i went on a ride along with the kern county sheriffs department in december. i interacted with at least 10 cops during that time. i mean we had to eat dinner together. that was the worst experience of my life and those men and women i interacted with were not heros.

they told me that they turn off their body cameras when going on calls that are “ridiculous” and they want to be able to say whatever they want. they turned off their body cameras during one of the calls we went on. i was horrified for myself and for the people we were “helping”

my officers partner told me he prefers when younger children are molested or raped because then he can just pass the responsibility over to social services. the kid spoke spanish and he didn’t want to deal with it. and the kid was 4 so, he was an inconvience to him.

we went to a domestic dispute. the husband beat the wife then went on foot with their young son (like 2 years old). the wife didn’t speak english very well but you could totally understand her. the cops berated her and made her feel like shit for being beat.

they told her it was her fault for putting her son in this situation. that it’s so easy to get a divorce. then when the husband returned, we found out he had a warrant out for his arrest for domestic abuse. the cops went got him clothes, shoes and made small talk with him.

they treated him significantly better than they treated her and he had HIT her. he had a warrant for beating her in the past. yet, she was the bad guy in this scenario.

we went to a call for people in a car (idk i guess loitering?). my officer jumped out, left me in the car with no warning, and proceeded to walk up to this car, talk to them for a few minutes, then he pulled his gun from his holster and held it behind his back. i was terrified.

however, a few moments later he put it back in the holster and got into the car. i asked him what happened. he said that it was the wrong van. he pulled out his gun FOR THE WRONG VAN.

they REFUSED to help people who spoke spanish. just refused. they would just yell and be pissed. one time they called someone to translate, but besides that it was just awful.

i could tell countless stories from that night. it was terrifying. i was hoping to maybe go on that ride along and be like “hey maybe cops aren’t bad” but i saw the opposite. i just cried and cried and had the cop take me back to the station.

long story short: ACAB. there were some officers there that night who definitely were more gentle and kinder. but you know what? they didn’t stop the asshole cops from being assholes which is just as bad. they benefit from a system of power.