Why do parents tell this to their children?

No, but it doesn’t surprise me at all.

The police are something to be afraid of, and you shouldn’t approach them unless you have no other choice. Sorry, but that’s what my experience with cops has played out to be.

@Seek_Kolinahr I disagree. I have had nothing but the best experiences with the police. My friend Bill on the other hand, seems to attract trouble…. the police always “take advantage of his rights.” We live right by eachother… same police. I think it is the way he carries himself around police that make them suspicious.

No one ever tried that with me. My dad was a policeman.

Yeah. So was mine.

I just do not trust the police service, from very bitter experience. I encourage my siblings children not to be too cosy around the police, they have too many agendas for a quick nick… kids are very easy targets nowadays….:-/

It probably started out as an innocent “scare tactic” (for lack of a better word) years back, to tell your kids.
My parents never said that to me and i wouldn’t say it to my kids if i ever had any, that tactic just doesn’t appeal to me. I’d rather tell them that if they’re bad, they’ll buy me chocolates out of their pocket money/allowance. ;)

GQ.. No, I would never tell my children such foolishness. The reason you saw/heard this was simply extremely poor parenting skills. ...
I realize that without a paramilitary force to keep the savages at bay, we would all be at their mercy. However, I have correctly taught my children that the police are in the business of:
1. Producing cash for their employer through shaking down the citizen that strays, and
2. Putting people in jail.
Therefore, logically, if one avoids the police, one will not be the victim of either 1. or 2.

Seek, sorry that you had bad, past experiences with the police. not all officers are bad people. i hope you understand that the police deal with the crude of the earth and sometimes its difficult to switch from mr. niceguy after arresting a piece of trash thats just raped an 8 year old girl. we have feeling just like everyone else. sometimes, the stress of the job, can be overwhelming.

@john65pennington Well, my bad day means my son gets to watch TV to fall asleep. Your bad day can ruin someone’s life, make them lose their house, their family, their job, and everything that’s important to them.

Arresting an innocent person is just an “oops” to you. It’s devastating to that person.

So, you’ll forgive me for not being sympathetic.

I haven’t threatened my son with it, but we have talked about what the police do and why they can take him (or anyone) away (by arresting them). We’ve also talked about what the police could do to me and my husband if he were to lie about us abusing him. He knows that if he is ever lost or needs help he can go to the police (or MPs on post).

My cousin use to tell her kids that the police would take them away if they were bad. It didn’t help their behavior any, but the youngest was afraid of the police and use to get really nervous if they were around. It took a while to get him past that as he got older.

@Seek_Kolinahr I don’t follow your logic.

Are you suggesting a policeless society?

No, @mowens, not at all. I am however suggesting that it isn’t wise to flaunt yourself in front of people who openly admit that their job is to “draw revenue” for the State. The State doesn’t give a blistering fuck who they hurt and how to get that revenue.

My abusive ex-fiancé was a cop. The job attracts a**holes that like power. I’m not saying all cops are like that, but I think even John has to confess that that IS a fact. When I finally got away from the guy, I mustered all my bravery and went and talked to his boss. He was really nice.

I don’t tell my son that kind of stuff. In fact… I can’t remember being anywhere and seeing police with my son. Then again, now I don’t live in a country where the cops have to carry firearms on a daily basis, so maybe I’m not a good example.

If I ever am in the US again with my son, I’ll be sure to tell him that police are serious people and we only talk to them if we’re in trouble, and we should be careful and not get into trouble.

@Seek_Kolinahr They do a hell of a lot more than speeding tickets… and banks are the same way! I work for a bank because the pay is good and I like who I work with. I work with computers, so I don’t talk to customers or take away their homes.

But my company does. Does that make me a bad person?

Some detectives only investigate homicides, is it ok to hate all police officers because the entry level people have to give speedign tickets?

And I am a chronic speeder. I speed at 110 whenever I get the chance, but when I get pulled over… I know it is wrong. I know it is dangerous. I understand that.

I just do it anyway.

It’s not a big deal at all. Eventually, all my siblings and I outgrew that rather silly warning, the same way we all outgrew the tooth fairy and Santa Claus.

@mowens Speeding tickets are chump change. You really want to draw some revenue, falsify a police report claiming someone was driving under the influence, then make them blow so many times they have to use their asthma inhaler, and make them blow one more.

That’ll bring in a good $15000 over the course of the next three years.

Once my kids asked me about “juvey.” We happened to be next to the “Youth Study Center” at the time. “Will I ever have to go to juvey,” my daughter asked.

“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you grew up with access to good schools and your parents would never allow you to end up there.”

I’ve never threatened them with Juvey and I’ve never threatened them with the boogeyman or the police, except perhaps playfully less than a handful of times. Even then, I feel little guilty because I’m not quite sure if the children understand I’m being playful. But I only did it in silly situations, anyway. I’ve heard too many stories of kids getting seriously wrong ideas that mess with their head years after they’ve grown up.

I have, however, told them to be very careful around the police. Always behave politely and cooperatively because they’ve got the guns, and we don’t. They see or hear stories about police brutality and ask us about them. I tell them they are unlikely to be victims because they don’t belong to the race or class that is most often the victim of police brutality.

Still, I know good people who have been hurt by police in protests or on the way to jail Anti-nuclear protesters and other kinds of political protesters. People falsely accused of being abusers. The police take the woman’s word for it because they don’t know she’s crazy. My friend ended up with a broken tooth and other abuse and a blood borne fungus and god knows what else because the police thought he was some kind of home terrorist. They sent thirteen police to arrest him. Thirteen.

I work with a criminal justice department at a university on occasion. I’ve heard the stories of the problems they have working with police. They are defensive, slow to change, and reluctant to give up old habits. Their training is woefully inadequate, not because they don’t know how to do it, but because they don’t want to. They won’t share data with the researchers because they are afraid of getting beaten up (metaphorically) when the data are analyzed.

Where I grew up, the biggest bully in my school was the son of the police chief.

So I don’t trust the police. They often just do what they’re told, and interpret their orders in the most draconian way—using it as an excuse to exercise the power they have.

Sure, I call the police when my car is stolen, not that it does any good. The one thing the police will do is show up if you tell them someone is trying to break in or someone has been mugged. I’ve seen them show up as quickly as in five minutes. Of course, the intruders and muggers are long gone by then.

But even when they are here to “help” us, I am wary of them. You never know when they might just decide you aren’t cooperative enough or nice enough, and they’ll find something to hurt you with. So I tell my kids to be polite and calm and to do nothing to set a cop off. Just keep it professional. The police are not your enemy, but they are also not your friend.

I tell my children that Police Officers are just like everyone else. If you show them respect, you will generally receive that respect in return to the same degree it was offered.

Alas, sometimes we all disrespect one another for no apparent reason. Herein lies an opportunity to practice self control, empathy, and insight to a situation that may be deeper than it seems on the surface.

I don’t know what an Officer just had to deal with or history on the beat any more than he/she is aware of my frustration from a flat tire that morning. It’s easy to take our previous frustrations out on the current moment… and anyone else who is suffering through it with me.

Police can be good or bad. I’ve had to testify in court against abusive Police Officers. But anyone can be good or bad, including house wives and little league baseball coaches.

@Seek_Kolinahr If that happend to you or someone you know I am sorry. But I can’t imagine why someone would want to do that. The police get no bonus for busting someone with a DUI. But I’d imagine it gets tiring dealing with drunks every day…

Wow… I’m blown away by this series of responses. My father was a cop and used to complain about this very same thing. While I’ll agree that the job of a cop does attract power hungry assholes, I’ll also say that it attracts the very best of humanity as well. Rigorous personality tests and psych exams are used to try to weed out the real zealots, but like any other job, some of the people that do it are jerks and some are not.

Being a police officer is one of the hardest and most thankless jobs in this country. These people are risking their lives for a very low salary and are, very often, the only thing that stands between us and chaos.

The notion that cops are out there trying to drum up revenue for the state is (I’m sorry) painfully naive. It’s not like there’s a quota or a kick-back system going on there. I fear that people’s preexisting prejudice against cops very often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when they begin an interaction with a cop with a chip on their shoulder.

95% of the cops I’ve met in my life are extraordinary helpful altruists. The other 5%, unfortunately, leave a much deeper impression.

@Seek_Kolinahr And it is like I say to my friends that are also gay like me who hate all straight people. They demand equal rights and refuse to give it. They have been hurt so much by people they automatically assume that all of them are the same. They are guilty of what they themselves are rebelling against.

Why not treat every police officer as an individual?

@john65pennington I think @Seek_Kolinahr example was that a cop had a personal vendetta against someone… I’m sure you can imagine that that might happen, right?

I admit to being slightly taken aback by the pervasive attitude of cynicism in this thread. I am not judging that opinion, it just surprises me for some reason. Growing up I was taught to respect police officer’s authority and to be polite and courteous. Then again I was also taught that priests were kind of man/god’s and were to be respected and obeyed without question.

I expect my children to have respect for officers of the law, as they are taught to respect teachers and other adults. I have never threatened to have them arrested or told them the police would take them away, that just instills unnecessary fear an kids have enough of that without me adding to it. On the flip side though, I have not taught them to find a police officer if they get lost or in some kind of trouble. I taught them all to find another mom.

The fact of the matter is that police officers are human just like the rest of us. Some are good, some are scum. It is not ok to teach children to have blind and unquestioning respect for anyone – that is just asking for trouble.

@mowens – It’s a method of protection.

It’s the direct fault of three cops with something to prove (to themselves? To each other? I don’t know), that we are about three months away from homelessness, and still have to pay for this ignition interlock device that will randomly turn the car off in the middle of Interstate traffic with my baby in the car.

If those three cops can do it, so can all the ones that tailgate me all the way home, waiting for me to cross the 6 miles above the speed limit mark, or the ones standing around anywhere waiting to arrest someone.

That’s their job. To arrest people.

The one time I did go to the police for help (trying to report a lifetime of child abuse – it took me 14 years to get the courage) they went to my house, saw that it was clean, and walked out. Case closed. So after all that, I’ve exposed to my parents that I knew what they did was wrong, and that I was willing to call them out on it, but they knew that they could get away with it.

Did the abuse get better, or worse? Take a guess.

In today’s society, it is much more likely for children to call the police on their parents than for parents to call the police on their children.

I agree with SuperMouse. I have raised my children to respect for the adults in their lives unless the adult does something disrespectful to them.

I have heard a lot of parents say stupid untrue things to their children without thinking of the effects later. It’s a shame.

I think that part of the problem is that the cops are unknown, these days. No one does community policing any more. Cops don’t walk down your street, learning who everyone is. So when the cop comes, they don’t know you and you don’t know them. Your interaction is short and it occurs under stressful circumstances. I don’t think that’s a good recipe to make people feel good about cops.

@Seek_Kolinahr All I am saying is… like in any other profession… there are bad and good ones.

I am willing to admit there are bad ones, if you are willing to admit there are good ones. :)

You had a bad experiece. That sucks. They won that battle there is nothing you can do about it now.

However, if you expect disaster, you probably get guarded, and don’t answer the questions or get nervous. I would think that in the future that would make even the good cops think that you have something to hide.

It is not their job to arrest people. It is their job to protect people. The cops I know hate it, because it means paperwork.

There might be some good ones. I’ve never met one. I wouldn’t even call my father, who I loved dearly, a “good cop”. What is a “good cop”, anyway? And have you ever seen a cop car go by and said “Wow, I’m sure glad they’re out patrolling.” No. You said “Fuck, I hope I’m not over the speed limit.”

@Seek_Kolinahr Those who have never been a victim of corrupt (alleged) law enforcement will never see or understand the reality of your situation.

@Seek_Kolinahr Just last week I was thankful. I was in a movie and a fight broke out in the theatere. There was a cop in the building, and he broke it up.

Also, I am thankful at large events, where they keep the peace. I actually thank them for there service if I am walking by them on the way out of a Burger King or something.

Wow. He broke up a fight. Anyone with a pair of arms could have done the same thing.

@Seek_Kolinahr the assertion that all cops are bad is as dangerous as the assertion that all cops are good. The only thing that all cops are is cops. There are certainly some cops who use their power to damage others and there are certainly some who came to the profession for the right reasons and try to do the right thing.

That being said, it is deplorable to think of what police officers have done to you and the impact that behavior has had on your entire family. Please understand that I feel empathy for you and your situation and I am no way disputing your claims of abuse of power.

In my experience, most of the coppers were bent, one of whom was sent down for murdering his own wife several years after my encounter with him…. :-/
Research by a prominent News paper reveals that in the last 24 months at least 12 police officers have been given prison terms or have been left facing jail for corruption, and a string of internal investigations and criminal cases are waiting to be heard in the courts.
The cases include officers spending tens of thousands of pounds of public money on themselves, passing confidential information to criminals, running property scams, stealing property, brutality, having sex with women whom they have arrested, blackmailing individuals on the police intelligence database, shielding a drugs baron and tipping off an organised criminal to help him stay one step ahead of the law. The forces concerned include large metropolitan areas and rural forces and both detectives and uniformed officers were involved.
I really don’t know who’s worse, them or the criminal! :-/

Seek, i agree with you that the police have powers to make or break a persons life. police officers understand this and i have never used my police powers on a person, unless they deserved it by violating the law. people make their own destiny in love and criminal acts they perform. i arrested these two males for a burglary they had just committed in another jurisdiciton. i knew who they were by the description of their automobile. i just waited on the side of the interstate for them to head back to their home. here they came. both were arrested and the victims property was recovered. in addition to making this arrest, i also confiscated their vehicle and it was sold at aucton. was this overstepping my police powers? no. their vehicle had been used in various other crimes and they needed to be stopped.

Parents get tired and desperate at times, and go with the stick instead of the carrot. Using the police, a visible authority, is just an easy way to do this.

I don’t think it’s particularly harmful – there’s lots of stuff that my parents told me now I know was bull. Regardless, I can see how that can be actually hurtful to an officer hearing that. I’ll promise not to do it (I’d like to think I’m not that messed up to begin with, but again – parenting is exhausting).

Cazzie, this does happen. i was on our disciplinary board for three years. this was an honor to be asked from my police department. one case i heard involved two police officers, a chase and a death.

Christmas morning, pouring down rain. both officers riding in one car. stolen pickup truck pulls into an Exxon gas station. driver exits to pay for gas. officers verify the vehicle is stolen. instead of arresting the driver at that time, the officers waited for him to exit gas station and back on the streets. a chase ensued. officers fired gunshots at the stolen vehicle. driver is hit and runs into a telephone pole and killed. at the disciplinary hearing, i asked the officers why they did not approach and arrest the driver at the gas pumps? they stated it was too dangerous because of the gasoline. i asked if they attempted to shoot the tires out of the stolen vehicle? they said no. instead, they used the shotgun to shoot the driver in the back of the head. both officers were fired. both officers were criminally prosecuted for manslaughter also at this hearing, the truth came out. one of the officers had been dating the woman of the suspect stolen truck driver. was this a vendetta? i thought so and so did the disciplinary board. yes, this does happen and this is a classic case of abusing police powers.

No, but it may have been told to me! When I was 5 years old I wandered into a busy street & was nearly run over—saved by an alert driver (as I related in a recent discussion here about people saving your life)—despite my father’s instructions to stay in the car while he ran a quick errand. Anyhow, I wasn’t seriously hurt but somebody called the police to file a report. When the police arrived my young brain immediately jumped to the conclusion that they were there to haul me away to jail on a charge of disobeying my father. That (not the accident itself) made me cry uncontrollably out of dread.

Why did I believe such a thing? It must have been inculcated in me by my parents. Yet I was also taught that policemen are your friends, they catch bad guys, etc., and so far as I know my parents never explicitly made the statement to me that you ask about. They never disparaged law enforcement. So maybe it’s some kind of universal impulsive reaction that young children have to authority figures? I don’t know.

I think it’s nuts for parents to actually teach such a thing to their children.

Cops are likely to be helpful if you are the obvious victim of a crime. They completely suck when they nail you for coming to a rolling stop at a stop sign in the middle of the night or bust you for having expired tags. I was a firefighter for a few years and worked next to cops on calls after hating their guts for years as a scruffy hippie. As a firefighter, they were on my side. But my experience was a lot of them were still, when it came down to unguarded personality, a bunch of pricks with power tripping and control issues. I would not want to have a beer with most of the cops I’ve met. They seem to really believe they are superior to everyone they encounter, be it the guy who actually stabbed someone or the guy that was driving 10mph over the limit.

Check out this video . It is long, but you can skim it. It is a lawyer explaining why there is zero benefit to ever speaking with the police if you are confronted by them, followed by an officer (who is studying to be a lawyer) explaining why the lawyer is right. Basically, there is almost no chance you can say something that will help you, and in the greatest likelihood what you say can and will be used against you. No matter how helpful or innocent you may believe it to be.

It was actually the cop who told me that. It had the exact effect you were complaining about, John. Then my parents started using it.

They did, however, tell me that if I wasn’t good, the doctor would drag me off to the looney bin from a very young age. Guess every family has their own way…

No clue – I once caught my mother and grandmother saying that to my oldest and they were promptly told off for it. I completely disagree with this ‘tactic’.

It shows that parents don’t have personal control over their children if they have to resort to threatening arrest. It’s the same thing as saying, “If you’re not good the Boogeyman will get you.” Obviously, if someone needs to use these kind of threats, they do not have authority and their children do not see them as someone to be obeyed.

Wow. I have had some officers on ego trips when they pulled me for a ticket, but whenever it has come down to truly critical and potentially life-altering events, I have always had considerate and fair officers respond.

In response to the question, I tell my child that police are here to make sure people obey the laws. There is a difference between laws and family rules – I would never use police as a threat for disobeying the rules.

Many of the men in my family are police. The fact that I am not one is almost a form of rebellion. I have the utmost respect for police. They are the single fragile hair from which the civilized disco ball spins.

Everyday they risk their very lives. They risk their children growing up without a parent. This mindset quickly fosters a necessity to control any interaction with the citizenry. Nothing more than self preservation. Even if they could flip that switch on and off they shouldn’t lest any innocent life, not least their own is lost.

Children should not be taught that their actions could result in their arrests. They should instead be taught that their actions could get them put up for adoption…

There were some reports lately on one of the news magazine shows (20/20?) and also online, about how much revenue a cop can pull in for a town, village or city, when they do traffic stops. they talked about how frequently most people don’t argue the ticket, they just pay. the ones that argue it show up in court and get the ticket knocked down some, but still pay several hundreds of dollars, which in turn adds up to big revenue for the town. In many cases, the revenue is a major part of the town’s incoming funding. You can’t tell me that the officers that write the most tickets don’t earn themselves either a promotion, a pat on the back or at least the admiration of other officers and higher-ups.

I don’t know if it’s policemans’ persona, but many of them come across as being rude, disrespectful and nasty. I get pulled over infrequently, and in my case it’s not a case of earning their respect, as i am always polite to them. However, there are some unnecessarily surly ones. I know they have a tough job, however not everyone they come in contact with deserves nasty treatment. I have seen cops treat my friends poorly, i also have seen cops be nice (to me) and understanding. I would not doubt that many people who are picked on as kids choose the profession as a power trip.

Because Jail is a scary place. Better to tell them that then beat their ass. ;-)

Besides, I never had a cop come to my house and offer to cut my grass.

John, you being the exception. I bet you would cut my grass. :-)

I don’t know. Corporal punishment has its place I think (kids are dumb sometimes).

@Ltryptophan when my kid is mad at me for not allowing something, adoption sounds like a good idea to him. In MY house I am the law, and I put his TOYS in jail if he misbehaves. Seriously. It’s called lekefengsel (‘toy jail’ in Norwegian) and it’s up on top of a cabinet in the livingroom. I don’t need to threaten him with a stranger in a uniform (and in your case, carrying a weapon designed to kill).

@cazzie

That’s AWESOME. I may have to steal that (pun intended). However, I may go with “toy time out” as opposed to jail…again, I think that instilling a threatening image of law enforcement can be problematic (overcautious, perhaps…).

Oh, toy time out rules. The only thing that saves my sanity when there’s more than one kid involved. (Oh, you don’t want to share the chalk? Well, then no one gets chalk. Nyah.)

@Seek_Kolinahr So you are for a society without police. :)

@mowens,

Why not treat every police officer as an individual?

Do people wear uniforms to emphasize their individuality? or to be seen as the personification of an authority?

Just asking.

@mowens

Never once did I state any such thing.

I think there are laws that need to be changed, and I think police should be held more accountable for their “mistakes”. For example, the three police involved in my husband’s case should have been fired. There was so much wrong with what they did, it would take me all day to lay it out. Unfortunately, poor people can’t afford the legal staff necessary to make such a “mistake” go away.

@Jeruba Fair point, but the uniform is supposed to evoke a personification of the state, not the police, and certainly not just the bad cops we’ve all run into here and there. One should still treat cops as individuals in the same way that one shouldn’t let a single bad waitress sour your view of all waitresses.

Cops can be helpful, but there are also instances where cops lie to cover each other’s mistakes. I would not count on truth if it were my word against a bunch of them.

Everyone has bad stories about cops and the ways they were treated.

When i was 18 years old, i was in a park that had a night time concert going on, so there were lots of people all over. It’s a big park in Yonkers, Untermyers, and it’s surrounded on three sides by woods. I was walking around looking for some friends of mine and i somehow got into a pleasant conversation with a police officer (i still remember his name, and he is now high up in the Yonkers Police Department – this was 25 years ago). He asked me if i would like to “take a walk in the woods.” I told him no, but i will always remember that. Maybe because he knew i was young and naive, i don’t know.

@crazyivan, oh, I think those are very different things. Judging all of any group by a single member is simply stupid. But it is not the function of a waitress to patrol the streets looking for people who want to buy food. I can go my whole life without entering a restaurant if I choose. To be a citizen of a civilized country is to function within the jurisdiction of the police. Sooner or later there is likely to be an encounter, whether you get pulled over for absent-mindedly running a stop sign or a cop rings your doorbell to ask if your neighbor has gone away and left the front door open (which ours did).

I don’t believe I have ever had a direct and personal bad experience with a policeman, not even during my youth in the sixties, when my peers started calling them “pigs.” So I don’t bring any tarred brush to an experience with a cop.

And I do know that there’s a person within every uniform and in every chair at every level of any hierarchy. I never forget that teachers, managers, presidents, queens, and rock stars are just people.

Nevertheless, a police officer’s job is to personify the law, or at any rate the enforcement of it, as evidenced by the badge of authority that he or she carries and the special powers accorded to him or her. It’s a fact that I am expected to respond to a police officer in a special way, not the same way that I would respond to a coworker, a neighbor, or a stranger on the street. This is not by virtue of the person’s individuality but by virtue of the authority vested in him or her by the empowering body or agency. I am expected to submit to the authority of the officer not because I like her or he’s handsome or she’s strong or he’s polite but because they are the police. And that is emphatically not about individuality.

I have never been afraid of the police. I’ve had to call 911 twice in my lifetime and I was so thankful for the help the police provided. They were there in two very troubling, trying, and frightening experiences.
I don’t think it is good to teach children to fear the police. If you are a good citizen and obey the laws then there is nothing to fear. They are there to help you when you need it.

I think it’s bad to tell this to children, as I believe it is bad to pretend there is a Santa Claus, a Tooth Fairy or God for that matter. The brightest and happiest children I know were raised in truth, not on fear of BS stories.

@Jeruba once again, I think it’s a case of semantics really. The badge represents the law, but the law represents the state as well. In that sense, if you want to get all Venn-Diagramy about it, the badge also represents the authority of the state.

It’s a half-playful, half-disciplinary remark. A lot of times, parents just say things like that without thinking because it’s an easy way to ensure compliance. They can’t get the children to behave on their own, so they appeal to a higher authority figure. But I don’t think it’s appropriate to say, “If you aren’t good, the police will lock you up”, because that implies that the cops will come if the child has a tantrum in the grocery store. One of two things will happen then: 1) The child will be fearful, as you said or 2) The parent will unintentionally undermine his/her own authority and credibility because it won’t take long for the child to realize that s/he was lied to.

Why so dismissive of semantics, @crazyivan? If different words with different meanings lead to different behavior, they’re not inconsequential.

Perhaps what you really mean to say is that cops should be viewed as people? Of course, then, no disagreement there. But I think the whole point of having uniformed officers enforcing the law is not to think of them as distinct individuals, each with his or her personality, history, habits, proclivities, faults, and charming ways, but to see in them the thing they stand for and are empowered to uphold.

Didn’t mean to be dismissive. I think that we are agreeing amidst a semantic roadblock. That’s all I meant to imply…

I used to carry a pager for work, and when my 5 year old step-daughter would ask what it was, I would tell her it is a bad girl detector. It would go off when I was near a bad girl (and handy invention, now that I think about it). When it would go off, I would look around, and glare at her.
I thought it was funny. Years later, she told me she thought it was real, and would try to stay away from it.
I don’t know why parents tell their kids that kind of stuff. I did it, and I don’t know why.

Ok, @crazyivan, no problem. And I think we disagree. But I can live with that.

Thanks everyone for the response. some words to children should never be spoken. these are some of those words.

And finally! :-/

A policeman stops a lady and asks for her license. He says “Lady, it says here that you should be wearing glasses.”
The woman answered “Well, I have contacts.”
The policeman replied “I don’t care who you know! You’re getting a ticket!”

Scooby….....just great. i love it. thank you. john

Lol…. Ya welcome ;-)

I hold the police in the UK in high regard. They have high standards and in my experience they live up to them. My opinion of police in the United States is not so good. I have had no definite bad experiences but they often look bored, they slouch in their seats and look contemptuous. I also don’t like that they carry guns. Sometimes they work extra hours off duty but in uniform and I don’t think they are well paid.