Comment by nathanb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nathanb | Hacker News Reader

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I take it you've never been in a similar situation?

If you've ever dealt with an officer of the law in an adversarial situation where you believe you've done nothing wrong, it can be an unnerving or even terrifying experience. The power imbalance is immediately and palpably felt (what I think the author was trying to convey by mentioning the clearly-visible gun). If the officer had wanted to arrest the citizen (who, if he was doing something wrong, was doing it in good faith with the belief and understanding that his actions were not only legal but encouraged by the governor -- an unnaturally well-informed citizen for being a temporary visitor to the state), he would have been well within his rights to do so.

Is this some rogue cop enacting some personal vendetta against alternative hirecar arrangements? Probably not. But did the officer act unprofessionally? Entirely. Not answering the questions, throwing the license back at the passenger, offering a free ride to the airport (which may very well be inciting breach of contract)...and what will happen to him? Possibly a slap on the wrist.

The only way the police can justify the power they are given is by wielding it appropriately and heavily penalizing its abuses. I don't expect the former to happen 100% of the time -- we are fallible humans -- but when it doesn't, I do expect the latter. And I rarely see it.

+1 power imbalance. I had to listen to a cop tell me how shitty his day had been for 10 minutes once while pulled over for no reason.

To be fair, he had had a really shitty day, and was 23 hours into a work shift, but there was nothing I could do to exit the situation without causing a serious problem aside from listen and wait.

I listened and wait, comforted him, and then I was allowed to leave.

> Is this some rogue cop enacting some personal vendetta against alternative hirecar arrangements?

The worst action movie plot line ever ...

>>> Not answering the questions, throwing the license back at the passenger

At the end of the day, cops are people. They get tired, frustrated, etc. I don't expect them to act like my personal servants.

>>> I take it you've never been in a similar situation?

I have, more than once. Actually, in a very similar situation.

I took a bus for the first time in that country, got the ticket, and didn't know that I need to get a stamp on it. No one told me. The bus gets stopped, tickets check. I am told "get off the bus, I will teach you how to use public transportation". OK. "Get in this van" "why?" "do it". okay, a bit odd, but will do. Feeling nervous, but didn't act like a dick self taught lawyer. Explained the situation, stayed nice and cool, I was told that it's my first day here, got $10 fine and took the next bus. Other passengers were acting like dicks and no one was nice to them.

Other situation. I got letter that I must come to police station, to explain some things. It was because I was writing a blog about poker and someone perceived it as illegal. I had to go to 'economic crimes division'. Again, nervous but staying cool. I told everything, I said that I'm just translating from Wikipedia, I am not getting anything back from it and I'm not promoting anything, stayed nice all the time, didn't question anything about law, etc. A month later I get a letter, that everything's dropped, I did nothing wrong.

Would I have questioned the law and etc, probably wouldn't have been so easy. But people were just doing their jobs and I didn't obstruct them.

Didn't the nuremberg trials teach people that 'just doing their jobs' does not exempt them from ethical decisions? So you have a shitty job. That doesn't mean you need to be a shitty person, prioritizing victimless crimes over actual crimes.

Did you just compare massive genocide to a police officer being rude?

Where do you draw the line? If your job is to slap people, or just verbally abuse them, throw smaller stones at them all day, it's okay, because it's not genocide?

It's tiring to do the good thing, it's possibly impossible for every human, then some are put on 24-hour shifts, and some are even aware of their limit in this regard. Then the argument becomes "but he needs the money". And this is the same moral issue (like when doctors are on-call after a full day shift and do 30+ hours and suprise-suprise errors start to happen, when we overburden bureucrats, judges and other public servants and they start to fail on diligence) that should be addressed by society.

>>> nuremberg trials

Himmler and a traffic cop is a pretty wild comparison, if you ask me :)

> At the end of the day, cops are people. They get tired, frustrated, etc. I don't expect them to act like my personal servants.

You shouldn't expect a cop to act as your servant, but you sure as shit have an expectation that they will act professionally and courteously towards you. You also should expect them to not abuse their power. I don't give a shit if your dog died and your wife left you, if you are given a position of essentially unchecked power over me, you better use it judiciously.

But people were just doing their jobs and I didn't obstruct them.

No, but in the second instance they inconvinienced you. I wonder what you would have done had the outcome been different in either of these two instances?

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