why are law enforcers such jerks?

[Jextin]

Some really sad stories here But you're right it all works out in the end. I finished my degree and make loads more than the average cop - even got a pretty new gf recently and its going great
and yeah shell u are the asshole, feel kinda bad for your man, but I get the feeling that your too scared to talk like this to people offline.

[Kayenneh]

I'm in the middle here, I think Shell is right in the sense that getting pissed at cops for doing their job is immature, but on the other hand if they have you locked up they have to make sure that you get everything you need, from food to medication. I agree with Gil that you should be punished for breaking the law, and if you don't agree with the law, make sure that it's rewritten. I also agree with you Jextin that unnecessary police brutality should stop and every case should be viewed with fresh eyes, no matter what the police clientele looks like normally.

[festive1]

Think of it from your girlfriend's perspective: your significant other has been in declining mental health and starts making death threats... How would you feel about the cops if you reported this and they did nothing?
We go round and round about "warning signs" from people who commit acts of violence and complain that these signs are too often ignored. The cops should not keep you from your meds or maltreat anyone, but you made threats to kill someone and yourself. IMO, the cops were doing their job. No matter your mental state, you can't threaten a person's life. How are the cops supposed to know your threats weren't serious without investigating? Own your actions, and talk with your mental health professionals.

[Shell B]

He said he was hospitalized and kept from his meds. The hospital is responsible, not the cops.

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and yeah shell u are the asshole, feel kinda bad for your man,

"My man?" What are you? Fucking ten years old? You made a goddamn death threat and are playing the victim. I think your problem is that you are a big fat pussy. You give mentally ill people a bad name by playing the victim card after you break the law. Suck it up, you fucker. You deserved what you got.

but I get the feeling that your too scared to talk like this to people offline.

Hahaha. Good luck with that assessment if we ever meet in person. I certainly hope not, though, what with you being a crybaby psycho and all.

[Tonus]

But it pissed me off because first they took me to a hospital for 2 weeks but the day i got released the cops took me to jail. while in jail not once did i recieve any of my meds and the detective kept trying to add more and more charges. wtf? i was already in jail, i wasnt going to hurt anyone, i was hurting already and had a outburst on fb, and i was getting punished for it, so why does she keep adding fuel to the fire?

I think part of the problem in this topic is that part of this is vague. Were the police aware that you needed medication? And if so, did they withhold it from you? If so, couldn't that be grounds for a lawsuit (civil rights violation)?

Consider this next part rhetorical, since I would understand if you didn't want to disclose any of this information: You mention that the detective kept trying to add more charges. What were the initial charges, and what charges was she trying to add? Did it seem as if she was just fishing for something that would stick, or were the charges legit? Did she manage to get any of them added prior to the charges being dismissed? It's possible that she was being thorough, and it's possible that she was being an insufferable bitch.

IMO, there are too few details to make any judgment, and you're certainly under no obligation to disclose them. But it does leave you open to opinions other than "law enforcement are acting like jerks." I think that the media has made the habit of hanging people on almost no information so commonplace that it feels natural to fill in the gaps when we're given so little information to go on. Sometimes it seems as if most of our exercise these days comes from jumping to conclusions and jerking our knees.

[CleanShavenJesus]

Coming from a family of police officers, I suggest some of you be a bit more grateful for police officers. There are bad ones, but that doesn't mean that they're all pigs. The average person can sit around and say, "fuck cops!", but when something like the Boston Bombing happened, that average person was probably glad we got cops.

[A_Nony_Mouse]

i have bipolar disorder bad and a while back i went crazy when my gf left me and wrote on fb that i would kill myself and her. well it got me suspended from college as well as jailed, but i was lucky enough to get out and charges dropped.

But it pissed me off because first they took me to a hospital for 2 weeks but the day i got released the cops took me to jail. while in jail not once did i recieve any of my meds and the detective kept trying to add more and more charges. wtf? i was already in jail, i wasnt going to hurt anyone, i was hurting already and had a outburst on fb, and i was getting punished for it, so why does she keep adding fuel to the fire?

I really hate how the law system is all about punishment rather than prevention or rehab. the detective kept adding charges if it had messed up my record it would have been even harder to find a job and be "a functional member of society".

how is this doing anyone any good?

I have an old op-ed around some place addressing this. The more charges they add the more likely they can get a plea bargain by dropping the rest.

My position is that plea bargains should considered coercion and should be outlawed.

[Tiberius]

It is not a police officer's job to make sure you are on meds...

I agree with most of your post except for this part. If he's told the police officer that he's supposed to be taking medication, then the police have a duty to:

1) Ensure that he's not lying (i.e. confirming the medication with his doctor).
2) Ensure that he has access to his medication in the doses he requires it.

If he didn't tell them about the medication, then yes, I agree, it's not the police officer's job to make sure they are on them (though I believe in the UK one of the questions you are asked when booked is whether you are on any prescription medication).

He said he was hospitalized and kept from his meds. The hospital is responsible, not the cops.

Actually, he said that he was at hospital for two weeks, and then was released and taken to jail by the cops, who didn't give him his medication.

[Faith No More]

In this particular scenario, the only thing I disagree with what the police did was withhold his medication. A death threat needs to be taken seriously, but that does not justify preventing someone from having access to prescribed medication.

@Gil: I'm not saying people should get a pass on committing crimes, but there is such a thing as prosecutorial discretion, which means that the prosecutor gets to pick and choose how to charge people. In the case of my friend, why could they not have given him time to stabilize his mental state? Why charge him immediately? They literally stopped him from ending his own life, and then proceed to poor gasoline on the fire by making his life even more unbearable, all for leaving a pot pipe out as he lay dying. I'm not asking for a free pass on crimes for the mentally ill, just some compassion and understanding.

[Shell B]

Well, even if we are going to hold cops responsible for administering medication, we still have the problem of how this scenario went down. Was he really not given his medication? Did the hospital tell the cops he did not need it? Did he provide sufficient evidence of his need, if he did indeed tell the police? Do we really think the police are responsible or is there a different employee who should be handling that?