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Comment by paulddraper | Hacker News Reader

Have you not heard similar from parents/teachers/chaperons?

"I will take as long as I need, to get you to comply. Your resistance doesn't make this go away, it just prolongs the inevitable."

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Resistance may be futile, but resistance is also moral duty.

So it's a message aimed at gullible children. If it were true, they wouldn't announce it. Announcing it, in the hope you'll go quietly, is admitting out loud that they would in fact prefer precisely that, and that they don't have unlimited time and energy to spend on you.

Humans aren't always rational actors. Many people are delighted by having the power to inflict fear and pain upon others. Policing jobs seem to structurally attract such people, I've seen incidents and scandals of this nature in many places.

I feel like you may be intentionally dense, but in case you aren't.

Someone can have more than enough time and energy for a task, but prefer to do other tasks as well.

Whether one phrases it as a lack of energy or a preference, is not the important part. The important part is, the cop (apparently along with teachers, parents etc.) is lying. It's a tactical lie. Gratuitously offered, I might add, since no one cares what his preferences or energy level are.

He would probably prefer to spend a shift sitting around drinking coffee than hauling people out of a meeting. Unless he's gung-ho or a bit of a sadist, as people elsewhere on the thread have implied. Just for giggles I'll make the "energy" argument too: How long can he maintain a vigorous struggle against a truly resistive subject, or a whole room full of them? How long can he keep up with someone who is in athletic running shape? Not "all night" surely. He will try to avoid having it come to that, by controlling the situation early, calling for backup, and/or relying on various technologies.

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