http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/8/

Otherwise I’ll catch up on your posts since this one as I’m up to my neck with chasing after jobs in this crummy job market and squeeze in writing a post by tomorrow evening.

I don’t have any stories. I’m just glad that I was able to dump some shit while handcuffed in the backseat of a cruiser while on the way to jail.

I guess in these days and times, the fourth choice is to become a criminal cop. Some of them even go through the military first.

After years of seeing and working with both, I think it’s true. Both groups are into thrill-seeking behaviors, get off on being dominant and in absolute control of others, affiliate strongly with a same-sex group of like-minded individuals, ie a gang, or other officers, have a keen sense of right and wrong, but don’t feel the rules apply to them and are more likely to be abusive than the general population. Both groups also like to brag about their escapades.

When I was doing child protective services social work in the late 80s in DC, I had two cops escort me to a potentially volatile situation. They made it so much worse, and never again would I take a cop with me. I told one of them “If you hadn’t become a cop, you’d have become a criminal.” He laughed and said his mother told him the same thing, and it was probably true. The asshole was proud of this and too narcissistic to know better than admit it.

I have met a few mellow, decent cops, but the job attracts the unfit like a magnet, and why they don’t screen them out through testing during the application stage is a mystery, especially considering the lawsuits.