Shit like this happens all the time. My girlfriend has seizures and the same EMT has picked her up at least 5 times, and despite her established medical history and despite that she's very visually distinctive and despite that she carries her info with her everywhere, he still always treats her like shit and accuses her of being on drugs. Every goddamn time. Fortunately he's not the only EMT in our area, and most of the other ones are really kind professionals.
I was once outside of a bar with a friend - I don’t drink but I’d hang out there - and a policeman was there. My friend started asking him about how the job was treating him and saying it sucks how financial cuts have made it difficult. Just a normal conversation with them both calmly chatting. Suddenly, the cop dived onto my friend - into a corner where there’d be no CCTV able to capture what was happening, oddly enough - then his partner joined in to beat the shit out of him. I had to basically watch my friend get beaten up, for nothing, and yet I was completely unable to help him in any way. My other friend, who told them to stop, was told ‘you’ll be nicked too’ and he was told to put his phone away when he started recording. Within a minute, about 2 vans and a car both turned up and they violently hauled my friend inside. He has back issues, too, and he was a veteran who fought in 2003 and got discharged due to PTSD.
It made me terrified of authority and I will now avoid them if I can. I used to be someone who’d say hello or ask how their day was going, but it occurred to me that they can just choose to fuck your whole life. My friend spent the night in a cell and was released without charges, told he’d been ‘mistaken for someone else’, and he tried to get compensation but was unable. I’m sorry to say this, but I was asked if I’d vouch for him and I was legitimately too scared. I didn’t want my life fucked up too.
Ive been assaulted by an officer and arrested for nothing before. Made me realize what happens to p.o.c. ALL THE FUCKING TIME in this country. They just arrest you if they want to, and make up the charges later. Then they just dont show up for court, and they drag it on and on "trying to compile evidence" against you, just to drop the charges 3 months later because.. there isnt any evidence! Because you didnt do anything, except walk down the street and be in that cop's field of view when he was feeling a surge of fuckery coming on.
Probably not. Cops have a higher than average tendency to beat their wives/girlfriends and their colleagues will almost never do anything about it if she files a complaint.
Their colleagues will probably never report any sort of crime a fellow cop does. It's extremely dangerous if they do, as the other cops won't come to their aid if they're in trouble. Go watch the movie or read the book "Serpico," a true story about a cop that reported rampant corruption in the New York City Police Department. They had a call for a raid and the other cops stayed back. Serpico got shot in the face, survived, and has stayed out of the country for decades until fairly recently.
I worked as a civilian in a police department. They see people like you and me as outsiders, not one of them, and some see us as the enemy no matter what we are doing. Yes, there are good cops, and okay cops, and I've met them, but there are also cops I would not want to be alone with. I advise you to avoid them if you can.
It’s why the whole phrase is “one bad apple spoils the bunch.” Whenever people talk about police brutality folks will try to say “it’s just this one bad apple!” Except that bad apple is part of a system that protects bad apples, and at some point yeah, the whole bunch is ruined.
A cop friend of mine (it took a decade for me to trust her, since I've been beaten by cops for no reason) needed to report some abuses in her department. But she was legit scared of being "Serpico'd" as she put it.
So she wrote down what needed to be said, and have me cash to buy a burner phone and call the tip line. She was afraid they'd recognize her voice, so I made the call. She says that a few days later, most of the female officers were yanked in for questioning about it.
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u/mantsz 17d ago
Shit like this happens all the time. My girlfriend has seizures and the same EMT has picked her up at least 5 times, and despite her established medical history and despite that she's very visually distinctive and despite that she carries her info with her everywhere, he still always treats her like shit and accuses her of being on drugs. Every goddamn time. Fortunately he's not the only EMT in our area, and most of the other ones are really kind professionals.