This reminded me of a story that happened when I was still in the Navy.
I was stationed in San Diego and I had a friend who had gotten out and became a sheriff’s deputy, in a nearby city, and he offered to let me do a ride along with him for a the day.
There were a couple of things that happened that changed my opinion of him and cops in general (I am 99% ACAB now though).
Towards the end of the day, someone made a call that someone was smoking meth in a motel room. My friend was called in to assist the cop already there.
We got there and he had me stand back until he waved me in a few minutes later.
I walked up and the OP cop had, what looked like, two skater types sitting on the curb just outside their motel room. Still teenagers.
My friend said he needed me to help toss the room, looking for drugs while the other cop questioned them.
Going into the room, my friend asked the kids to do him a favor and just tell him where the drugs were. They told him it was behind one of the nightstand drawers.
Sure enough it was there (sandwich bag of pot), but my friend said we still needed to search, just in case there really was meth, or something else illegal.
While we searched, I could hear the cop question the kids. They were from a town over and just got paid. They both lived at home and just needed a place to smoke.
In the room was a new skate board deck, some Sonic, and an Xbox with some games. No meth. They were begging for them not to call their parents and I just thought these kids were fucked.
We finished searching and came out, my friend gave the pot to the other cop.
This part is what blew my mind.
My friend looks at the kids and says, “Let me guess. You were both smoking and some guy smelled the pot, knocked on your door and asked to have some and you told him to fuck off?”
At no point did the kids say anything about someone knocking on their door.
The kids looked flabbergasted and stammered, “How did you know?”, to which my friend said that was who probably called in, saying someone was smoking meth.
They then took the handcuffs off and my friend then says, “Next time, don’t answer the door.”
The other cop then GIVES THEM THE POT BACK, and we all walk away.
I was sure those poor kids were fucked and I said as much. My friend then said, "I don’t give a shit about pot. Kids don’t break into Grandma’s house and rob her so they can get money to buy pot.
Yeah, ACAB because the “good” ones don’t stand up to the bad ones, but some do do the right thing, at least sometimes. In this case, arresting them would have created a situation where they’re much worse off, and they end up doing more crime. Meanwhile, they didn’t do any harm and just wanted to hang out peacefully by themselves. Our criminal “justice” system creates more criminals than it removes.
This reminded me of a story that happened when I was still in the Navy.
I was stationed in San Diego and I had a friend who had gotten out and became a sheriff’s deputy, in a nearby city, and he offered to let me do a ride along with him for a the day.
There were a couple of things that happened that changed my opinion of him and cops in general (I am 99% ACAB now though).
Towards the end of the day, someone made a call that someone was smoking meth in a motel room. My friend was called in to assist the cop already there.
We got there and he had me stand back until he waved me in a few minutes later.
I walked up and the OP cop had, what looked like, two skater types sitting on the curb just outside their motel room. Still teenagers.
My friend said he needed me to help toss the room, looking for drugs while the other cop questioned them.
Going into the room, my friend asked the kids to do him a favor and just tell him where the drugs were. They told him it was behind one of the nightstand drawers.
Sure enough it was there (sandwich bag of pot), but my friend said we still needed to search, just in case there really was meth, or something else illegal.
While we searched, I could hear the cop question the kids. They were from a town over and just got paid. They both lived at home and just needed a place to smoke.
In the room was a new skate board deck, some Sonic, and an Xbox with some games. No meth. They were begging for them not to call their parents and I just thought these kids were fucked.
We finished searching and came out, my friend gave the pot to the other cop.
This part is what blew my mind.
My friend looks at the kids and says, “Let me guess. You were both smoking and some guy smelled the pot, knocked on your door and asked to have some and you told him to fuck off?”
At no point did the kids say anything about someone knocking on their door.
The kids looked flabbergasted and stammered, “How did you know?”, to which my friend said that was who probably called in, saying someone was smoking meth.
They then took the handcuffs off and my friend then says, “Next time, don’t answer the door.”
The other cop then GIVES THEM THE POT BACK, and we all walk away.
I was sure those poor kids were fucked and I said as much. My friend then said, "I don’t give a shit about pot. Kids don’t break into Grandma’s house and rob her so they can get money to buy pot.
…were the kids white, out of curiosity?
Of course!
Yeah, ACAB because the “good” ones don’t stand up to the bad ones, but some do do the right thing, at least sometimes. In this case, arresting them would have created a situation where they’re much worse off, and they end up doing more crime. Meanwhile, they didn’t do any harm and just wanted to hang out peacefully by themselves. Our criminal “justice” system creates more criminals than it removes.