Police in Los Olivos
I hope that there are policemen/women who dislike giving tickets for “nothing” offenses as much as we, the public, dislike getting them.
[Editor's note: I will, in the following use "man", "he" and "him" - full knowing there is "woman", "she" and "her" also, thank you]
It is a noble thing to be willing to risk your life to protect others. It should be a respected position to be a policeman, but I don’t see how this is possible any more when he is asked, nay told to go collect revenue for the state for any good reason. A ticket for not wearing a seat-belt, for dropping cigarette ash onto the pavement from a moving car – things like that – is ridiculous. Anyone knows it.
I asked a judge in traffic court, Solvang, if there was an emphasis on giving more tickets to make money, and he admitted openly to this. To me, a good cop is one who sits in the landscape and keeps an eye on things. His aim is to have things go smoothly where he is and he looks for drivers that “stick out”. If someone zig-zags or speeds past the flow of others, the good cop flags them down and sees if they are OK and safe to drive. He’ll let them go with a warning if he thinks that they are on his side, or throw them in jail if he finds they need to learn a lesson. The good cop is a fine judge of character. He can tell if people are lying, but he doesn’t assume it.
If I were a cop, that’s how I would want it. “To Serve and Protect” sounded pretty good to me when I first heard it. Is that how it is now? – or is more “To Collect and Serve”?
Policemen, Sheriffs, Highway Patrolmen have a serious job to do looking for bad guys, really dangerous situations and to be available when disaster strikes. That is what they are trained for and that is what the community has hired them to do. I, for one, am sorry they are being told to be tax-collectors often under the guise of “protecting” us from ourselves. When the public cannot trust the motive of an approaching officer, respect is only founded in the fact the he carries a gun. We obey. We avoid. We dislike.
What also adds to the chasm is overt callous behaviour, such as racing through a quiet town full of people, animals and children at unsafe speeds. Our (click here to see the video) webcam caught the fourth ‘first reponder’ zipping through Grand Avenue as if Godzilla was two doors down and about to attack. Apparently some officers had trouble with a fellow out by the highway. Perhaps their Tasers had run out of batteries, I don’t know, but they must have radioed for help in such a way their colleagues put the general population at greater peril that the perpetrator himself.
Again, I ask: Can we get back to “Protect and Serve”?
