stickin' it to the man

I read online today that “an attorney who watched a police officer park illegally in front of a restaurant, then wait around while his meal was prepared, issued the officer a series of citizen-initiated violations.” This was in Portland. The attorney confronted the officer, who made some wise-guy remark, before deciding to file an official complaint. The officer will have to appear in traffic court and defend himself against several violations, including illegal parking and illegal operation of an emergency vehicle. All in all, he could end up paying $540 (but I truly doubt that will happen). If the officer was parked illegally while responding to a crime, it’d be another story. But even though this is somewhat petty, I think it’s cool that someone is standing up to the police. Too many times I’ve seen policemen [ab]use their status as officers of the law to wantonly break the very law that they’re charged with upholding. What kind of example does that set? How am I expected to respect the law when I see cops disrespecting it all over the place? I’ve been forced off the sidewalk into the street to make way for slow-rolling police bicycles that, by law, should be in the street and off the path of pedestrians. I’ve been dangerously cut off in traffic by police cars making illegal lane changes and turns without a signal and without their flashing lights. These are trivialities but rules are rules and I can’t help but wonder what other kinds of indiscretions the police are guilty of. Case in point: it hasn’t been a month since I read about a corrections officer bragging online about savagely beating a prisoner on several occasions and exaggerating the justification for doing so. Nothing beyond a slap on the wrist has come of it yet. While I recognize the need for a police force and realize that the situations they’re involved in aren’t exactly cut-and-dry and may require a little flexibility, I still wish that they’d stick to the rules they’re enforcing. Watching the HBO series “The Wire” has kind of opened my eyes to the patently flawed way the police department and justice system works. It makes me wonder, as many others before me have, who will police the police?