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Comment by anon84873628 | Hacker News Reader

That didn't seem like faux crying. Making fun of her in that way is the hardest to defend IMO, since it had nothing to do with her job performance or relevant character attributes. (E.g. how the other officer had been accused of stealing before, or had a brother resign from the force after being charged with a crime involving a minor).

That said, I don't disagree with outcome.

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Aren't cops by default public figures? They're the de facto face of the police for the ordinary citizen, not sure they should be the type of individual who cries because someone calls them fat, lesbian or whatever. These people have the legal right to essentially execute you in public, I think we should set the bar a bit higher on who should be allowed to be a police officer in the first place.

I was raised by LEOs. My mother and all four of her husbands were career long LEOs in the South.

Of course this is just based on my anecdotes, but LEOs have some of the thinnest skin imaginable. The first time I fought a grown man was when I was 13 and I had to fight my mother's fourth husband. He was a Deputy Sheriff and combat veteran and that dude had the emotional strength of a 12 year old girl who didn't get asked to the winter dance.

It seems the job selects for those types. I suppose people interested in law enforcement / justice that aren't that way either end up as lawyers or working for the FBI or something.

If you don't have any kind of marketable skills yet want to make a decent living with plenty of benefits, becoming a LEO is the easiest choice for most people.

Or if you don't have any marketable skills yet have a spouse that has a job with health benefits, you can become a real estate agent.

Those two career paths seem to be the most chosen for almost all of the 'not so bright' folks I grew up with.

Other way around, right? Those types select that job. You're weak but you want to appear powerful, so...

It's a use it or lose it skill. When you carry a badge and gun around and can bark orders at people all day and they have to comply or face the infinite violence you can summon with your radio your skin will grow thin over time.

Power corrupts, or some half baked version of that.

>My mother and all four of her husbands were career long LEOs

how many of them physically abused her? the stats say 3 out of 4 did.

Only one abused her that I’m aware of, but I know she abused two of her husbands. She was a very violent lady.

She shot my biological father when I was 14 months old.

This is a career that quite literally selects for "not too smart" [1]

1 - https://www.wirthlawoffice.com/tulsa-attorney-blog/2013/07/c...

These people carry guns and can kill you on the street and they can't take getting called some bad names?

Yes, exactly. Try calling a cop a “pig” to their face. Or breaking up with a cop. Or just say no to something they’re asking you to do.

“Not all cops” and all that, but enough of them are like that that you have to be really careful how you engage with them.

> Try calling a cop a “pig” to their face.

At least where I live in Europe you aren't allowed to insult people and you can get fined for it. Be it a police officer or a any other person.

I cannot imagine living in a place where I can't tell someone what I think of them once in a while.

You can tell them they are doing a shameful job or that you disagree with their actions or whatever.

You just can't _insult_ them like a 6 year old on a playground. Why is the ability to do so valuable to you?

The first thing you described is an insult.

No, an insult implies insolence, rudeness, condescension, insensitivity. You can communicate a dim view of someone without being rude.

> You can communicate a dim view of someone without being rude.

I would agree in theory, but whom is the judge of whether communicating that dim view is an insult or not?

It is viscerally against my cultural upbringing for the government to make illegal a verbal insult, it seems like an incredible overreach. I'm genuinely culture shocked hearing this. I'd be no more shocked hearing that it's illegal to dye one's hair.

Fyi, insults are illegal in the US, under certain conditions, under the fighting words doctrine.

being fined != physical, possibly fatal violence with body-cam turned off and irrevocable immunity

I do agree with you and the other comment in this vein. I have very little sympathy for these officers.

However, there are different situations. For example, I imagine this person is not very surprised or upset to be called "dyke" in a verbal altercation. That is different from sitting in a quiet courtroom, knowing it is being filmed, watching a popular video where your gender identity and expression is repeatedly insulted.

Let's say the officer was black, the defendant was white, and made a video with lots of racist stereotypes. Would we think that was funny and cool? Would we be surprised if the black man had a breakdown in the courtroom watching it? We wouldn't even be having this conversation.

By all means, call cops pigs, liars, thieves, idiots. If you want to be racist, sexist, or call them pedophiles, I'll defend your right to do so but not be as sympathetic.

Otherwise we're just the hypocritical liberals as the right wingers accuse...

> say the officer was black, the defendant was white, and made a video with lots of racist stereotypes. Would we think that was funny and cool? Would we be surprised if the black man had a breakdown in the courtroom watching it?

This is very common in the US? Common enough to be a minor plot point in a current cop show (Cross), which is to say the audience will be familiar with the material. Also explored in e.g. True Detective. No, the Black cop does not get to break down in court while being racially taunted. Either on TV or real life. This is expected by all to be a part of doing his job.

So? Even if the officer doesn't live up to our emotionally resilient ideal, it doesn't mean the stereotyped insults are any more acceptable.

And to the genesis of this thread, it doesn't mean I must believe the tears are fake.

I agree with you on the sentiment—I don't think it's cool to use racially charged terms or otherwise in degrading ways. That isn't to say my sympathy is lost. When you feel powerless you reach for power in any way that you can and trying to make someone feel bad for who they are is low-hanging fruit.

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