I'd like to take this opportunity to sidetrack the thread slightly while hopefully offending someone - two birds with one stone.
I'm from Ohio, so naturally I've got those midwest values / ingrained respect for God / Country / Police - all of which have evolved over time as I've been away from the motherland.
Seriously though, growing up I've had a great respect for law enforcement, and have always been glad they are there to help.
I've often read the back and forth comments about how terrible / awesome the police are below every online news story involving a police shooting / possible error made by law enforcement, and have just written off those that slam the police, etc as hippies / idiots / etc.
In recent years, my view has started to shift.
Reason #1: Girlfriend is sexually assaulted in her apartment building lobby one night. Police take report, then proceed to do nothing. Wait, I take that back. The detective on the case decided his time would be better spent hitting on my girlfriend the victim, while telling her "jokingly" that he was going to see that I was pulled over/harassed by his colleagues until I broke up with her so he could have a shot. Etc etc. Each time she interacts with this guy he repeats his attempts. They actually figured out who the guy was because my girlfriend did her own detective work ( guy had a sister in her building ), but apparently he didn't assault her enough to get in any real trouble. Hi-five!
Reason #2: Sheriff tracks down my girlfriend, telling her he has video of her stealing purses from a store and video of her car leaving the scene. When she tells him she's at work during the alleged crime, and that the car he's referring to is actually her mother's car (in my girlfriends name), he changes his story to he has video of her mother stealing them, and that he's sure it's her. When he then finds out her mother was taking care of her elderly client that day, and was at that shopping center but not stealing purses, he confesses that he hasn't actually seen any video yet, but he knows that her mother's car was one of several cars in the parking lot that day. I called them shortly after and gave them an ear-full. Hi-five?
Moral of the story is - if I have any trouble, I'm not calling 911...I'm reaching for my .40 - not impressed with law enforcement on the west coast so far.
