Public safety: March 2008 Archives

All of the people with piercings are probably freaking out over the story of the woman who was forced by TSA to remove her nipple piercings with pliers to board a plane. It's just evidence of what we all know: that so much of the so-called security post-9/11 is really for our benefit. I have a can of pepper spray at home that proves it. A friend came to visit me from DC in January and accidentally left the can of spray in a pocket of a jacket that she stuck in her carry-on luggage. No one batted an eye at that, though her lotion and shampoo were examined thoroughly. She wisely decided not to try to bring the can home.

So, while babies have to remove shoes and alternative people have to remove body art, pepper spray goes overlooked into the cabin of an airplane. Doesn't make me feel too safe.

If the Internet has made us all anti-social, it has also turned everyone into an opinionista thanks to blogs and comment functions on websites and community virtual gathering sites. Not everyone's thrilled with the trend, especially not cops who are now the subject of a popularity contest via the L.A.-based RateMyCop.com.

The nationwide cop rating web site does for police what it previously did for academics, in the widely used and perused RateMyProfessors.com. It lists about 140,000 officers across the nation, and 9409 names of the sworn officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, including Chief William Bratton, and allows users to comment on them.

As you might expect, cops hate the attention, the public assessment of their performance and the ability for any yahoo to take a verbal smack at them. Who can blame them?

As someone subject to ratings and critiques by readers all the time, I have little sympathy for cops complaints that they are "exposed" by this site. It's ridiculous to imagine that the pain of getting critiqued by someone who's had contact with an officer (and many, many of them are good ratings, BTW) could put them in harm's way. Believe me, I know. I've been denounced by truly dangerous people and haven't been knocked off yet. And I don't have the protection of a badge. Besides, secrecy is the handmaiden of abuse of power. People should have an outlet to complain or praise the people who have so much power over them. And since we recently found the LAPD's inspector general's office can't be trusted with it, why not an independent web site?