Cops

The UG wonders why dudes become cops at 21; I believe he's asked this before like a year ago, wondering how many are led to the field by a thuggish desire to throw around their testosterone/douchebaggery. I have never had any desire to be a cop, but I'd imagine the answer is the same as is the number of dudes who join the Army with fantasies of "fucking some shit up": some. I'm of the opinion that most cops become cops cause, like everybody else, they gotta do something. As much as I'd love to believe my dad became a cop because he was moved by some sense of duty to community or had an epiphany wherein God told him to protect people, I'm pretty sure it went more like "well I'm married, about to have some kids and am not going to cosmetology school. I was a Marine, I gotta do something, so maybe I'll try being a cop." I have no idea if my dad was a shitty cop or a good cop, but I do know that like almost all cops he never found himself as part of a national news story that included race, class, and stupidity.

And while I'm sure there's plenty of shitty, asshole cops (like the one that ticketed me for no seatbelt. fucking douche.) and there's plenty of good cops, it doesn't excuse even the good ones from acting stupidly, which I think Officer Crowley has done since the incident. And now I'm getting the feeling that as he's dug in, he (and his colleagues) have somehow decided that this could be the best thing that has ever happened to them. As in we are now living in a society where being labeled as a racist is okay if it leads to those most magical of words we thirst for: "Dude, I saw you on tv!!!"