#OfficerGoFuckYourself "suspended indefinitely."
In light of the horrific situation in Ferguson, an op-ed ran in today's Washington Post, chillingly titled, "I'm a cop. If you don't want to get hurt, don't challenge me." Not "obey the law." "Don't challenge me."
Here's a bit of what this upstanding public servant has to say:
Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don't want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don't argue with me, don't call me names, don't tell me that I can't stop you, don't say I'm a racist pig, don't threaten that you'll sue me and take away my badge. Don't scream at me that you pay my salary, and don't even think of aggressively walking towards me.
He even echoes Cartman, bemoaning "outright challenges to my authority."
The officer who wrote that claims to have worked in internal affairs, but that's a little difficult to swallow. After all, a man who knew that police officers will regularly produce badges before raping sex workers, or that over 10 percent of juvenile inmates report being sexually abused by jailers, would know better than to make a statement like, "if you don't want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you."
A more informed bottom line would go a little more something like this: when cops armed like an invading army force observers from Amnesty International to their knees, at gunpoint -- which happened in Ferguson the night before that piece ran -- they aren't enforcing the law, they are breaking it. They are criminals, they should lose their badges and they should be sued. They should not get to kill people without trial for walking aggressively.
