Picture from https://palmbeachpoliceandfirefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1015-1280w.jpeg

I getta lotta compliments on my voicemail greeting. First the caller hears the list of the estates this number takes messages for, and then hears that none of us are interested in donating to the policemen’s ball, and that by continuing to call after I’ve explicitly (and repeatedly) told them to stop is against the laws they’ve allegedly sworn to uphold.

Occasionally someone asks what the heck the message refers to. And so I try to explain …

Some robocop robocaller keeps asking if I wanna donate to the policeman’s ball. Which is basically a high school style dance for these ACABs, complete with spiking the punch bowl. They all get together to see who brought the hottest date, who can get the most fucked up, and who can be the biggest a-hole. All set to loud cunt-tree music, and broken up by some moments to pat each other on the back with performative, knuckledragger awards.

I lost respect for (most) cops when Protect & Serve blatantly turned into Beat & Kill due to paramilitary training that starts by convincing them that their lives are always in danger. Around the same time, they started being able to purchase military surplus, providing guaranteed sales for the Feds, and cost-savings for law enforcement. Unfortunately, this quickly turned into the expectation that local LEOs have the best possible weaponry, personal protection, and armored vehicles.

This all started after SCOTUS ruled (Gifted WaPo article) that police are cleared of wrongdoing if other cops would also view the situation as dangerous. And if training tells them that all situations are dangerous, then all abuses are necessary. Nevermind that studies routinely show that being a cop is nowhere near as dangerous as, say, being a garbage man.

Sixteen years later, in 2005, SCOTUS decided that police duties do not include protecting citizens, which was then re-affirmed by another SCOTUS decision in 2022.

I can easily count my positive police encounters over the past thirty years. It’s nigh impossible to keep track of the negative experiences. And I’m white.

I can’t even begin to fathom the horror and hatred other skin tones have to endure at the hands (and under the knees) of fragile white men who assert inappropriate dominance to feel like real men.

As if this is the only way they can prove their worth.

Which, imo, proves they’re unworthy of everything worth having.