Give Cops A Break—They’re Doing Their Jobs
Ricky describes why he thinks teens shouldn’t be so hard on cops.
“As a 17-year-old Latino, every time I see a cop, my heart almost skips a beat. I am from an upper class family and so I’ve experienced both extremes in police treatment towards me. One day I’ll be walking up my street dressed in some khakis and a polo shirt and a cop will come by and ask me if everything’s fine and I might even get into a nice little conversation with him. The next day I’ll hang out with some skater friends and the police will be all up on our backs.
I’ll give an example. I was at my friend’s house in Culver City last year when, at about two in the morning we decided to go get some food and get some fresh air. I walked barefoot ’cause it was a hot night and my friend Scott took a skateboard. About 20 minutes into our journey (it was about a 45-minute walk to McDonald’s), we were walking across an intersection when a cop stopped at the light did a U-turn and flagged us to stop. He got out of the car and asked us what we were doing out so late and frisked me and Scott. My friend Laura didn’t get frisked because she was a girl. The cop searched us for markers. When he found that we didn’t have any, he told us to carry on but not to be out all night. He found a pack of cigarettes, and lectured us that smoking wasn’t the way to go but if we can’t abstain, we should do it at home. After he left, I felt upset. He bothered us for no reason. He probably picked on us because he was bored. After all, what are a couple of kids gonna do?
Thinking from a cop’s perspective
I thought about the incident later on from a cop’s perspective. I saw a whole different story. He was probably just patrolling his area when at two in the morning he sees a couple of kids, one of them walking around barefoot. He’d think, “What could these kids possibly be doing out at two in the morning? Why doesn’t he have any shoes on?” He could have given us a ticket for the cigarettes or the curfew violation, but he didn’t. It never occurred to me that if kids are out past curfew, cops are required to investigate.
Last month, I interviewed detective Eric Lillo, Commander of the Youth Division of the LAPD. He gave me some insight as to what police officers think of kids. I had the belief that when a cop and a kid crossed paths, the cop was thinking, “What can I possibly hassle this kid for? Is he doing anything wrong?” Mr. Lillo, as I will call him so that we can look at him as a general citizen rather than a cop, told me that this belief was common in kids but that we were so wrong. A cop works to serve the public. His job is to make sure that we live in a peaceful society. That goal may be impossible, but cops still strive for it. Sure, there are some dirty cops, just as there are bad teachers. Are we to assume that all teachers are bad then? Of course not! Mr. Lillo also said that officers are trained to give an equal amount of respect to teens as they would an adult. This obviously doesn’t happen, just as we treat our little brother or sister differently than we do our parents.
To a certain extent, cops should be intimidating. Mr. Lillo got me thinking: Why do people follow laws? Is it the sheer goodness in our hearts or is it the fear of being caught? Now, granted, there are people out there that would never commit a crime because they are great moral people, but many of us, including me at times, obey laws for fear of being caught. If the general public viewed cops as ordinary people, cops wouldn’t be so intimiding. Intimidation doesn’t mean brutality.
One of my major misconceptions was that the LAPD made it a point of treating people harshly, whether it be physical or verbal abuse. Mr. Lillo informed me that less than one percent of arrests result in a claim of excessive force. Hearing this stunned me. Why isn’t this widely publicized? The media and movie industry often portray police as abusive pigs. A scene in the movie Boyz in the Hood is a perfect example. Trey (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.), the main character in the film, is driving down the street in his V.W. Bug with his best friend Ricky and is pulled over and asked to step out by two cops. When he asked what he had done wrong, the cop pushed him up against the car and put his gun in his mouth and taunted him, claiming that Trey was trying to act like a wise guy. Eventually the cops left, but not before they had terrified the kids out of their minds. Pretty negative view of cops, don’t you think?
That movie was one of my favorites, along with Menace2-Society, but even I have to admit that these films (and music like gangsta rap) misrepresent the police department grossly. Lillo said: “Very few teenagers have contact with police… Your typical teen has never been [arrested] therefore has no personal experience as to what action happens when police make an arrest… Instead of personal experience, they [teens] have to rely on what they see in the movies or what they hear from their friend…”
Not to say that there aren’t some gross instances of police brutality such as the Rodney King beating. One thing to keep in mind is that crime occurs every day and the police see it, whether it be the crime itself or the effect of it. Some form biases. Not that this is a good thing, but we have to attempt to understand them more. They have tough jobs that they do for the benefit of the community. Police are here to help us and they are not our enemies. If you treat a policeman with the courtesy and respect that you want, then you will most likely receive that courtesy in return. Give a little, take a little.”