Andy Taylor and Robocop.

[byronius]

Good Cops and Bad Cops. The recent story about the Texas police routinely shaking down passing motorists for cash and jewelry makes me think about the nature and meaning of the police officer. A bad cop, just like a bad judge or bad lawmaker, is a curse upon any community or bit of social fabric they inhabit. Perhaps the worst curse, save for the Bad Teacher, or the Bad Vice President.

I watch the Andy Griffith Show on DVD with my kids. It’s the only black-and-white shows they’ll watch with me, besides Lost In Space. Andy Taylor’s method of policing is brilliant, perhaps the most idealistic prescription for law enforcement ever written. He maintains an unwillingness to use force alsongside the ability, judging each situation according to individual human needs. Barney Fife is of course his constant goad; he may possess a heart of gold, but one gets the sense that without Andy’s constant presence, Otis Campbell (the town drunk) would be regularly taser-tortured and smacked around.

Robocop is another side of the same equation. The idea of an artificial intelligence that simply ENFORCES THE LAW may meet many stumbling blocks along the way, but is also exciting to think about. Currently, some people commit federal crimes in plain sight, and are wholly protected from justice by general agreement of the ruling classes. An AI that would intelligently interpret written law without regard for social status or political consequences would, I think, prove (in its ideal form) a huge help in bringing about a more just and civil society.

Dick Cheney behind bars — ah.

Meanwhile — taser-torture, extortion, baton-rape, and the ruin of innocent lives will plague the parts of the United States that permit or even codify such behavior. I’ve seen both sides up close. The worst was a Arizona State Trooper who pulled over a car I was in on the way back from tubing the Salt River. Screaming, stomping, juvenile attempts to make me flinch — he seemed to sense my study of him as a caricature, and this enraged him further.

My girlfriend at the time and her brother were handcuffed and hauled away to be brutalized and strip-searched. Their cars and property were seized; it cost them about twenty-five thousand dollars after all was said and done. For a pipeful of pot.

The other side of the equation is also represented by a Tempe City Police Officer that caught me and a friend red-handed with a double-chambered three-foot high bong (remember those?) and an ounce. He shook his head and told us to take off, which, considering the draconian marijuana laws just passed by Governor Mecham the Mormon-Used-Car-Dealer-Soon-To-Be-Felon, was an incredible boon and gift to my future. In this case, the Andy Taylor might be slightly preferable to the AI, who would have probably instantly hauled me off to the clink, which is a good argument for better lawmaking before AI policing, I suppose. GIGO, after all.

A young man I knew of who met a different Tempe Police officer at around the same period ended up spending two years in the Arpaio Tent City at hard labor. He had been an honor student, college-bound; no one ever heard of him again.

Good cop, bad cop. Big difference. Until we get the Robocop perfected, perhaps a good start would be higher pay and better psych testing at all levels of law enforcement. And maybe just a little lick o’ sense.

[Blue_Tires]

1. lol....that is brilliant

despite being from N.C., Andy Taylor was fuckin' awesome :thumbsup:

when "No Country for Old Men" was out, one of the reasons I bashed it was because Tommy Lee Jones was a half-assed Andy Taylor ripoff with a Texas flavor...It leapt right off the screen at me from the start...

[ananda]

2. I've lived in Texas all my life..

.. I know, your pity is immediately aroused..
but I just want to say that I've never had
a bad experience with a cop like that, though
I was harassed once over a minor traffic
incident.. just a few minutes of haranguing
and a warning because it wasn't really a
violation but a situation at a very poorly
designed light.

I do believe it happens though, and I know
for a fact that Texas cops have harassed
and abused minorities for years... so
nothing they do really surprises me.

I hope this whole corrupt group of cops
goes to jail for a long time.

[byronius]

5. I was born there. My uncle is a San Antonio police officer --

who was routinely and proudly assigned to cruise gay bars and pick up men to later brutalize and leave on the outskirts of town.

I'm sure, just like anywhere else, there's a mixture. California has its bad cops too, lemmetellya.

[Autumn Colors]

3. oh bummer

I was expecting a picture of Andy Taylor from Duran Duran.

:P

[WI_DEM]

4. there was an episode of the Andy Griffith Show where Barney defends Andy whose on trial

and says: In defense of Sheriff Taylor, Barney said. “When you are dealing with people instead of going by the book, it is better to go by the heart.” We need more police like Sheriff Andy Taylor.

[Elwood P Dowd]

6. There was also an episode where Barney went overboard going by the book

when Andy was out of town. When he came back, Andy discovered that Barney had half the town in jail, including Aunt Bea.

[WI_DEM]

7. Andy always saved Barney and always tried to tone down Barn's over zealousness

But at his core Barney Fife was a good guy too.

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. That's true.

I've probably watched every episode several times. It was my favorite show when I was a kid in the '60s, and I still watch the reruns. Andy did a clip with Ron Howard endorsing Obama prior to the election.