| The TV show 'COPS' would demonstrate very vividly how insane some people can be and of course they are 'selected clips' - but when they film in Canada ... almost nothing happens. In LA, there used to be (still are?) news items on the 'Helicoptor following the chase' which, as a Canadian, was dumbfounding to me. Youtube vides of 2 police arresting a man, 4 hands on him, they're putting on the cuffs and them bam he goes for his gun (!!!) - literally right has 2 officers have him under control, the assailant tries to kill the cops. Traffic cops have people 'take off' on them far too often. So combine this with the very real availability of guns, and you have quite dangerous situations. Again, I would repeat that the cops are still overzealous, but unless you're antagonizing you have little to worry about other than maybe a cop in a bad mood. It's not populist for people to have to deal with the fact that Americans themselves are statistically poorly behaved when confronting cops. Americans often see a funny bit of behaviour on the news and think 'Oh, that's so Florida' - but for people outside the US the entire country looks like 'Florida'. |