A police officer was on watch outside; his colleague was inside wrapping things up. The police officer told me the family had called for an intervention. The fire department had already departed, as Grandpa had declined medical assistance.
I asked what the story was. The police officer said simply "probably meth", and pointed out the right to refuse medical care is fundamental. I was supposed to take Grandpa to a motel.
At one point in our interaction, the police officer pointed out that it takes different kinds of cops to work in Scottsdale (for example), where some drunk kid might have a prestigious lawyer as their parent, vs. his ghetto precinct, where it's a point of pride to have 'taken a swing at a cop'.
Eventually Grandpa came out and got in my cab, the two police officers departed... Then grandpa wanted his son's phone number. I started the meter and pulled forward a few feet to where his son was standing. He got the phone number, then a woman appeared... She said they just wanted him to get help, Grandpa said "I just want to get some rest..." "oh, you can rest here..." My passenger's son paid me $6 for the 20 feet, and that was the end of that.
There's a lot of collateral damage in policing... Many other passengers had stories of being pointlessly harmed through their interactions with the police. One white fellow let his medical marijuana card expire. One day he got mouthy with a cop, who searched him and found his non-medical "dangerous illegal drug". My passenger said the search was probably illegal, but his overworked public defender didn't get the charges dismissed. I remember him saying it cost him about $5000.
The modern police officer's job involves, in part, hurting people who don't actually need to be hurt. Qualified immunity allows them to do the full spectrum of their job responsibilities without being hurt themselves. Ending auto-immune drug war, and finding ways to help people who need help, are the actual reforms that policing needs to break it of its destructive tendencies.
The only way to restrain the power-hungry is to be vigilant and use discipline; police unions and culture have proven very skilled in removing effective oversight. Given the situation, qualified immunity removes the only real restraint on police.
note: I am personally in favor of legalizing all drugs, recreational and medical. That said, I'm not really sure what you mean by 'auto-immune drug war', as the 'war on drugs' doesn't specifically target immuno-suppressants.
While I agree that police work attracts a certain personality type, there are plenty of good cops too.
I was pulled over by a friendly Scottsdale cop once. I'd just accepted a fare, pulled out of the parking lot I'd been waiting, then flipped my headlights on. A vehicle did a U-turn right behind me, 'shit that's a cop...' The cop bounced over. Instead of asking for a confession (DO YOU KNOW WHY I PULLED YOU OVER?), he said "I PULLED YOU OVER BECAUSE YOUR HEADLIGHTS ARE OFF." I responded simply, "they're on now." The cop was surprised, walked to the front of the taxi to inspect, found the headlights were indeed on, trudged back defeated, then gave me the standard "license and registration" treatment. We chatted for a bit, then they let me go.
Another time a sheriff was right behind me when I pulled into a bar's parking lot. He gave the standard DO YOU KNOW WHY I PULLED YOU OVER? I said I had a few ideas. The sheriff informed of the stop sign I didn't even realize I'd missed. He gave me a written warning.
> That said, I'm not really sure what you mean by 'auto-immune drug war', as the 'war on drugs' doesn't specifically target immuno-suppressants.
IMHO the drug war is basically a societal auto-immune condition, where our population destructively attacks itself. Instead of recognizing people's actual problems (poverty, stress, genetic problems, etc), the justice system provides imprisonment in a futile effort to motivate people to stop hurting themselves. I remember going to my one passenger's drug court hearing [0]. The judge had done her homework on all the people who appeared before her. She was very stern with many of them: 'I hope 90 days in jail will be enough time to motivate you to get your act together'.
When she got to my passenger, though, she was like, 'you've really pulled yourself together... But you missed court 2.5 years ago, and I have no option but to punish you.' She gave him 30 days in jail, with work release. When I picked him up after his 30 days, all his worldly possessions had been disposed of on account of his eviction while serving the 30 days. "I can't believe I have to start over from nothing, again"
[0] my earlier comment about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21307776
This statement seems like a false bias to me, particularly given that pretty much every policeman/policewoman that I've known personally have been humble and good people and became police either on a desire to help people, or just because it was a paying job.
My evidence is anecdotal, but what is your evidence based on?
What's your source for this?
It seems to be contradicted by e.g. - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1097-4679(19... - "The most striking finding was a clear personality profile characterized by a strong pattern of self‐discipline or Control, Tough Poise, and low Anxiety"
Here is a really brilliant Reddit comment that covers a broad survey of studies that broadly support my point: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskSocialScience/comments/b9fkny/is...
I'd argue though that working in a profession that is inherently violent at times and in which you see the worst in people can't be good for your mental health, not to mention potential PTSD from some of the things that police witness. Family abuse is absolutely not good and should be looked into/stopped, but correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation.