Do the authorities in your region protect you?

And do you think the level of protection (or lack of protection) they provide is more or less than is normal?

Well the police live 1 block away from me, so...

I felt they did, then they tasered a guy so I dont know anymore.

The West Midlands Police? Eh, not too shabby. Birmingham's one of the safer urban areas in Britain.

Besides, I think the police do a great job.

They are all right.

...yes?

I mean, it seems like a rather ridiculous question, to me, but...

I live in a place named one of the best places to raise your children by fortune magazine. The last time I remember any large crime was when in 2006 or so when some crazy had an AK and boarded up a house, and he eventually surrendered without ever firing a shot.

Not everyone here lives in nice places to live, USAF...

edited 9th Sep '11 2:55:15 PM by YoungMachete

@USAF. You don't want to go East Birmingham. That's a hell.

Actually, East London makes East Birmingham look like a Gated Community...

True. Well, then, I mean, yeah. I actually know the name of the guy who patrols my street for speeders (who refuse to follow the speed limit of some 35, and instead like to go screaming down a residential district at 80). I would say that most police are probably basically nice people trying to make society better. I think the "all police are corrupt tools of the Man" stereotype is shit...

Yeah. I concur. The police are just doing a job. They're not trying to oppress the masses. They're trying to stop the masses from oppressing themselves.

In Fraser I hear our police are a little too gung-ho against drug users and stupid highschoolers

But since I dont do drugs, I dont mind.

The only reason the cops swing by my neighborhood is to catch high schoolers and give them speeding tickets.

If the city wants to protect us, they should install a fucking traffic light at that corner where pedestrians and bicyclists keep dying in car accidents and stuff. But that will make the high schoolers slow down, and then they'll lose their biggest source of income besides the booze store.

edited 9th Sep '11 3:04:32 PM by LilPaladinSuzy

People just don't like being told what to do. Yes abuse of power is real, but a lot of anti-police sentiment just boils down to that.

edited 9th Sep '11 10:21:58 PM by joeyjojo

All of my friends in high school are terrible drivers, so...

In fact, one of them just rear-ended another one this morning. The cops are plenty justified in cracking down on them early, because they won't learn to not suck and to follow the traffic laws otherwise.

They try but there are only so many cops and fire department workers.

edited 9th Sep '11 4:58:49 PM by TuefelHundenIV

I rather like the police, yes. I've only encountered police officers a few times, for random breathalyser tests, and they were always polite and reasonable. Luckily, I've never had need to actually call on them myself.

All in all I feel safer knowing that the police station is only a short drive or a phone call away. And I know that they're just people doing a job and trying to make the world a better place - after all, do policemen get paid so much that someone would join the force without caring about helping people? I don't think so.

I know the police in my community pretty well, the assistant chief and a few other officers are shooting buddies of mine.

My neighborhood is horrible, but in the 2+ years I've lived in it nobody has ever messed with me, as cop cars have a habit of being parked in front of my house.

There's literally one police(wo)man for a three town radius for me. So protection from crime is effectively non-existent.

Protection from crime by way of self-defense and many many people having firearms has ensured that crimes are incredibly fucking rare. (Usually they are nothing more than high school assholes vandalizing shit.)

The cops around here are all lazy/corrupt fuckers.

I say that on the word of a 15 year man who said "these guys are all lazy and corrupt bastards."

Same here,but they are understaffed too,so its vey popular for a lot of neighborhoods to hire their own security guards,still better than some of the neighboring towns that have from 0 to 5 cops.

edited 9th Sep '11 5:23:39 PM by Nld

Frankly, no. Around here how protected you are depends on who you are, what family you hail from, etc etc. Guy right next door went on a meth fueled shooting spree a few years ago, tried to shoot his wife, and when the police arrived he shot holes in their cars too.

He then took off and hid in the woods for a week, and when he was caught(trying to break into the local liquor store) they charged him with something like misdemeanor domestic assault and revoked his drivers license. His family has been friends with the sheriff for years, and this wasn't the first time something like that happened.

Oh, and the cops in the nearest major city have a history of racism and shooting random people. They shot a deaf American Indian woodcarver (who was minding his own business) dead in the street. Then there's that video of a police officer stomping on a Hispanic man's head threatening to "beat the Mexican piss" out of him (the guy was completely innocent and was only stopped because he was the same race as a guy who robbed a bank). Oh, and that time when some teenagers were repeatedly tazed and had their heads fucking smashed into the sidewalk even after they put their hands up.

To be fair, the deaf woodcarver incident wasn't completely their fault.

As a cop, it's a real tossup between somebody who is deaf and someone who is just ignoring you. A guy holding a knife and ignoring you is pretty scary.

Yeah, but he certainly didn't look like he was about to kill anyone. He even had a piece of wood in his hand. I prefer to do my whittling while sitting down, but when a person is carrying a knife, but that knife is directed at a piece of wood, and that person is not acting suspiciously, then any reason to shoot him is very flimsy.

Since cops carry guns and are scary, shouldn't we just shoot them all, just in case they're ''not'' stopping criminals?

edited 9th Sep '11 7:10:25 PM by LilPaladinSuzy

I have not witnessed a crime.