Poll Do You Feel Safe Around Law-enforcement Officers?

[darrenS]

no need to apologize at all ,seriously your were decent throughout , was never offensive and i do see your point and respect it. Add to that your obvious compassion even though you yourself have suffered greatly, speaks to the person you are.

PS: was married to an irish gal once....always polite and as tough as nails...could fight like a buzz saw too...:)

 

[Bonsiren]

No, I don't trust the police at all.

I was raped by the son of a police officer. The rapist's father did everything in his power to prevent me from accusing his son in public--because I am, apparently, just a loser who won't amount to anything and no one will believe me anyway.

I used to live in a dangerous neighborhood with a lot of domestic violence and got used to seeing the police every few days or so. I've tried to be cooperative and pleasant, but my experiences are always overwhelmingly negative. I get that police aren't trained in politeness, but those experiences felt more like verbal abuse purely because they had a badge to hide behind. I'm still not sure what I did wrong, seeing as they were never called on me.

There was one cop who was nice to me. His name was Eric. I was trying to kill myself when he talked me out of it and took me to the hospital for treatment. He told me he wouldn't leave my side. He'd sat there and listened while my mother told me I was a worthless house-wrecker and she didn't care if I lived or died. So I believed him. He followed the ambulance to the hospital and walked in through the emergency entrance with me, then left for a moment while I changed into the gown and promised he'd be back. I never saw him again.

I wonder what happened to him. If he planned to abandon me at the hospital--I really needed a friend then--or if work intervened. That situation wasn't violent or abusive, it just ended on a downer note.

 

[Changing4Best]

For many years now, I've sometimes gotten an uneasy feeling around them, but don't know of any particular reason why I should. I've heard stories of them abusing others, I've seen videos of these kinds of things on social media too.

On the other hand, I once needed a police report about a robbery at my house and they kept stalling and stalling about getting it done. Finally when it was "done" it had errors in it and I had to write a note to the officer that wrote it with the corrections that needed to be made in it. Finally, after many times of going to the Police dept. and asking for the corrected copy, it was done. I carry it with me at all times, as the issue was that my Social Security card and some other forms of ID were stolen and I fear that someone may try to use these to obtain a loan or something like that in my name (identity theft).

My hubby and I were victims of this once long ago, and I had to deal with the police then too, in order to protect us from having to pay the store back that was stolen from with a credit account that was opened there by some other person than us. The police were very helpful then. We were able to handle it by proving that we did not apply for that charge account. The person who impersonated my husband (who was about 70 yrs old then) stated his age was only 30! Since they did not check this when they approved the account, we were off the hook thankfully. It was $700 that was charged to it too, so thank God!

I think one of the reasons that I have such an uneasy feeling around law enforcement officers (even though they have not harmed me personally in any way) is that they have such control and power. If one should get on their wrong side (or if they are even just having a bad day or something!) they can really harm you. Just the fact that they have such power scares me. It probably reminds me of my abusers who had power over me too.

 

[Friday]

I wonder what happened to him. If he planned to abandon me at the hospital--I really needed a friend then--or if work intervened. That situation wasn't violent or abusive, it just ended on a downer note.

I used to work in the ER... That's actually something I'd see on a regular basis (daily, sometimes several times a day)... Cop would bring someone in and be worried about them (72hr hold coming, car accident, child abuse, domestic violence, overdose, etc. ) and the nurses would have to repeat "We've got her, now. It's okay. She's going to be fine." And walk them out the door. They'd usually come back a couple times over the next few days to check in (Hey, how's the girl I brought in doing?), and the name would get brought up from time to time over the next year, to see if they'd been back. Part of my job was to redirect, because HIPPA means you can't give details, and & policy means that after a certain point in the admitting process only medical personnel & immediate family are allowed access.

So it may be that 3rd option as well. None of the patients ever knew "their" cop was checking on them... Cops generally don't want to make anything worse... But when they care, they care. One reason why so many ER nurses and cops hook up. They see the soft & human side of police, see them with their walls down, a lot more than most people.

 

[garden]

I do not hate the police. I am afraid of them. I have lived my whole life thinking that they are awesome. The one and only time that the police came to our house when my mom was getting a beating, It was like they were royal knights or something. The atmosphere changed, like the molecules in the air shifted, the protectors had arrived. My stepdad was like a dog with his tail betwen his legs, I could actually see the change in his body language that was due to the police presence in our home (combined with his obvious guilt). I actually just talked about this in therapy today, my therapist got me to remember a positive police encounter, and I remembered this...kinda cool for me to have a positive experience to hold on to right now...

I used to feel completely safe around them. 3 of my cousins are police officers (one of them is my favorite cousin), and an uncle by marriage is a retired officer, and they are all mentally sound, genuinely kind, good people with integrity. The officer that manhandled me for calling the non emergency police line to have them re park their cars was not a person of integrity. She allowed her emotions to affect her to the point that she decided to use her power and authority to teach a law abiding citizen a lesson. The lesson is, they can do whatever they want to, and we should all just stay out of their way.
The worst part of this was that my daughter was in the car, and when the officer was verbally abusing me, my daughter began to cry, and the officer used this to escalate her own bad behavior instead of realizing that her behavior was over the top alarming and she might be harming a childs psyche. My daughter had nighmares for 6 weeks, after which they subsided. Her dreams were always about cars, and me being taken away in one of them and never returned to her, and her being left alone. My daughter heard everything this officer yelled at me. She watched this officer pull me from the car, cuff me, and then put me in the squad car while she fabricated a ticket...after which she let me go. An officer with integrity, and with true purpose would not have treated me this way, period.

My husband has a different perspective about the police, and it was not until my traumatic experience with them that he revealed it to me. He grew up in Savannah GA, and his Mom and aunt were both police officers. He saw a lot of behind the scenes stuff and heard a lot of behind the scenes conversations. He witnessed police culture from an early age, and because of it, his trust in the police is given on a case by case basis. He never shared this with me, not until after my trauma. I always thought he felt the same as me, but he didn't. He said that it was because he admired my 'healthy perspective' towards them and he did not want to taint it. I now think more like him about the police. It depends on the individual officer, some of them are the real deal, they are there for the right reasons, and are equipped mentally to carry out their very difficult and dangerous jobs, while others are not. I just happened to encounter a bad seed.

 

[Changing4Best]

There is a high school girl in our church that is a police explorer. She rides around in police cars with our police officers and is learning about their job. She's a good kid, someone I already trust as a person who will be a good and helpful law enforcement employee.

She says she is planning on going into law a justice training and will eventually want to be a District Attorney or a person who investigates crimes. She's smart and she's polite and cooperative. I think she will do a great job, once she finishes her schooling.

She has also gotten a lot of scholarships and will probably get more of them. She will graduate this coming June from high school.

 

[ghotiff]

I think one of the reasons that I have such an uneasy feeling around law enforcement officers (even though they have not harmed me personally in any way) is that they have such control and power. If one should get on their wrong side (or if they are even just having a bad day or something!) they can really harm you. Just the fact that they have such power scares me. It probably reminds me of my abusers who had power over me too.

I think this is where I come from also. Then add in that I did reach out to them once when I was a child but their response was "what do you expect us to do", so I left. In their defence I probably didn't explain myself well, but I left the station with yet another data point if asking for help, and not getting any.

 

[Ed Norton]

I don't know if I should comment, tbh just to say I'm very afraid of them and I'm not a criminal.

 

[ihateusernames]

I'm not sure how to answer. I don't trust them in the same way that I don't trust bosses or landlords or teachers or librarians or even the folks at the tax commissioner's office. I feel like they're constantly out to get me. I don't make eye contact with them out in public and try everything in my power to avoid needing to interact with them.

On the other hand, I'm married to one :), makes what I said sound pretty ridiculous, right? I know logically that they are just people, most good, some bad, with all different personalities.

 

[ihateusernames]

Something else similar, and I know this applies to so many people here, please don't take offense; I do not trust soldiers. I live in a military town and I cringe inside when they are around. This stems directly from my own past. And it's equally ridiculous. I've known far more wonderful soldiers than bad ones.

 

[holdenmonty]

I don't trust law enforcement much at all. When my house that I was living in was broken into twice in the same week it took the police half an hour just to respond and then they said that they never expected to find the individuals that broke into my house and stole everything. Then when I was in a bad car accident it took the police half an hour to respond and said that they couldn't figure out who was at fault... and recently was in a mild car accident and the police took about 40 minutes to respond and said that they couldn't tell who was at fault.... I have had nothing but bad experiences with law enforcement. Waiting forever and them not doing their damn jobs.

 

[KwanYingirl]

Geez, what a bunch of dolts. I'm glad you weren't too hurt in the accidents. My dog fell through the ice at my home in nowhereville and I had rescued her and had blow dried her fur by the time a firefighter showed up-and he lived on my street!!!