This YouTube video has gone viral showing Jeremy Drew, 12, confronting a police officer in Vegas about his illegally parked motorcycle. The officer parked illegally to buy a soda and Jeremy Drew asks him why he felt that he could park illegally and asked for his badge number. The officer refuses, even though all officers are supposed to allow citizens to see their name and badge number.
Drew asks the officer “Is there a reason for you to park on the sidewalk? Is it like an emergency or anything?”
The officer simply does not respond to which Drew adds “Can I see your badge number?” The officer asks him why he is asking for the badge number and Drew replies “Uh, because I have the right to.”
The officer replies: “You do? Are you a junior lawyer?”
Drew answers “No, I just want to see your badge number. Uh, can I please see your badge number?” The officer then rides away.
I am not aggrieved about the illegal parking for the officer. Officers are in fact allowed to park illegally in carrying out their duties (though soda stops are not exactly part of the thin blue line image). However, the officer did violate the rules in refusing his badge number and Drew was correct that he had a right to see it. More importantly, at a time when citizens are increasingly passive in the face of a burgeoning police presence in our society, this 12-year-old boy showed remarkable courage. He stood his ground even when the officer compounded his violation in refusing to show his badge by asking for identification from the boy. The youngster responds “I’m a minor. I’m Jeremy Drew.”
Yes, you are. And I think it is pretty cool to be Jeremy Drew.
“So let it be with this hard-working police officer.”
What about hard-working pizza-delivery bikers?
Can they park their bikes on the pavement too? They work hard. They have to put up with a**holes and deadbeats.
If a cop can have a sense of entitlement that leads him to act as the law does not apply to him, why can’t other hard-working people ignore the law without penalty?
I work hard. If I want to buy a soda when driving from A to B, why can I not park beside a fire-hydrant? I’d just be popping into the store beside it. The car will be in my view. If a fire alarm goes off anywhere near, I’ll be able to move the car away long before the fire service arrives.
Is it OK to park at a fire-hydrant or other no-parking spot as long as one can move on if there is an actual problem? At the very least, it must be OK for hard-working people to do so. No?
What other laws can hard-working people ignore?
Or is it just cops who can get away with a massive and inappropriate sense of entitlement?
Is it that they know that they can do whatever because there is no “Quis” around to “custodiet ipsos custodes”.?
This would be corruption that is flaunted in the faces of their ‘lessers’.
It might be petty corruption, but it’s blurring boundaries and is cancerous to society.
Should cops not be exemplary? (as in the good sense of that).
.
Does this cop’s attitude not give out entirely the wrong message?
1) It prompts a feeling of resentment and disrespect on the part of law-abiding people.
2) It prompts losers to join the force so that they too can strut around and self-aggrandize.
3) Vicious circle
A few years back, while walking through downtown Seattle, I witnessed two beat cops jaywalking. So I called out to them in a jovial way, “I thought you gave out tickets for jaywalking like that?” One of them called back at me while pointing ahead of him, “It’s not jaywalking when you’re crossing the street using the alley way.”
Kid has gusto! I like that.
There is a biblical passage that says, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the grain.” I take that to mean that the poor soul who is doing the hard work should be allowed to take advantage of the difficult situation he finds himself in. So let it be with this hard-working police officer. Jeremy, go ride your bike and stop tryig to be a wise ass, you little prick.
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape;
You don’t spit into the wind;
You don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess with the motorcycle cop.
They’re gonna get ya, Jeremy.
Im so tired of the line.. UNTIL you put yourself in a cops shoes!!!! FYI… no one forced any cop to join the academy… they did so knowing full well what joining was about. in todays society of leo’s most of them are only in uniform to commit crimes legally. to lock up civilians on any number of petty crimes meanwhile the cop him/herself is committing a worse crime.. I KEEP MY RESPECT FOR THE COPS OF YESTERDAY who honored. their uniforms with BRAVERY, HONESTY AND REAL COURAGE. the cops of yesterday who knew everyone in the community and did any and everything they could to help those in need. i’d rather wear the shoes of OFFICERS OF THE PAST. not the present and certainly not the future.
Wait let me clarify a few things yes todays cops can never hold a candle to yesterdays.. there are a few good apples in todays society.. about 10 of every 100.. why anyone bothers to join the department today is beyond me. knowing that you might get hooked in with rogue. and if you report their criminal activities you had better enter witness protection. there is a reason they drastically lowered the standards of the testing, there is a also a reason most cops today are being hired straight out of the military. and IT ISNT ANYTHING GOOD FOR CIVILIANS. especially since we the civilians no longer have a constitution, rights nor any freedoms.
ive been reading the below site back when it was named injustice everywhere, i also read behind the blue wall and lawless america along with copwatch and a host of other sites that report on the criminal doings of our so called LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
http://www.policemisconduct.net/reason-tv-dont-cops-have-better-things-do/?fb_action_ids=10152817852735249&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
i will continue to Praise and Thank the cops who hold true to their uniform but those who don’t will never receive any respect
“Cop just wanted a soda and had to deal with a snot.”
Then he should have parked legally in the parking lot like everyone else instead of on the sidewalk like the Gestapo. Laws apply to the police too.
He’s a snot. A snotty little kid that needs to get the snot slapped out of him by his parents. Anyone that thinks cops in Vegas have more to do than to deal with a snot like this kid are in the right. Take your camera, your snotty little 12 year old snot rear end and do what 12 year olds should be doing at 12 years old and that’s not screwing around with cops that have to deal with drunks on the strip every day.
Cop just wanted a soda and had to deal with a snot. Kid is nothing more than a snot.
A kid like that could be President some day. Does he have a dog?
“no respect for his betters”
Hmmm. Last time I checked, cops are no better than anyone else. Some are decent folks doing their job. Some are criminals with badges. A lot more are somewhere in between.
No one is owed respect by fiat. Sure. Some people think they are, but that is simply a flaw in their thinking. Respect, just like disrespect, is earned.
This incident does, however, raise the question of who is better. The cop abusing his position for his petty convenience and doing something he would ticket a citizen for doing? Or a kid willing to take him to task for it?
I’m going to vote the kid.
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pete,
😀 Dude. You’re psychic.:mrgreen: I think he kinda looks like that guy from the video I posted for the story “A Fine Line Between Honest and Stupid” as well as a “CHiPs” extra.
he even has the 70’s porn/cop mustache. looks like an extra from the old “chips” tv show.
Jeremy is lucky he wasn’t taken away in cuffs. Many present-day American cops don’t want to be questioned or filmed and seem to believe laws don’t apply to them. We have, through our permissiveness and indifference, created the very type of police force that we have criticized many countries for allowing – that is, an entity which operates above and outside legal constraints.
Wow. A disgrace to his uniform huh. I love people who criticize cops but would never even think of putting on a uniform for a living and realizing just how much s#!t they have to eat from outright disrespectful cop haters out there. That’s ok though, they only do this job because of the great perks like great pay, public adoration and low stress. Kids a punk if you ask me.
Brian C
“to aggrandize himself at the expense of a first responder.”
I must admit that the boy had a tone that was irritating to me.
Apart from that I think that your post might repesent “all that is wrong with America”.
The cop appears to be overweight.
This might be due to him slurping down large sodas (on duty even?)
He is projecting a message that laws and even consideration to pedestrians don’t apply to him – because he is a cop.
He handles the situation very badly.
You appear to see him as a heroic first responder who is willing to take a bullet in the line of duty for town or country.
This unthinking adoration of people in uniform seems to be a perversion that has taken increasing hold since 9/11.
He’s actualy a lard-ass traffic cop with a bad attitude to the law, to the public and to his stomach. He is a disgrace to his uniform.
The police ARE above the law. They constantly break laws overtly in public in order to habituate citizens to their supremacy over them. Tyranny.
Malisha, Temperance is too often look upon here as being “uncaring” or not “down w/ the struggle.” Your take is pretty close to mine. So you must be right![tongue in cheek].
Another teachable moment squandered. Had the cop handled the situation with a little humor and class, the outcome could have been much different. Rather, he chose to act like a bully.
Brian C 1, May 8, 2013 at 2:01 pm
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Now we know the cop’s name.
“America’s Hope for the Future”? …. This kid represents all that is wrong with America .. an entitled brat with no respect for his betters. Sure, the cop was wrong, but Jeremy Drew tried to use the situation to aggrandize himself at the expense of a first responder. Until the obnoxious Jeremy Drew is willing to take a bullet in the line of duty for town or country (like the cop) I have no value on that petty snotty punk or his opinions. Meanwhile he can shove his cell phone camera up his rear end.
Really?? All that is wrong with America? Asking a policeman respectfully and being met with attempted bullying by the cop so the kid can be trained early on not to question authority. And asking the questions makes him a “brat” and “entitled”? He may be a first responder but he was not in this instance. The kid saw something he saw he thought was wrong and questioned it. What is wrong with America is people not questioning authority, of saying that authority is right no matter how wrong.
Malisha, it’s not about outrage. It’s about following the rules and respecting the public. The attitude he gave the kid is the basis for the attitude held by cops who do much worse things. A condescending sense of superiority is the first sign of a bad cop and an essential quality for an abusive cop.
This guy needs (as Barney Fife would say, ironically) to be nipped in the bud.
When we set the bar so low (he wasn’t beating anyone up? meh…) that cops believe they have a right to act like this, it naturally creates the culture we see today.
http://www.policemisconduct.net/
But I sure hope the soda he purchased wasn’t bigger than 16 ounces.