zlacker

I wanted to point out that there are more problems with police work than simply that 'bad cops' can't be held responsible for hurting people (on account of qualified immunity). The deeper problem is that people who need help are frequently gratuitously harmed, and that our system of justice is a make-work program for lawyers and prison guards [0].

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