Schwarzenegger gets a pass. If I go down to Vegas and hire a high class female companion this week I risk humiliation and jail. If I’m a congressman I can solicit sex from my office or run a prostitution ring from my house and very little happens. If I’m a mayor then I can do it all from my office.
And never, ever, see the inside of a cell.
If I walk down the street, pick up a hooker, score some weed, a little Crank, and head to a motel with a 12 pack in my hand a cop will have me before I get 4 blocks. And feel good about it.
So go ahead, Hi five, I know how you feel. You did your job, protected your flock and impressed your pack. But you’ll never see the men behind you that exploit you, flaunt your loyalty and bid you make war on private citizens so that they can maintain their perks.
As you know I have worked in law enforcement for a few years now, and can agree with most of what you said. There certainly is a great deal of class discrimination in the application of the law. But I think your stones are cast in the wrong direction. What Officer wouldn’t like the trophy head of some senator above his desk? That is what they live for, catching the big one. We cannot and maintain our employment or freedom. So we settle for what the people allow us, the middle to lower class criminals.
Assume that the Officer did arrest Arnold, he would likely have been ordered to release him at the scene. Had that not happened, not likely as Chiefs are political stooges, and Arnold made it to the Police Department, the prosecutor would have issued a “Nolle proseque” (no prosecution) order. If the Officer had continued with the arrest, he would be seen to his own cell for Felonious restraint. And how would the media respond? They would crucify the Officer and see him imprisoned for life.
So where is the problem, really? The legislative and judicial branches of government. They are above the law and will be no touching them by law enforcement. Until there is a public outcry, that is reflected in the elections, it will continue.
Interesting post, and you’ve raised several issues I’d like to briefly comment on.
For one thing, I really dispute that the cops on the episode you watched “ruined several lives.” They arrested grownups, who made their own (poor) choices, true? Adults who all understood that felony charges were part of the game if caught scoring crack, right? So, if they knew the consequences of their crimes, and they did, and they went ahead and committed those crimes, and they did, then don’t they themselves bear the responsibility for their actions? Of course they do.
I don’t know the specifics of the episode you watched, but I would be willing to bet that the cops had recieved citizen complaints about drug trafficking in the area. Probably someone got tired of having an open air drug market, with all the hell and chaos that brings, going on outside their home where they were trying to live thier lives and raise their families. If those cops disrupted the drug trafficking in that area for even one night, that’s one night the citizens in that area can breath a little easier. Drugs breed other crimes. They breed violence. They take lives. People are murdered so coke can come across our borders, be converted into crack, and sold on our streets. It’s a delusional fantasy to believe otherwise.
Every rational adult understands the dangers and downfalls of drug abuse. There’s nothing positive about smoking crack. It ruins lives. Sometimes, getting arrested gives the adduict the chance to get help they otherwise wouldn’t get. I’ve seen this happen.
I know you’ve had your history with drug use. You’ve been very open about it. I applaud your candor. But having been there and done that, so to speak, I’m puzzled by your suggestion that smoking crack is harmless, and the poor guys the cops busted were innocent victims looking for a good time. Besides things you would chalk up as “lessons learned,” what positive things have come from your drug history? Better health? Increased intelligence and cognitive reasoning abilities? More money? Closer bonds with families and friends? If you say an honest “yes” to any of the above, you’ll be the first drug user I’ve ever, ever heard about to have benefitted from using drugs. Ever.
As cops, we enforce the laws the public wants enforced. DWI/DUI are (initially) misdemeanors because the public wants it that way. Drug crimes are felonies for the same reasons. When the public gets to the point (and I have no doubt they will) where they don’t care if the elementary school bus driver is stoned or the person in charge of their retirement account is a speed freak or the nurse taking care of their elderly parent at the nursing home is a crackhead, they will vote to decriminalize those offenses. And God help us all when that happens.
In the meantime, I’m going to be out there arresting as many drug dealers and users as I can. That’s my job, to get that filth off the street. When the people want me to let that shit slide, when they stop caring about things like being safe in their homes and having a decent quality of life, let me know and I’ll go fishing. Until then, I’ll be out there with a gun and badge hoping to live through the shift.
Is there a class system? Sure there is. Do bigshots get over? Of course they do. So does anyone else clever enough to not do their crimes out in public. Even those bigshots are afforded the protection of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. If they’re snorting lines off a call girl’s ass behind the closed doors of their mansions, I’m as unlikely to know about that as I am about Joe Sixpack shooting crank while he sodomizes his pre-teen son behind the closed door of his singlewide.
Is there a double standard at play? Do the bigwigs get a pass and poor working stiffs get the shaft for the same offenses? You tell me. Marion Barry is still active in politics despite being a known crackhead. OJ Simpson is still playing golf. Robert Blake will be on “Dancing With the Stars” or some other reality crap soon, I bet. Michael Jackson moved to Dubai where “boy-love” is winked at. Crimes of class? All of the guys I mentioned, and many, many others, have been charged with crimes by cops just like me, despite their status as bigshots with cash. They beat the rap. Who is to blame for that? A jury of their peers, made up of citizens just like you and me.
It’s not a perfect justice system. Show me one that works better.
Okay. I’m off my soapbox now. Thanks for letting me rant.
Very eloquent rant there Jack, but blaming the Jury? How many times have you arrested someone with their hand in the cookie jar, only to have a prosecutor “take it under advisement” or just plain refuse to prosecute? (For the layperson)People always ask, why would they do that? Prosecutors are judged, and thus elevated, on their conviction rate. If a case is not a guaranteed conviction why waste their time, it doesn’t get them anywhere.
A routine example: Dad beats the living SH@# out of Mom and is arrested. Well, mom is a typical battered woman, probably since childhood, and still “loves” dad. Mom knows that he will probably do it again, but maybe he has changed this time. Mom will refuse to take the stand and testify in order to cinch the conviction. The prosecutor doesn’t like the 50/50 odds without a good witness so, case “taken under advisement.” When a high profile case is baseless, they send it to the grand jury. What’s wrong with that? (again for the layperson) How many times have you heard a grand jury NOT indicting the defendant? Seldom! The grand jury only hears the prosecutions side of the case, no rebuttal for the accused.
How much “prima fascia” evidence have you had “suppressed” by the judge, rendering your case baseless? This tactic is what, in my opinion, resulted in the OJ verdict and others that you mentioned. Juries don’t see all of the evidence, or the judge and the defense attorney at the golf club together.
Jack, I don’t know where you patrol so I don’t know what it’s like where you are at. But here in St. Louis, and other major cities that I know of, this is how the system is ran. Like an aerodynamic brick, right into the ground. I hope that it’s different in your part of the nation, but from your comments, I doubt it.
Juries the problem? Juries can only make a judgement based what the judicial system allows them to see.
I agree with this!
Welll. The injustice from my perspective comes from the meddling of legislators which is then further convoluted by the justice system. Judges try to enact laws, prosecuters renege on prosecuting so the criminals just go back on the street. I get angry that meth users have criminalized my sudafed for allergies and now it doesn’t matter since the Mexican drug lords are smuggling a purer form of meth into Tenn or other states. So meth production is down but meth use is still the same. But I still feel like a criminal buying my sudafed. {end of my little rant}.
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