[ExI] FW: how the hell did this happen?

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/1/19 spike <spike66 at att.net>:

> Ja.  The cops are better trained at what they can do and what they can't do
> than the social workers, or at least they are better at staying within their
> boundaries.  Another possiblility is that they talk to the citizen first, to
> get a feel for how much the citizen knows about their rights.  If they sense
> they know nothing, perhaps the cops misbehave as much as the others, but I
> have never personally witnessed it from that point of view.  All the cops I
> have ever talked to stayed within their legal bounds and behaved in a most
> civil manner.

The police I've worked with have always behaved professionally, but I
can assure you, people are much more inclined to obey them without
being shown a legal order than they are to obey the psychiatric team
with a legal order. I'm talking about totally psychotic people, in
telepathic communication with aliens or God: even they can usually
tell the difference between cops with guns and guys in street clothes
with official-looking paperwork. So it's just as well that the police
are well-behaved, because surely, in the history of the world, police
abusing their power has been a bigger problem than social workers
abusing their power.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou