Korean Job Discussion Forums

[RMNC]

I'll warn you that this has nothing to do with Korea.

My roommate became a police officer about a year and a half ago, and he's currently working at the local jail while also volunteering for the patrol squad in his off-time. Since he has been an officer, he's picked up what I believe to be some bad habits and practices that he brings with him outside of work: pre-judgment of others, locking our doors, concealed weapons paranoia and not using a seat belt. I'll focus mainly on the latter.

The first, "pre-judgement" of others, bothers me only slightly. I'm not religious, so I'm not bothered by it that way, if that's what you're thinking. He's begun to simply write off anyone who doesn't dress up to a certain degree or drive a certain quality of car as a "maggot", a term obviously learned from serving on the force. If someone wears baggy jeans, has a goatee, wears a baseball cap and drives a 1995 GMC, for example, he automatically thinks that they're a bad person with some kind of criminal activity in their past. I mention this example because it happened again almost exactly before we debated his seat belt usage yesterday. I try to point out there's no way he could know, and that it's possible they're a nice person who he would get along with and is a law-abiding citizen like 98% of people here are. His reply: "No. He's a maggot, I can tell." I understand that as an officer, judging people based on these kinds of factors is a way to boost the chances of finding someone who is a criminal, but he can't seem to turn it off outside of work or even accept that these people aren't "maggots".

Second, he's become paranoid about having his gun on him at all times. I personally don't support gun ownership outside of on-duty officers, but that's not something I want to debate. He's incapable of going out without his gun on him at all times. I understand that being an officer of the law usually only nets you enemies that hate you, many of them violent, but again, 99.999% of off-duty police officers, and people in general, seem to survive every day without being shot in the back by a con who has a grudge against them. It's gotten so bad that any time he goes out, even in the hot sun, he has to wear a jacket to conceal his gun, even if it's just to a friend's house or the drive-thru.

Third, and this is something that I offer as a problem of my own to contrast to my friend's: he's insane about locking our doors. He feels that since he's an officer, he has a larger threat to him than the rest of us do. This has led to said gun concealment issues and paranoia about people, but also with locking our doors. We have all of the doors to our house locked, all day and night, front, back, and side, or he tells us off and says we need to do a better job locking them. This happened yesterday with our side garage door. My rebuttal is that first, we live out in the country. No one knows we live here. The chances that someone would come to our house, open our gate, try the one door that isn't locked, go into our house and take our stuff is infinitesimally small. One of the three roommates is here 99% of the time as well, and we live in an incredibly safe city. He argues that someone could take his gun. My first thought was obviously that he should get rid of it, and then that he always has it on him anyways, but that getting freaked out about locking the doors is simple paranoia to the core.

Finally, the meat and potatoes of this incredibly long rant: We all went and got dinner last night, and on the way back my two roommates stopped and got ice cream. My officer roommate drove. As he's driving back, he doesn't put his seat belt on... the entire ride. We're in a 2007 Camry. The button is blinking and the sound is going off about how someone hasn't fastened their seat belt, and concerned, I tell him he should put it on. He simply laughs and says "don't worry, it'll go away." Cut to my horror. Not only do I fear for the safety of my friend should he get in a crash without his seat belt on, but I find it insane that as a cop, he would blatantly break the law. We even passed by a patrol car on our way home.

I brought it up about how he should fasten it, and he gave his reason as that he "never fastens it when I'm on patrol", because they may need to jump out of their car fast and catch some crook on foot. I argued that he's not on patrol, he's eating an ice cream cone in a Camry with his friends in his car with no seat belt on and that he should buckle it for his own safety and ours. He says if it makes me feel better that he doesn't cite people for it when he's on patrol. I say he should. The chances that for some reason he has to hop out of his Camry on the way home from the ice cream store (or anywhere else) is so minimal that it's not worth the risk. I've been in crashes before, he hasn't, so I know seat belts work on a personal level.

I also say that cops should wear them too, not just when they're on high speed pursuits, because it doesn't save any time, considering how if you're going to jump out of a squad car you'd need to slow down, open your door, etc. I argue that he may as well cut the doors and top off of his car and have his gun out at all times if he really is worried about it. He says "I also speed too, what about that?" and I reply that someone going 28 in a 25 is lot less dangerous than someone going 60 in a 25 zone by a matter of relativity and he would probably ticket them as such. A seat belt is different because it's either on or it's off, legal or illegal.

Lastly, I bring up the idea that this is a reason so many people in this city hate cops: That they feel paranoid towards everyone and the department feel they can break the rules, and that they're above legality. For a guy training to become a full-time patrol officer, I just feel like all these things have become bad habits and fears. I will also say that I and my other roommate feel that he has a hard time separating work from his life outside of work, since he works so much and gets "bored" in his free time. He's still a really nice guy and good fun to be around and a good friend. I've just got no outlet to vent these problems to. I wish I was back in Korea where complaining seems to be the norm so I could finally do it for once.

Okay, that was super long. Rant over. Any opinions? Mountains our of molehills? Am I crazy?

[Radius]

well to some people it may seem like a molehill, but you are the actual person having to put up with this pretentious crap, so it seems like a mountain to you and i can understand.
The best thing is to ignore it. Face it, he's a cop, he's not going to listen to what a law breaking "maggot" has to say---not saying you are one . lol i love the justification he gave for not wearing his seatbelt. That just goes to show that you can never win an argument with this guy, so why bother, it will just lead to more arguments. He can never be wrong. I have always just "let" those kind of people win the argument bc id rather not spend the energy rebutting every ridiculous statement they make.
I hate friends like this, and i have dropped friends that were "never wrong" because it just gets old after awhile.

Just be glad you arent married to that.

[redaxe]

Yeah, that guy's an idiot.

Interesting read, thanks.

[Sleepy in Seoul]

Some people just shouldn't be police officers; the screening process should perhaps be tougher. If he can't follow the law himself then he has no business enforcing it.

OP, where are you from? What kind of system will let someone become a police officer while they have another job and make them volunteer to work in their time off?

[hellofaniceguy]

Just tell him that the rules of society apply to everyone, even idiots.

[AsiaESLbound]

He's paranoid knowing he's turned into public enemy #1. The paranoia skews his thinking to be bigoted and excessively cautious which has been a huge problem with American police which I never trust for a second and avoid interaction at all costs. If you think the idiotic police are a bit too involved with your living situation, move before you get in some bogus trouble.

[Sleepy in Seoul]

[Leslie Cheswyck]

You just show him this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JawdbAL7lg

[redaxe]

[Sleepy in Seoul]

[Young FRANKenstein]

Clearly the situation isn't as bad as you let on, or else you'd tell him to find another place to live.

[RMNC]

It's true, these are minor irks, as I believe in the ol' "Live and Let Live" ideals. Too bad most cops don't. It's his choice to buckle up or not. I'm not going to threaten to kick him out over something that is, in the end, his choice. I've known this guy since 4th grade, I would never kick him out unless me and my roommate found out he was killing people in his spare time or stealing our money or something, but he's super nice, polite and clear-minded, and I trust him complicity. I lived with him for a year before I came to Korea, before he was a cop, and it was great. It still is, and we get along great too, I just don't want to see my friend die because he took his job too seriously, thinking he's gonna get in a hot pursuit in his civilian car and ended up going through his windshield.

Sleepy in Seoul: I'm from Oregon, in the US. He volunteers to go on patrol, since he works full time at the jail. He's not required to at all, but he wants to get his face out there with the cops on the streets so that when a spot opens up they know his face and that he does a good job. Here, when you work in one force you can volunteer for another on your off-time. He's actually out volunteering right now. He literally goes to work for 12 hours, then goes to patrol for 10 hours. He regularly pulls 24 hour shifts and sleeps for 8 hours and goes out again.

Another thing he does that irks me is to say he wants to lose weight (he's not obese, just... plump?) but he doesn't have the ability to stick on a diet plan (donuts and bacon jokes go here) when he's working so much and either sitting in the jail or sitting in a cop car eating snack foods. He lacks any kind of hobby outside of work. My other roommate, who I have also known since grade school (I've known them both for many years), even said as he was leaving, tongue-in-cheek, "have fun at your hobby job". But it's true, his hobby is simply working another job for -0- dollars. He's always volunteered in his spare time to try and get his foot in the door at places like this, he did the same when he volunteered for the parole and probation office, which in turn got his foot in the door at the jail, but the patrol thing has just totally taken over. I rarely see him and when I do I find myself not wanting to hang out with him as much because I know he'll do all these little things that bug me.

Oh, one last thing, he had been saying how much he wanted to tase somebody at the jail, and two days ago he finally got to, a dry tase (sticking the taser gun against the body, not shooting the cartridge), and he even sprained his wrist punching some guy in the kidneys at the jail about 40 times because he refused to give up a pencil when he was on a suicide watch. Essentially, he's a bit of a adrenaline junkie, it seems, something I never knew he was into.

And people wonder why Americans complain about cops and the treatment of civilians by them? I actually trust cops even less having now lived with one for the past couple of months. I can't wait to get back to Korea, where crime is minimal and the cops don't do anything. Seriously, I'm counting the days.

[Sleepy in Seoul]

[Quack Addict]

[Steelrails]

Sounds like this guy should go do pizza delivery- Adrenaline rushes, driving recklessly at insane speeds without seatbelts, prejudging people- Foreigners and African-Americans always get their food last, paranoia over other drivers stealing your runs/drop box money, paranoia over getting mugged, most customers are 'maggots', poor health choice, and more.

The only thing is he'd have to put up with rampant drug use all around him and people avoiding him because he's a cop, but at he'd be good at the work AND he'd make some money on top of it, and get free meals.

BTW- is maggot is code for another consonant-vowel-double g-vowel-consonant word?