I had a statie help push my disabled car to a safer spot then on his own come back about 15 minutes later to check on me and let me wait in the back of his cruiser for the tow truck. (It was below freezing outside.) I’ve seen them helping disabled and stranded motorists on the highway. I’ve had them stop and run emergency lights to protect us while I changed someone else’s tire on the shoulder. I live on a semi-confusing curve where we get an accident a year or so and the road is state-owned, so I see the state police response to help the affected drivers and pax. Even when the driver was clearly at fault, they’re professional and helpful.

Recreationally, I’ve played a lot of baseball and softball with cops; I end up hearing some of the good and bad socially there as well.

Are there dickheads who become cops? Hell yes! The profession probably specifically attracts some of them. Are all cops bastards? Not in my experience.

Edit to add: our college campus police had a phenomenal relationship with the campus community. If I had any kind of issue, I’d have had no qualms about asking them for help. That’s a bit of a “gimme” perhaps, perhaps they have an easier job in some ways, but they had earned the trust of the majority of the community in ways that the neighboring college police forces had clearly not.

> Are all cops bastards?

The problem is even the "good" cops protect the bad cops. If they aren't willing to prosecute cops for things like beating their wives, why do you think they're good?

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-...

I find it hard to believe there are many police forces that don't have several officers that are known to break protocol, laws, and do shitty things like beat their wives - but they all hide behind the blue shield.

I have never had a positive experience with a police officer in my life, and I grew up in the richest whitest suburb you can imagine. I don't think it's possible to be a good person and stay in the force, and I have heard horrible stories from former officers that quit due to disgust at what their coworkers bragged about.

I really, really want to be wrong about this. But the older I get the more data comes out that police officers are just horrible human beings.

That’s an excellent point. The “thin blue line” is a terrible problem and even what I think are good individual cops are reluctant to break it.

That's a good anecdote, thanks.

Yes, a number in a separate comment that I won't duplicate here.

While I have had some unpleasant experiences with some jackass cops (mostly when I was still a public defender), the majority of my experiences with the police have been them doing their jobs.

In fact, the number one complaint from the cops I interact with is all the jackasses that give the rest of them a bad image. (And before you ask why they don't do something about it, they can't, in the same way that most of the programmers on this board don't have the power to stop programmers at other companies from doing what they do.)

A positive personal story: I rear ended somebody a few years ago. It was at a right hand turn into a protected lane, so there was no reason for them to stop. I saw them start to go, then saw a kid running in the crosswalk and looked away. My car slowly rolled into their car until there was a minor collision. We both pulled over, but before getting out of the car the other driver opened the glove box and threw the contents everywhere and then got out clutching his head, saying, "oh my head, it hurts the collision was so violent". I called the cops and after a fairly short delay an officer came over and took a look.

The officer explained to the man that, as somebody trained in collision assessment, the damage to their vehicle indicated a less than 5 mph collision and that does not substantiate any physical damage to their person. I received a note from the officer with badge number and name should I need to contact her in the future.

After explaining this to the insurance company I never heard from them again.