Nobody likes every aspect of their job. Even those who wake up before their alarm, rush out of bed, jump into the shower, and sing while they make themselves breakfast, can find that one odd quirk that slows down their day, making them go, "Ugh."
Yes, that list does include the men and women of law enforcement.
Reddit user, u/potatryan, wanted to know:
It's Not Always So Black and White
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My best bud (known him 20 years) and his ENTIRE FAMILY are cops. Dad, mom, sister, and 2 brothers: ALL COPS.
Anyways, I have dinner with them from time to time and I recall one time his brother discussing having to go monitor a protest, with all the other cops in their riot gear.
I was fascinated that every person (cops) at the table had the same reaction of hating protests, for different reasons.
One person said it was boring and you have to stand all day. One person said it sucks when the people youre protecting start yelling at you, his mom (who was a dispatcher) said it diminishes response ability because all the cops were tied up at the protest and that means less patrols elsewhere. etc.
Bottomline is found out cops hate protests.
But Do You Sit There Watching Them?
Not letting pedestrians cross an empty road when there are no cars, they just have to stand there akwardly staring at each other until the right turns green, the worst way to waste of time
Everyone's Walking Around With One...
Dad's a cop, feels very uncomfortable enforcing our newer law stating that anyone can carry a concealed weapon with them
If I Don't Have To, I Won't
Cannabis/marijuana laws. Literally all my friends smoke somewhat regularly, and unlike many drugs that either pose a significant health risk or make you a belligerent a--hole, cannabis makes you calm, docile, and I can win your compliance and love with a bag of cookies.
If I'm put in a position where someone's asking me to do something about it my nose suddenly becomes stuffed and not being a botanist I can't identify that particular bit of plant matter
Burn, Baby, Burn
Burn bans. My city has a full burn ban and I find it ridiculous. The fine is insane too, like $400.
So most of the time I act like I dont see anything unless it's safety issue or just give them a heads up to finish up what they need to burn quickly and put it out so we dont keep gettung calls on it. People in my town call for petty crap alot.
Just A Big Waste Of Time
Former cop.
I worked in an area almost exclusively populated by illegal immigrants. While I did see some horrible sh-t (nature of the job) the vast majority of those folks were decent people just living and working and trying to raise their kids.
Department policy at the time made arrest mandatory for driving with no license (otherwise a ticketable misdemeanor).
One dumb-ss lieutenant decided it would be a good idea to put up a safety checkpoint (roadblock) on the only major road through the neighborhood. Like 95% of the vehicles on that road were driven by immigrants who can't get a license no matter how much they want to. There were two paddy wagons driving back and forth to the jail constantly with all these people. The wrecker service didn't have enough trucks to clear the roadway of cars left there with no one to drive them.
I thought this was bullsh-t and served only to make life more difficult for people that imo hadn't done anything wrong.
We Protect Our Own?
Not making a report on another officer who is committing crimes, seems to be standard operating procedure in every police dept I have ever heard of.
Buckle Up
LEO here
My state has a seatbelt law. I mean, I get it...it's the law. But you not wearing it effects me ( or others ) in absolutely no way whatsoever. It's a victim-less crime. I feel if you're an adult, 18 or older, you can make adult decisions. We all know the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt, if you don't want to wear one than don't wear one. Won't change my day a bit.
On a side note. Wear the seatbelt people. That's just common sense.
Just Give Them A Chance
The city that I was formerly a LEO in had an ordinance that you couldn't buy alcohol after 8pm on Saturday and before 4pm Sunday. Mom and pop liquor stores would clearly want the best bang for their buck, and people aren't going to stop drinking at 8pm. I wouldn't enforce it but I also wouldn't give them until midnight to close. If you're having fun and supporting your family or someone else's family, so be it.
They Were Only In There For A Minute!
Not too long ago I rolled into a parking lot and was sitting behind an empty vehicle parked in the fire lane. Got out and was about to write a ticket for it when the owner walked out in his pizza delivery uniform with his hot bag. Told me he just ran inside to make his delivery. As a former pizza delivery driver I decided to leave it at that and let him on his way. Someone saw that I let him go and called the department to Lodge a complaint. I didn't get yelled at but I was told to be more careful when making decisions like that.
On Wednesdays, We Fight Back
Cops in my town carry nickels and feed the meters instead of taking the time to write tickets.
LET THEM DRINK....responsibly...
Open liquor laws.
You wanna have a beer while you float down the river? Have at 'er.
Gonna throw that beer bottle over the side into the stream? Damn right I'm gonna write you up for littering. And then the open liquor ticket as a F-CK YOU for being a selfish a--.
Edit: As was pointed out I should clarify. Floating down stream ON AN INFLATABLE TUBE. Not drinking while operating a boat, that still gets you charges.
The Times Are A' Changin'
A buddy of mine used to be a cop and said he never got anyone for weed because 'it's too much hassle and it'll be legal soon anyway.'
They Might Need A Different Kind Of Help
I haven't been a cop for awhile, but I had a (very brief) stint as a Deputy Sheriff a handful of years ago. I struggled a lot with situations in which addicts were criminalized.
There was one man who I remember who had been out on parol but got caught with drugs in his system. Because of the failed drug test he was getting sent back to jail (and unfortunately, I was the one who had to take him there). It crushed me. It was an older dude who clearly didn't mean to cause trouble and clearly didn't want to be in this situation. He needed treatment, not jail time.
We also had a lot of people come through who were using synthetic drugs (like bath salts when nobody knew what they were and Bath & Bodyworks took their bath salts off the shelves). It was frightening to see some of our "frequent flyers" come back to us more and more incoherent because of these drugs and the permanent damage they were causing. But the truly heartbreaking moment was when I was transporting a young black man who was in for marijuana possession and he said, "The next time I'm just using that synthetic sh-t, your tests can't see that in my system." I went full on mama bear and told him - basically begged him - not to mess with that stuff and relayed some of the things that I had seen. I have no way of knowing if he ever listened to me, but I really, really hope he did.
Ultimately, my experience in this job changed my intended career path. I had been planning on staying in law enforcement for a chunk of time and then going to law school. I even had judges ready to write recommendation letters and a solid LSAT practice test score. But to see so many stupid and morally debase laws being upheld simply because that was the precedent didn't sit well with me. So I left that job and became a documentary filmmaker instead. Much less lucrative, but a more immediate way to work for justice.
You Ask Yourself: Does It Really Need To Be This Way?
A friend of mine is a cop in Rhode Island, this is what he said: Sadly DUI's, because in Rhode Island its a huge process and time consuming hassle.
Sometimes you just want to go home. I would ask them to call a friend or family member to pick them up. One time a dude argued with me and I kept trying to convince him to get a ride. He's like I'm fine to drive. He got back in his car so I had to bust him for a DUI after trying to give him so many chances.
People Can Sidestep Easy Enough
Riding bikes on pavements. If there's pedestrians on it then yes, use the road, but if its completely empty, why not use it? Its a lot safer than riding on the road.
Turn It Back Around
Before I was a police officer, I was put in a sort of "catch all"position (police service officer). Duties included evidence custodian, animal control, court bailiff, code enforcement, and part-time police work. This was 2012-2013, Kansas had a rather wet season. For about a month and a half straight we had rain almost everyday. No one had a chance to mow their grass. City manager saw it as a grand opportunity for me to start writing people tickets for their grass being too high. I told him I didn't feel comfortable doing that. When asked why, I told him I didn't think it was right for me to write people tickets for tall grass when there are city owned properties all over the city that had grass just as tall. We went back and forth, he got my Captain involved and threw a fit. Before he stomped out of Captains office he made the comment "this is my city, you work for me and what I say is law". Captain agreed he was an a--hole but ultimately said I should just write the tickets.
So I went back to the evidence locker, what everyone called my office because I was the only one who had access, and did some research. An hour later, I walked over to the city managers office (which happened to be right across the street) and handed the city manager about 14 tickets. He asked what those were, I told him I was doing exactly what he told me to do, I was writing tickets for grass being too tall. The first 14 tickets were for the 14 city owned properties that had grass over 12-inches high. He said those weren't his responsibility. I calmly reminded him of his previous comment about him "owning" the city, and he called the chief. He insisted I be fired for insubordination. A month later, I was promoted to full time patrol officer.
It's Not A Lot. Just All The Little.
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Most town/city ordinances. Things like not being able to park on the street in front of your house between certain hours of the night.
F-----ck that. You want me to ticket some dad's car because he moved it out of the driveway so his five year old son could bike around the driveway? Yeah, sh-ts not happening.
Also, certain traffic violations in the middle of the night. You forgot to signal your merge when you're the only vehicle on a two lane road at 3 am? God help us all.
Recently expired DLs and plates. A neighboring city wrote a car who's plates expired 11 minutes prior. <que bewildered Jacksonville Jaguars fan gif>. He said the person should have known it was about to expire and taken care of it ahead of time. Oh f-ck right off. We have all had life interfer with things.
Theres a huge difference between letter of the law and spirit of the law.
I would say I'm probably just a terrible cop, but my coffee mug says I'm the world's best policeman, so it's definitely not that.
Curious to hear about some of the more creepy indiscretions people get away with, Redditor Flytechofficial asked:
"What is perfectly legal, but creepy as hell?"
These things that happen in public restrooms can be considered criminal.
Respecting Splash Zones
"Using the urinal next to me when there were plenty of other choices."
β Boochpooch
Nightmare For The Pee-Shy
"hanging out in a public bathroom timing how long people pee."
β freezingprocess
Bad Timing
"I swear to God. I did a lot of work in hospitals for a while, big f'king hospitals with tons of bathrooms all over the place. For some God damned reason, regardless of what time or bathroom I selected to take a sh*t in not 30 seconds after I sat down a janitor would knock on the door to clean the bathroom. It's not as if it was one janitor, just some random janitor would inevitably need to clean whatever bathroom I was in as soon as I got comfy. It's like I was being stalked by the janitors."
"So now I'm trying to take a sh*t knowing full well there's somebody out there actively timing how long it takes."
β ChaqPlexebo
Looky-Loo
"I was drunk in a casino and went to use the washroom. The floors in there were a polished marble or something. Sitting on the toilet, pants down, my stall neighbour made eye contact with me on the reflective floor tile."
β ashley-hazers
The following examples involving minors have no legal repercussions.
Outside Watchers
"Technically, you can stand on the sidewalk and stare into someone's house through a window. It's not illegal as long as you stay off of their property, but it's really freaking creepy."
β jpresley78
Keeping Tabs On Someone's Age
"A national newspaper having a countdown for when a child actress becomes 'legal' for sex."
"Answers to questions that will surely come. ....Yes. The Sun (UK). Emma Watson."
β pdirth
The Young Subjects
"When I was a child, we had a creepy horrible neighbor that would harass my family constantly. One of the things he did was stand at the corner of his yard and videotape me playing in a pool with my friends (we were around 8). My parents called the police but were told that it's legal if he's on his property."
β wildeforwomen
These perfectly harmless examples can give you goosebumps.
Macabre
"Hanging your doll collection from the trees in your yard using string made from human hair."
β baconwagoneer
People's Taste
"I believe the act of cannibalism itself is legal so long as you didn't murder anyone to do it. If your homie gives you his arm to gnaw on, it's fair game."
I recently treated myself by going to a movie theater after what seemed like a long hiatus for much of the year.
Streaming blockbuster movies from home, while convenient, has never made as much of an impact when compared to the moviegoing experience.
But after my recent trip to our local AMC, I'm beginning to think watching entertainment from the comfort of my quiet home is a much better option.
I forgot that a good majority of audience members are disrespectful and pretty much ignore all the rulesβincluding no texting or talking during the movie.
The normal volume conversations and the number of lit screens from people's smartphone's in my peripheral vision throughout the movie were huge distractions.
Maybe as I'm getting older, my patience has worn thin, or I happened to have a particularly unpleasant experience. But seriously, how can anyone enjoy going to the movies when people are constantly updating their status inside a darkened auditorium?
It should illegal. Rant over.
I feel like if there is nothing after life, it just invalidates life. But maybe I'm just dramatic. I hope there is peace. Thoughts?
black and white two funerals GIFTogether...
"When we die, the whole world as seen by us, dies together with us."
"Yes it does. As does the entire universe. Only when we are alive can we experience the passage of time. The instant we die the entire universe will experience heat death and cease to be. It my take a million eons but since we can no longer experience time it will be relatively instantaneous."
- OkEbb749
Thanks Alan
"It's one of the great wonders of life: What will it be like to go to sleep and never wake up? And if you think long enough about that, something will happen to you. You will find out, among other things, that it will pose the next question to you: What was it like to wake up after never having gone to sleep? That was when you were born. You see, you can't have an experience of nothing. Nature abhors a vacuum. ~Alan Watts"
So Romantic...
"When I was much younger, I had a dream where I died. Not a typical dream, not a romanticized dream. It was a dream where I was an archer in a medieval battle. About 5 minutes into the battle, chaos was all around me, and I watched an opposing archer aim and loose an arrow straight into my left eye."
"I remember the sensation of impact, ringing in my ears, and falling to the ground. I remember the warmth of the blood on my face. The feeling of life leaving my body, and the sense of worry evaporating into warmth and peace as the world left behind me."
"I remember waking up shortly after thinking that the feeling and reality of that experience was so vivid and so detailed that it must have been an experience from a previous incarnation hundreds of years ago. From that moment on, I've never feared the actual process of death. I feel like I've experienced it many times before."
Erase
Computer Reaction GIFGiphy"I think one of your best friends delete's your browsing history."
"Take the hard drive out of my computer at home⦠Put it in the bath⦠And make sure it's completely wiped. -Tensai Slime"
If you love me... rule number one... HIDE THE EVIDENCE!!! Let that be heard far and wide. And dreams, always so intertwined aren't they?
Before & After
Happy Baby GIFGiphy"Exactly the same as before you were born."
- whumoon
"I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. -Mark Twain"
Moving On...
"We clean the bed and assign it to another patient."
"The REAL reason why nurses are so dark. 90 year old man in hospice got hit by a car on his way to get fitted for his funeral tuxedo, and didn't have a DNR. Kept him alive for four hours, and now it's time to document everything that was done to save his life because there will inevitably be a lawsuit from a family member who has had four years to say goodbye but somehow didn't get to."
Again...
"Play again?
Yes
[No]
I don't know what they mean or how to utilize them. I'm a Buddhist (but a gamer first and foremost) so it's cool you guys made those connections This totally makes up for r/movies continuously banning me."
Oblivion...
"I've answered this one before but here it is again. Either two things happen after you die: you either go somewhere or it's oblivion. If it is oblivion, then we're just going back to the same place before we were born and there's nothing wrong with that. We were there for billions or trillions of years, possibly infinity."
"You lose that concept of time since your brain doesn't work anymore so you don't even know it's over. It's not nothing because nothing would be something and that means that you are aware, which you can not be if you're dead. If we do go somewhere, then that's something no one understands because no one has ever come back to tell us."
"Those stories of people coming back after they "died" and "saw stuff" weren't really dead. Their hearts stopped but their brains were still working. If the Universe continues to recycle itself infinitely, then there's a chance we will be reborn or continuously reborn but have no memory of our previous selves."
- jamoh20
On Holiday
"When I was a kid I drowned while on holiday with my family, a giant fat man jumped in the pool on top of me and no one noticed till I was on the bottom of the pool. I remember the feeling of my lungs being on fire, then shivering then as everything was going dark a strange sense of peace and I was ok with it, No panic or terror then it went black."
"I was resuscitated at the side of the pool a few minutes later. I remember nothing from the black to being "alive" again. I was around 7 when it happened and since then I've been strangely at peace with the fact that one day I will die and slip into the dark void of nothingness. Hope that helps."
Popcorn?
500 days of summer cinema GIFGiphy"You wake up in a chair in a cinema and learn that the other are past lives of you and you're about to watch your next life very soon on the big screen."
The truth is none of us know the truth. We live everyday with the afterlife being a gamble. And that seems like it's going to have to be enough.
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