Originally Posted by
iansmash
i donno...i dont know much about these critical mass rides but from what I can tell, they're full of stupid **** ups who don't know the laws about cycling on the street...just what they hear from their idiot friends.
I'm sure the guy did something wrong, and the cop was reacting. I really doubt it was just random.
Don't know what CM is like in your neck of the woods but I wouldn't speak ill of it here in Toronto. While ridiculously stupid things may happen in other cities (Seattle anyone?) the majority of CMers in Toronto seemed to be regular people on bikes from all corners of the city. While you do have your dirty hippies riding barefoot and filthy, the majority of people seemed to be regular old commuters.
Originally Posted by
drainyoo
The hatred for cops in general on this board is probably more disturbing than what those cops wrote on their forum. The ignorance in here is pretty thick. What's sad is the second something bad happens, these same people will turn to the police. Hypocrites.
Not all cops are are useless.
The necessity of a position doesn't justify someone carrying out the duties of that position badly, I'm sorry. Expecting police officers to carry out their duties with some sense of professionalism does not imply any of us want police eliminated or that we wouldn't turn to the police in a time of need.
For what it's worth, I think the police serve an absolutely vital function, however within the city of Toronto I think the level of unprofessionalism is such that the average police officer is not deserving of even half the respect people like you think they're entitled to. If they wanted to earn the respect of the populace back, they would work alot harder at eliminating the "bad apples" within their ranks rather than apparently giving them a free ride to smear the reputation of the position as a whole.