These stories about - particularly heinous is when a policeman shoots a dog. What a low, cruel and telling thing, to shoot a dog that doesn't even pose a threat.
But there are ways, oh there are ways.
I've recounted half a dozen, but here is one or two.
Shortly after there was an article about several policemen EMPTYING their revolvers into a naked man on the street and then claiming that he must have been on PCP and surely he was a threat (now, we all know that PCP does not create supermen or zombies, come back from the dead to eat policeman's faces) - EMPTYING into a NAKED and unarmed man?
Shortly after this story broke, my brother was pulled over, with me in the passenger seat. When pulled over, he exited the vehicle and placed his hands,fingers interlocked behind his head.
officer "put your hands down"
brother "I will not do so sir"
Officer "why"
Brother "because you might shoot me"
Officer "why do you think that"
Brother "because you people have a habit of shooting naked men in the street, I would be a fool to give you any indication of any threatening actions, as you can clearly see, I have my hands on my head"
Officer, "well I am not going to shoot you"
Brother "I can't depend upon that promise"
Officer, I need to see your license and registration"
Brother "I willl keep one hand on my head and remove my wallet and drop it on the street officer"
Officer "there is no need for that sir"
Brother "yes, there most certainly is"
Me "officer, I am exiting the vehicle and intend to place my hands over my head as well?
Stuff .......
In the end there was no ticket, and in this particular officer's eyes, I saw intense embarassment.
In the other situation, a group of us found ourselves in the midst of a riot. Our friend whom we called the fetus because when ever he got high he would curl up into a fetal positon and moan, crawled under a car. As did we all. He was dragged out by several "civil action patrolmen" (with face protection and plastic shields).
He was arrested and detained.
The next day a group of us congrigated about the court house. Unbenownst to one of the arresting officers, we not only noticed him there - reading a newspaper, but knew that one of the fetus's (and our) best friend had a father - who was a superior court judge, a rather famous one who among other things, presided over the first palimony case. He knew everyone in the courthouse entryway. "BILL! how's that boat you just got? fun? "Henry, Hows John doing in his first year at Harvard", "judy, Got that condo yet?"
As he glad handed his way down the hall, my brother sidled up to the arresting officer who didn't recognize him, and a friend walked up to my brother. "what is going on here", he asked. "Oh man, dude, we were all in the middle of a riot, some cops pulled the fetus out from under a car and beat him up pretty bad. I feel sort of sorry for the officers - see there? THat's judge Foster coming to get the fetus out and he is PISSED. I figure that the officer's are going to get suspended at the least, maybe without pay I don't know" All the while my brother had the arresting officer in the corner of his eye, hiding behind his newspaper.
"man, I feel really sorry for that guy whoever he is, and his family and his chances for success, I mean they are just doing their jobs" all the while, those who knew what was going on watched the paper shuttering and jerking around as the officerr began to realize the hornet's nest he had gotten into.
And yes, he and his partner spent three months off duty (with pay of course). From then on, when ever any of us (like 10?) ever encountered that officer we would mention the incident and ask him why he had fucked with the fetus to begin with. He was never the same.
Another one decided to ticket a long line of "illlegaly" pared cars. Many of the owners of those cars were VERY important people, the CEO of GE, The president of PGand E. The VP of Exon, several prominant doctors and of course the wives.
One of them (I suspect my father, oh, he wasn't the president of anything like that, he just hated cops) called the city supervisors and the police department and demanded that all the parking tickets dissapear, but he wouldn't let up until he got the name of the ticketing officer. Officer Brown (really). each time any of us ever got stopped or harassed by officer brown we would tease him about his horrendous mistake. It got us out of a lot of tickets.
The last I will recount - and my favorite. I used to belong to a church group that would go down to mexico and help build schools or churches. Some of us were "proctors", people who would chaparone the teens. Two of the proctors smelled funny. In my business dealings I had contact, drinks, dinner,with a variety of feds, CIA, FBI, NSA. I smelled something funny and finally confronted one of them "you are FBI aren't you". "how did you know? "I smell you guys". "what is the other guy? "DEA", but we are not here officialy, if anyone else finds out we could be in danger"
I won''t tell, don't worry. One evening after communion the three of us got together and the DEA guy started telling me about the 16 year old mule who's balloons had broken in her stomach and that he had held her in his arms till she died.
He said that dealers should all be shot because of this sort of thing. I said "Roger, it wasn't them that killed that girl, it was you". We talked for hours over tecate and I finally got him, really, to realize that his enforcement and not the drug dealers who were simply conforming to the free enterprise system and never meant the girl harm, was the ultimate cause of her demise. He actually listened, and believe it or not I saw a tear.
The FBI guy just got very angry, called me names and left to his tent.
Not all police are dicks - but far too many are.