I think the problem when people say "don't trust policeman" or "cops are <fill in the blank>" is that there are several levels--or tiers--- of law enforcement and I have found them to behave differently. You cannot lump them all together.

In prison, the COs were very respectful of me. They called me "Mr. REW," I never gave them problems and we got along fine. No, I only spoke to them if they asked me a question, but they did not harass me either; we left each other alone. Most of the COs in prison are more intent on fighting the problem of drugs in prison or the gang problems. Many are just your everyday guy trying to provide for his family as best he can. They do not usually go out of their way to cause trouble or pain for inmates who are trying to behave.

The policeman on the beat, the one that is a patrolman and drives around within the community are usually decent. Yes, there are some really bad apples there, just as there are bad apples in the sex offender pool, but usually they are fairly professional. Many are not power hungry and consider law enforcement "just a job." I believe many policemen fit this category.

As you go up the ladder, the attitude of law enforcement becomes worse and worse. Many of the detectives are unprofessional and do not mind hiding evidence or committing perjury to secure a conviction. These guys can be intoxicated with their self-perceived power and they look at their job as a "career" rather than a job. Some of the most despicable people I have ever met---and I met some bad ones in prison----have been detectives. They play a lot of head games with people to elicit information from them.

Then the "headliners" are the state or federal people, the OSBI in Oklahoma or the FBI or ICE at the federal level. These characters are professional bullies and they will do anything crooked or corrupt to help their cause. These are the guys that place guns to innocent citizens heads or shoot the family dog after they come flying through the door with a battering ram. They are nothing short of "thugs with badges" in many instances. Just a terrible bunch of degenerates who badger citizens, who, by the way, they consider the enemy.

I would think they would take pride in being more professional and classy when they come to arrest a harmless 18 year old who has downloaded a few naughty pictures, but power corrupts and we have the situations that some of the ladies here have described.

But even the lower tier policeman use the "Blue Code of Honor" and will not usually testify against another policemen in a court of law. If they do testify, many will lie to protect their fellow officers. This is human behavior and you see the same thing in prison where inmates refuse to snitch on each other.

My defense attorney was a former federal prosecutor from Oklahoma City and he once said, "Most all policemen will lie on the witness stand if it helps their cause----as long as they know you cannot prove they are lying." A powerful statement coming from a former federal prosecutor.

It is the intentional mistreatment of citizens and willingness to do anything at any cost to secure a conviction against an innocent man that makes my blood boil.

rewdiazepam

I used to have the utmost respect for LE and those that worked in the system. Once you are labeled a "master manipulator"and considered on the wrong side. The gloves come off and no wrong doing is to big to get the SO. Look at the news lately, try being a minority. With respect you can have your views mine have narrowed.

My problem is that it is an ends justify the means for police. Some of it may be necessary to catch the "bad guys" but that line gets blurrier and blurrier over time until you don't know where that line is.

Good point, independent. Those of us who know about what "sex offender" means know what an incredibly ridiculous term it is! How can you lump together serial rapists and 6-year-olds who were playing doctor? It doesn't make sense, does it? Yet, this same term describes both if they have been charged and placed on the registry (remember that article about the 6-year-old a while back?)

I'd say its ludicrous, but that takes it too lightly. The whole thing has gone way, way too far.

just as the blanket label of 'sex offender' can skew the thoughts and perception of everyone who hears it or reads it. and we all know that's the truth. that blanket label covers every person from a kid playing doctor, a person taking a leak outside, romeo and juliet to the person who rapes and brutalizes a child. but, almost everyone who hears and sees that label immediately thinks of that last one. the one who rapes and brutalizes a little kid. they think of that and throws that blanket far and wide.

the same holds true for LEO's. i have no doubt what so ever that there are good, decent LEO's out there doing their job to the very best of their ability and with their hearts. i know that i read the story on FB about the young officer who bought a bed, dresser and game system for a young black boy when he was called to the home because the boy was rebelling. he wanted to go into foster care because the situation at home and the poverty was dire. or the female officer in fl who bought a car seat for a young mother because she could not afford one. those stories are few and far between because they don't make big splashy headlines. we mostly see all the bad. the cops beating the homeless person next to the freeway. the cops shooting and killing the homeless guy living in the desert. that's the stories we see everyday because they make big, huge and juicy headlines.

the best one i have ever read about what the married couple having sex in their bedroom. their neighbor who was standing on the edge of her bathtub cleaning her window called cops and the couple were arrested. it went to court and when the judge heard of how the neighbor saw the couple he called a recess and had them all into his chambers. he asked the neighbor if that is the only way that she was able to see them? when she replied yes the judge told her that if she persisted in in the case that at the end of it he would advise the couple to bring charges of invasion of privacy against her and maybe even a charge of voyeurism. the whole debacle stopped right then and there.

westdenali, in all honesty, what were your thoughts on 'sex offenders' before your SIL was arrested? did you see, realize or think of all the ones caught up in the 'in-between'? or were your thoughts of the blanket type? the rapist, the killer or the brute? you don't have to answer here in the forum. but take take some time and think about it to yourself. think about all the millions of people out there who don't think about it. looking at the registry, do you really think that someone, the average citizen, who sees the charges of 'statutory rape thinks maybe it was a romeo and juliet? or of the guy who had sex with a girl who lied about her age? or indecent exposure, do they think of fred getting caught in an ally taking a whiz or that maybe he was taking that whiz behind a tree or bush and maybe mz jenkins caught him and raised a stink? or the little kindergarten boy who will carry the label of 'sex offender' for indecent exposure because a bully made him pull his pants down on the school playground?

blankets come in many, many sizes and they can cover a lot of area. some can keep you warm and comfortable and some can chill and ruin lives.

everyone here has had the experience of that blanket and we are all fighting against it. and you? you can help both sides who suffer from that blanket.

EchoMoon, Very well said.

Echo moon: to answer your question and i have no qualms to do so is that i saw all offenders in the same light. Yes...i saw sex offenders to be the worst. I now feel differantly. I think most people who have not experienced a situation no matter what it is, is afraid of the unknown and afraid of what they have not experienced. I ask myself why? What happened? Sex offender status covers a whole range of offenses. Its from statutory rape to innocent "playing doctor as children" to two people just a few months difference in age to saying no when you mean yes to rape. I never thought i could love someone who went out and raped someone. I could not wrap my mind around supporting my daughter who was in love with him. It is so much easier to deal with death and dying than it is to support someone who has done such a heinous crime. But here i sit loving a man who has done such things. This experience has opened my eyes to all offenders. To all of society. To all of everyone. So here i am on this forum and learning so much more. I am leaving my shell that i have been so wrapped in for so many years. I am feeling a sense of freedom.

freedom is a beautiful thing. i too use to see all sex offenders in one light and i used that blanket liberally, at least up until 2yrs ago.

it's hard making changes. especially changes in the way we think and believe. and it's hard knowing and believing that those we love, those we know and/or those we trust could ever do such a thing. but it does happen.

keeping an open mind is the biggest hurdle. and sometimes the scariest too. :)

I too saw that all sex offenders were monsters, and have a high probability of reoffending. When hubby was arrested, and everything I thought I knew was just thrown out the window. I now SEE the people affected - yhr families, the registrant who wants to turn their life around, the falsely accused, those who shouldn't have ever been charged (ie public urinators) in a different light.

It's quite a rude awakening to find out what you taught was just a bunch of BS!

westdenali - it is so sad that we all had to experience this hell in order to understand - I can only hope that in your position in society you use that to educate others about the truth. Although the way you used to feel about RSOs is becasue the media and politicians have dehumanized then in main stream societies eyes. Like many things in our society past (and in the World for that matter) it is a type of mass hysteria to ostracize a particular group of people. Once that group of people are no longer human in the eyes of society it is very easy to impose any type of sanction on them , take away basic civil liberties, and even make them a target for murder, becasue the public allows it.

I have always thought that the key to changing the public's mind is education but more than that as the numbers of RSOs grow (and they are by leaps and bounds) it will touch more and more families - and like you those families will begin to see what you have seen - that the majority of RSOs are just humans like them that have made mistakes but still human - people that have paid their debt to society but are still punished long after that - people that are in a group that has the 2nd lowest recidivism rate of any crime, people that are punished with laws that are based on incorrect and false statistics. .

Unfortunately it is going to take more and more people to go through this hell to get to the end - I do not say abolish punishment for these crimes but make the punishment fit the crime, abolish the public hit list that statistics show does absolutely nothing to protect anyone, etc. etc. etc. Educate people to the truth that most child molestation is perpetrated by a family member, a friend, or some other person known to the victim. While parents are browsing the internet sex offender list looking for monsters they are missing the truth right in front of their noses. One of my pet peeves (I do have many!) is that we send a message to children and the rest of society that sexual abuse is some how worse than physical or emotional abuse. People can emotional and physically abuse a child, be arrested, pay the debt to society and then go about their way to make a new life, they are not restricted from any where or pout on a list - -I think the reason is becasue people recognize that physical abuse is personal and they do not understand that about child molestation (they think of that as stranger danger even though that is not the truth)

I don't know about the police who arrested my son, but from hearing the testimony at his sentencing, I know he admitted to what he did and the DA AND the judge twisted everything he said to make it sound like he was a cold, heartless person, which to me made them look more like the cold, heartless people when he was obviously sitting there in front of me crying because of what he did. So, yeah, I've learned that they will do anything to get the conviction and turn anything that is said against the person. I can't even watch crime shows on TV anymore because the supposed "good guys" (cops) on the show just look like bullies to me now. And yes, I do know that they're not all that way.

Not by any stretch supporting DA's or the police by this statement, the DA's in my case I wouldn't even urinate on them if they were on fire because then they would turn around and charge me with another undeserved sex crime but this time I'd actually be an adult.

But the DA's and the police see so many bad things every day. Just horrific stuff and after awhile they get desensitized to it all. They don't believe anything a defendant tells them because they think they've seen it all. I have no problem with the DA's wrongly believing whatever they want in a true adversarial process it wouldn't be a problem. But we do not have that, DA's have WAY too much power right now in the system to do whatever they want. The only check to balance out the DA's insane power is the defense having enough money.

*undeserved in the sense it should've been kept in the juvenile system not that I think I'm innocent, I'm not.