Small town South Carolina I suspect(?). Not always the highest quality of people in such a limited workforce. I've seen similar in small town Texas and Florida. The thing is, it usually gets rectified. Maybe not to our person satisfaction, but it does eventually get rectified.
And again, most LEO's I've met in altercations, have (by and large) been pretty understanding (like you mentioned about your youth). I can tell you, after putting a size 12 Lowa boot into someone's car door, for cutting me off, then flipping me off...twice, the LEO could have hauled me in in cuffs. Instead, afte rlistening to my side of the story, he asked if I'd pay for the damages; giving me a chance to take responsibility for my actions. He didn't have to, but he saw both sides of the argument, and understood the law.
LEO are human though, and have bad days just like anyone else; we just tend to hold them to a higher standard (and in some ways, rightly so). But I still stand by my statement that the overwhelming majority are good people, with the usual 10% that shouldn't be there. LEO, just like the military, are a microcosm of society. Some of the sweeping, derogatory statements made about LEO, I think, go too far. And hence my stepping into this conversation.
Are there bad LEO's? Sure. But most are not.
People have undoubtedly had some bad interactions with LEO that were not necessarily of their own doing. BUt I'd say it's pretty rare. Usually we did something that instigated the meeting. And how we handle that meeting usually has a big impact on the outcome of that meeting. That being said, I have no issues with calling out bad LEO if they warrant it, I just think we need to be a bit more succinct in how we do it, rather than make broad, sweeping statements like "they all are crooked" or "they all think they're above the law". Because, IME, that just isn't true, and isn't fair to the majority who do toe that narrow line between protector and enforcer.
JMTCW...
