cops in a group and get to know them, you come to understand why they are so scorned by many attorneys, civil right activists, and the some of the population at large.

It's a shame, really. I used to think it it extreme when I heard them refered to as liars, cheaters, crimimals with badges, willing to break the law to supposedly enforce it. I thought that was the stuff of movies, based on a few bad eggs.

I have learned different. The group is plagues with an elitist view, even believing that they have the right to protect each other from the legal consequences of little things like battery, dui, harassing civilian. 'As long as it doesn't make the papers...' Its not a few bad eggs. It's systemic.

That same view runs in "fighting crime." The higher ups decide what crimes to target based on political factors. Their loyal underlings embrace the direction- all that is important is a feather in there cap for an arrest. NOT A CONVICTION, mind you. An arrest.

As extreme as this may sound, it is frighteningly close to elitist culture found in the nazi regime during WWII. The jackbooted thugs do the misguided will of their corrupt leaders.

America deserves better.

In a new switch of tactic, cops went after customers in massage parlor .

"After taking over Rainier Foot Massage and arresting the owner for promoting prostitution, the cops replaced the staff with undercover officers and arrested customers" who wanted more than playing footsie.
If you want to get your feet massaged in Seattle, best to pass by a few days before appointment and meet the staff. Is there no crime in Seattle, that the Police should be spending time solving? Did the cops get overtime for removing calluses? Is sucking toes a crime?

http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/local_news_articles/20101020/Police-bust-customers-at-%22massage%22-parlor/

"switch of tactics"? Hardly, cops have been setting up stings in AMPS for ages. Is there other crime to deal with? Sure there is LB but we both know that no local government official is going to miss a chance to "clean up the town" during an election year...

As for Half hour's rant about the new police state that we are headed for well, sure, some cops are scum. Many are not.  The best way to avoid the bad ones is not to run afoul of the law to begin with.

You're inference speaks to what I'm guessing are some personal views that tainted your understanding my post. It's no rant. It doesn't refer to a police state in any way shape or form.

You know nothing about me, so I'll be direct-

In the last 10 years have you...

Been a cop?

Worked a full time civilian job in any LE agency?

or...

Do you even have a close friend who is LE?

I'll hold my response until I know that much about you.




HalfHour

You're inference speaks to what I'm guessing are some personal views that tainted your understanding my post. It's no rant. It doesn't refer to a police state in any way shape or form.

You know nothing about me, so I'll be direct-

In the last 10 years have you...

Been a cop?

Worked a full time civilian job in any LE agency?

or...

Do you even have a close friend who is LE?

I'll hold my response until I know that much about you.




HalfHour

the police uniform looks like Nazi uniforms. Thats not by chance. It was determined the uniform is intemadating and that's why the chose it.

a very close friend of mine was a cop, and damn good at it; in fact too good, when he found the chief of police tryng to impede an investigation against a child molester who was a friend of said chief, he got canned, then the chief resigned with a fat pension.  Attempts to get his job back through arbitration and hearings went nowhere and he ran out of money trying.

But back to the hobby business.

I will gurarantee that the vast majority of hobbyists will never run afoul of LE because there is just too many of us.  Add behaving smartly and you'll run those odds to infinitesimal.  I've been doing this for thriry-five years, the first thirty without any of the advice I find here on TER, and I've never come close to seeing LE.

We foolish humans often don't worry about the right things.  (I should have been doing a better job of keeping things quiet from the now ex-wife.)

How true.  We were all raised to believe that police were the "good guys".  Once you've grown up, you learn that Santa, the Easter Bunny and that the "police are good", are all just fairy tales.  I have had 3 different brother in laws, at different times in my various sisters lives.  Now, my brother's brother in law is a cop too.  Each one of these cops are completely creepy in a scary way.  They are innapropriate in the way they behave around the family, and the way they treat their own children.  They do believe that they are above the law.  They steal, sell drugs, engage in illegal activities more routinely than the criminals that they arrest.  They are just stronger, government sponsered bad guys.  If a person is normal when they become a cop, at some point they will become socio-pathic.   The power that police have is like an addicting drug.  It is the exception to the rule when you meet a normal one.

I like your idea.  I know a guy with the ugliest feet you'll ever see.  He has bunions, overgrown fungus toe nails and sores.  I'd love to have him make an appointment with them without washing his feet for a few days, and get a foot massage.

You post, I read and comment.  That's the way it works.  What I know about you or you know about me is irrelevant.  

I have as much right to an opinion based on my life experiences as you do based on yours.

Godwin's Law ITT

I agree with you Mr Fisher.  I think the much bigger risk to us mongers is from wifes or girlfriends.  LE is a risk but there are so many ways to reduce those chances.

Aa I look though there were some stupid things that I have done like seeing some craigslist girls on impulse.  However it all worked out and I've never come close to being busted

With the precautions we take the risk of being subject to an LE bust is very small.

Now the prostitutes have a much higher risk of arrest and being snagged by LE.  That is why they need to screen and take more precautions.