Rapid Response from the police . .
Sep 14, 2018 13:01:30 #
This is a cracker lol!
A police station somewhere, probably Australia, received this question through the feedback section of a local Police website:
“I would like to know how it is possible for police officers to continually harass people and get away with it?”
In response, a sergeant posted this reply:
“First of all, let me tell you this ... it’s not easy. In our area we average one cop for every 505 people. Only about 60 per cent of those cops are on general duty (or what you might refer to as “general patrols”) where we do most of our harassing.
The rest are in non-harassing units that do not allow them contact with the day to day innocents. At any given moment, only one-fifth of the 60 per cent of general patrols are on duty and available for harassing people while the rest are off duty. So, roughly, one cop is responsible for harassing about 6000 residents.
When you toss in the commercial business and tourist locations that attract people from other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is responsible for harassing 15,000 or more people a day.
Now, your average eight-hour shift runs 28,800 seconds long. This gives a cop two-thirds of a second to harass a person, and then only another third of a second to drink an iced coffee AND then find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. To be honest, most cops are not up to the challenge day in and day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is utilise some tools to help us narrow down those people we can realistically harass.
PHONE: People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus on a person for special harassment. A popular one is, “There’s a guy breaking into a house.” The harassment team is then put into action.
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, drivers with stolen registration plates, no licence and the like. It’s lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for nothing more obvious than running a red light. Sometimes you get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have drugs in the car, they are drunk, or have an outstanding warrant on file.
LAWS: When we don’t have phone or cars, and have nothing better to do, there are actually books that give us ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are called “statutes”. These include the Crimes Act, Summary Offences Act, Road Safety Road Rules and a whole bunch of others... They spell out all sorts of things for which you can really mess with people. After you read the law, you can just drive around for a while until you find someone violating one of these listed offences and harass them. Just last week I saw a guy trying to steal a car. Well, the book says that’s not allowed. That meant I had permission to harass this guy.
It is a really cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well. We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass, and we get away with it. Why? Because, for the good citizens who pay the tab, we try to keep the streets safe for them, and they pay us to “harass” some people.
Next time you are in the area, give me the old “single finger wave”, that’s another one of those codes. It means, “You can harass me.” It’s one of our favourites.”
A police station somewhere, probably Australia, received this question through the feedback section of a local Police website:
“I would like to know how it is possible for police officers to continually harass people and get away with it?”
In response, a sergeant posted this reply:
“First of all, let me tell you this ... it’s not easy. In our area we average one cop for every 505 people. Only about 60 per cent of those cops are on general duty (or what you might refer to as “general patrols”) where we do most of our harassing.
The rest are in non-harassing units that do not allow them contact with the day to day innocents. At any given moment, only one-fifth of the 60 per cent of general patrols are on duty and available for harassing people while the rest are off duty. So, roughly, one cop is responsible for harassing about 6000 residents.
When you toss in the commercial business and tourist locations that attract people from other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is responsible for harassing 15,000 or more people a day.
Now, your average eight-hour shift runs 28,800 seconds long. This gives a cop two-thirds of a second to harass a person, and then only another third of a second to drink an iced coffee AND then find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. To be honest, most cops are not up to the challenge day in and day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is utilise some tools to help us narrow down those people we can realistically harass.
PHONE: People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus on a person for special harassment. A popular one is, “There’s a guy breaking into a house.” The harassment team is then put into action.
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, drivers with stolen registration plates, no licence and the like. It’s lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for nothing more obvious than running a red light. Sometimes you get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have drugs in the car, they are drunk, or have an outstanding warrant on file.
LAWS: When we don’t have phone or cars, and have nothing better to do, there are actually books that give us ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are called “statutes”. These include the Crimes Act, Summary Offences Act, Road Safety Road Rules and a whole bunch of others... They spell out all sorts of things for which you can really mess with people. After you read the law, you can just drive around for a while until you find someone violating one of these listed offences and harass them. Just last week I saw a guy trying to steal a car. Well, the book says that’s not allowed. That meant I had permission to harass this guy.
It is a really cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well. We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass, and we get away with it. Why? Because, for the good citizens who pay the tab, we try to keep the streets safe for them, and they pay us to “harass” some people.
Next time you are in the area, give me the old “single finger wave”, that’s another one of those codes. It means, “You can harass me.” It’s one of our favourites.”
Sep 14, 2018 13:13:46 #
Sep 14, 2018 13:18:12 #
I've always said sarcasm is a vastly underrated form of communication. It's both subtle and overt, it's both caustic and humorous and it requires a certain amount of intelligence to appreciate it's message which is why its often lost on those it's directed toward. This cop raises it to an art form.
Sep 14, 2018 13:44:21 #
fourlocks wrote:
I've always said sarcasm is a vastly underrated form of communication. It's both subtle and overt, it's both caustic and humorous and it requires a certain amount of intelligence to appreciate it's message which is why its often lost on those it's directed toward. This cop raises it to an art form.
Sep 15, 2018 09:08:43 #
Rathyatra wrote:
This is a cracker lol! br br A police station som... (show quote)
Good for him, that's saying it in language that even dummies could understand!
Sep 15, 2018 11:02:26 #
You gotta love the way he gets his point across. I always find it odd that the guy that gives a person a citation for doing 70 mph 6in a 55 mph zone is an SOB, but when he saves that persons kids life the next day at risk of his own life he is a hero.It has to be one thankless job.
Sep 15, 2018 11:50:49 #
Sep 15, 2018 13:36:36 #
safeman wrote:
The only problem with sarcasm is finding people smart enough to recognize it.
I think there might be as many as two in Southern California, depending on the weather
Sep 15, 2018 14:30:34 #
Diocletian wrote:
I think there might be as many as two in Southern California, depending on the weather
Ah, there are a lot more than that. They just don't get in the news because they don't do any of those stupid things to get "harassed". We also tend to stay home and leave the streets to the "please harass me" crowd, only going out for a few things like work, appointments and shopping on most days.
Sep 15, 2018 14:58:23 #
robertjerl wrote:
Ah, there are a lot more than that. They just don't get in the news because they don't do any of those stupid things to get "harassed". We also tend to stay home and leave the streets to the "please harass me" crowd, only going out for a few things like work, appointments and shopping on most days.
OK, sorry...three of us then...and that's a scary thought, having to stay off the streets...ech.
Sep 15, 2018 15:35:56 #
Sep 15, 2018 18:31:10 #
My first day on the job, an old Sergeant took me aside and told me " You won't make many friends by doing your job, and your Damned if you do, and damned if you don't." Boy was he right.
Sep 24, 2018 11:20:56 #
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