Kiss this

Yesterday, in the parking lot of the local Safeway, there was a car idling with a stocky guy sporting a flat-top haircut, a porn-star mustache and shades behind the steering wheel. A decal on the bumper read: "Sworn To Protect Your Ass, Not Kiss It." The words circled a stylized tin star emblazoned with "Deputy Sheriff."

OK, I get it. You're a cop and you resent being polite to people.

I know, I know. That's not what the decal explicitly says. But really, that's what it means.

Does anybody really believe that in the many interactions between police and the public, many perfectly polite, but others quite confrontational, that the overriding issue regarding behavior is the public's demand that armed, uniformed officers behave obsequiously? Or is it just possible that, when bad behavior is the order of the day, it's more often on the part of police officers throwing their weight around and demanding subservience from the public?

It should be clear that the power disparity between the average person and any uniformed law-enforcement officer -- backed by more cops and friendly relations with prosecutors and judges -- makes it unlikely that police officers are frequently confronted with demands for deferential treatment. Yes, they'll get some from the politically powerful and well-connected, but that's not going to be an everyday experience for most cops.

It's much more likely that members of the public will "yes, sir" and "no, sir" their way through any interaction with law-enforcement in order to prevent an escalation into -- potentially -- legal consequences or even violence.

Let's consider this... Deputy Flat-Top drives around for a month with his decal, and I drive around for a month with a bumpersticker that reads: "Hey Officer! Keep The Peace -- Don't Be An Asshole!" Let's see which one of us has the most negative interactions at the end of the experiment.

But before we give that experiment a try, I think I'll upgrade my life insurance.