Cops Above the Law: The Friends and Family Plan

by dysamoria | November 18, 2008 at 04:11 pm

1570 views | 21 Recommendations | 11 comments

Written Sunday, November 16, 2008, by Victory Grey of Dysamoria:

As enforcers of the law, police have some leeway when it comes to obeying it. For instance, a cop on duty may legally run a red light when responding to an emergency. But if they want to, they can often get away with it even when not responding to an emergency. And because they work with and are friends with other cops, they can often get away with quite a number of minor (and occasionally not so minor) infractions. Being a cop is kind of like being a "get out of jail free" card. Is it fair? Some would say it's a small price to pay for these folks to keep us safe from the bad guys.

But what about when those "get out of jail free" perks are extended to the friends and families of cops? Is THAT fair?

Personally knowing a cop doesn't make you a better person. It doesn't make you one of the "good guys." BEING a cop doesn't even make you one of the "good guys!" If anything, knowing a cop makes it MORE likely you'll speed or fail to stop at that red light, because you know you can get off with a slap on the wrist.

Here's what one cop had to say regarding Fraternal Order of Police Courtesy Cards:

"My family all carry FOP or OPBA (Ohio Patrolmans Benevolent Assn) cards. If they are stopped for a MINOR traffic infraction, the officer who stopped them can choose to give them a pass and take away the card. The card must be signed by an officer to be official and the driver better personally know the officer on the card or I do not accept them. Think of it as a perk for willing to get shot at 40 hours a week for minimal pay.
9 months ago
Source(s):
Ohio cop"

And this is from an article about another Ohio cop, Officer Rounds, after he ticketed a young lady (Harley) for speeding:

"Back in the car, Rounds mentioned that he knew a police officer who shared Harley's last name, and who lived in the same neighborhood. If she had mentioned a connection, "nine times out of 10, probably," the woman could have gotten off with just a warning."

If you can give bad press, then you're also safe to speed in the realm of Officer Rounds:

"He spotted two speeders there on a recent afternoon: On the first, Rounds threw his car into gear but then quickly backed down when he saw that it was a blue local TV station car.

"That would really make us look bad," he said. "I'd be washing cars tomorrow."

Rounds also advises:

"If you have a law enforcement "courtesy card" -- a wallet size, get-out-of-jail-free card police officers give their friends -- don't be shy about using it. "If you are stopped, what you do is put the license and registration with the courtesy card right on top," Rounds said. That way, the officer will be sure to see it before starting to write the ticket.

Nurses or doctors who say they are on their way to surgery, firefighters, law enforcement officers and their relatives often get a free pass. Again, bring it up before the ticket is started.

By itself, a Fraternal Order of Police sticker in the car window is not an effective shield against tickets. Better is the FOP license plate, which is only available to those with law enforcement connections. In any case, don't be shy about mentioning your association with the FOP."

For the record, there seems to be all sorts of "get out of jail" paraphernalia: courtesy cards, family cards, triangles, shields, etc. And some carry more weight than others.

Is it fair? Let's ask a law professor.

"There is an insidious nature to it, even if it is only used in its most innocuous sense, to get out of a traffic ticket," said Lewis Katz, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University. "It says that there are two sets of rules out there: one for people who have a brother badge or a courtesy card, and another set for those that don't."

Agreed.

(on the Dysamoria.com blog, where this was originally published, there was a mighty clever comment... blogavoidant said... "Paying for protection... a la mafia?"

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jessica.lam

at 16:25 on November 18th, 2008

Life isn't a board game - no get out of jail free cards..... or is there?

dysamoria

at 16:31 on November 18th, 2008

I've asked the author to scan the one she found in the city so we can share alike... ;-)

-Intransitivus

dysamoria

at 16:40 on November 18th, 2008

If may also be informational to note that police are ALLOWED TO LIE to people if they think that will accomplish their goals.

-Intransitivus

Erica_Marshall

at 19:35 on November 18th, 2008

The original Monopoly Dog photo of mine can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erica_marshall/2729818451/

dysamoria

at 18:23 on February 11th, 2009

Nice photo, Erica. i love macro shots. Yours is a great one. Did you not post the photo for public use? If not, you can ask to have it removed.

dysamoria

at 13:25 on November 28th, 2008

too bad there are not any more comments of thought like yours, jessica.lam

LifesNoFair (not verified)

at 13:28 on December 3rd, 2008

One quick question for everyone wanting to pick on cops, how many times have you broken the law and not gotten caught?? Are all of you so perfect in your daily lives that you can judge others? That's what I thought, you're not and neither are cops! Why don't we take a look at all the firemen who leave their fire trucks behind ON SHIFT so they can go play softball/football with other fire houses??? My uncle's house that is right across the street from a fire station burned to the ground...nothing was left!!! They were all out playing softball that night!

People, there are bigger issues in the world.

Jordan Yerman

at 13:44 on December 3rd, 2008

By wearing a badge and carrying a gun, police officers are telling the rest of us that they're in a position to judge our day-to-day behavior, and it's a power that the state indeed gives them. It's a tremendous amount of power, and a tremendous amount of responsibility. Some use it wisely, but others do not.

dysamoria

at 18:34 on February 11th, 2009

like... violence and death? yeah. we're kind of talking about that issue here except we weren't going after a specific incident. We could have talked about the friends-and-family-style cards that get drunk drivers through sobriety checks without actually being checked and then end up causing death in a violent car crash. but instead, the question was posed about the power said people (police, in this case) have and how it is used and, unfortunately often, misused.

Or is your uncle's house the only bigger issue you wish to have talked about, Mr. LifesNoFair and i can't type unverified cliche ranter?

One quick question for you: do you know how to form proper sentences?

See, that's a quick question. WITH punctuation.

It helps to get your point across. Or are you just the same dude below... the other anonymous coward spewing "get over it" comments?

Who are YOU to tell ANYONE when to get over something that bothers them? Your uncle's house burned to the ground. Get over it.

See, that just sucks. You shouldn't be told to get over it. You should be pounding on doors in your community and local government and pounding until someone pays for the failure of the firemen to do their jobs. Were they volunteer or paid?

Do we get a sermon from someone about volunteer firemen, too? Get over it. You volunteered. That's YOUR problem, not mine. If you're going to pick a job, paid or not, DO IT to the BEST of your abilities or DON'T pick that job.

But anonymous cowards like you are just random web surfers who see something that makes them feel like spitting. So you do. Anonymously.

That's your right (to BE anonymous), but you'd have more credibility if you:

1. Had an ID here.
2. Could form proper sentences.
3. Weren't wrong.

As Jordan above me said... these people ARE judging us, just like YOU judged the firemen who didn't save your uncle's house because they weren't at the station.

Did no one call them? Did no one pull an alarm? Call the police? Call the fire Chief?

Details... or just walk on by without spitting.

BadBoysWhatcha gonna do (not verified)

at 14:34 on February 7th, 2009

Get a life. Most people who complain about what cops do or don't do have had an encounter with police that didn't go their way. MOST people understand what police do on a daily basis, what they see, live and have to decide in a split second what everyone else has the luxury of armchair quarterbacking. Really people, grow up.

dysamoria

at 18:21 on February 11th, 2009

Why don't YOU grow up, tough guy. In fact, get an identity, Mr. Tough and not verified Bad Boy. It takes real manhood to post cliches in an anonymous manner.

But let us tackle the issue at hand: "most people who complain ... had an encounter that didn't go their way."

That's a stroke of brilliance! Let's complain about things that are... BAD!

BRILLIANT!!

Pal, i've autism. Asperger's Syndrome, to be exact. When some dude rushes his vehicle up towards mine, briskly, not slowly, to end in a driver-to-driver window meet up, in snow and ice, when he's riding a big police SUV and i'm in a little Eclipse, sitting there with my girlfriend, waiting for a friend in front of his grandmother's house, and i give him crap for scaring the crap out of ME with his bravado of SUV marksmanship and suspicion... that's because HE was the agressor in the situation.

Thing is, cops don't see it that way. They immediately assume i must be doing something wrong because i initiated communication in an "aggressive" manner. But HE initiated the entire encounter. Period. He was profiling me. Guy in "sports coupe," sitting still next to a house with his foot on the break. Yup. The sum total of my crime.

Who's right and who's wrong? Both parties, it seems.

He profiled me. He initiated an aggressive-looking maneuver and i reacted with defensiveness off the get-go.

But i didn't know i had autism at the time and no one really knows that a person HAS autism unless they TELL you, and they're not likely to tell you because you might bully them.

A badge and a cop status means squat to a lot of people with AS. Authority figures and the concept of being wee little yes-men to them, being all agreeable no matter how they start things (and they DO START things) just doesn't compute for most of us. It never did for me.

You know why?

Read everything above your lame, cliche and anonymous comment!

If you STILL can't figure it out, you're not worth the time. Or you're a cop who doesn't like being questioned. Or both, like here in, Coplay, the center of ignorance and small town police behavior, where the police department is entirely unfit to handle anyone that is even slightly unlike themselves and the old people or grand kids they normally deal with. You should see the crime reports in the "newsletters." It's so small town. These guys are mostly all retired police from a larger area. They became police HERE to "take it easy" and still be police. Hell, i even voted for the Chief of police the first year or two because i never met the guy but the town seemed ok and he was the incumbant, and, at the time, i believed in voting.

The people who live here are mostly old people, who are usually given the preferred treatment, and who sneer at the "NON" who are moving in from the larger cities/towns. i walked into a small restaurant with a friend and was stared at the whole time it took to catch the one waitress and ask her a question about the food. Why? My hair? My youth? (i'm fricken 33 for crying out loud). i looked right back at this guy. He just kept staring. So i gave him "a look" like "so?" and all he could do was try to give the same look back... more agressively. "Get outta my joint, outsider." Lame.

i don't defer or look up to police officers any more than you look up to or defer to me. Even less, likely, since you apparently couldn't gather the courage to have an identity on this site. Maybe it's because the people who do have identities here are all saying more intelligent and thoughtful things than yourself and you're intimidated.

It's not just that i see no reason for me to do grovel (they're people just like us, said the local chief, ironically); they've BURNED my trust and EARNED my distrust by abuse. They've abused and harassed me and allowed me to BE abused and harassed. They're people who like to be in control. i know this now, after having met enough of them. They're no better than the sociopathic jerk of a boss i had who ruined my career. He'd say lame crap like you did, too... former military white-bread-racist-Americana. And he'd do it anonymously, too.

A badge and a title doesn't give anyone the right to special treatment. When people like you don't like that fact, they launch into a short "get over it" cliche, in an anonymous comment on some website on the internet instead of doing something like... educating other people on how to deal with people that might be different from them... like COPS... because, as Jordan said... Some of them do and some of them don't.

It would be nice if every power-hungry neck-stomper who managed to get an officer's badge wore a tag that said "i expect you to grovel or i will be a jerk to you."

Why am i so pissy about this?

READ THE ABOVE and then go read more at http://dysamoria.com/abuse

And next time, spend the time to have an actual identity Mr. Thinks He's Cool and Tough but is still a tiny little anonymous coward spewing the same cliche over and over.

Better put your "friends and family card" away too.