Police

Portland Transit Cop

Recently I realized there is another reason to avoid mass transit: the police. Driving a car you are unlikely to attract a copper's attention, well, unless you are driving like a maniac, or flagrantly speeding. But riding on the Max you are very likely to encounter a copper checking tickets. Now, it's a not a big deal, but it's not a conductor, it's a cop, and this kind of thing smacks of the 'your-papers-please' kind of thing you run into in totalitarian regimes. I don't like it.
Today I read a story about a man's unpleasant run-in with the police which prompted me to comment that 'First rule of living in the first world is avoid the police.' I don't know where I got that, I mean I didn't grow up in the ghetto, and as far as I know my dad wasn't mobbed up, but that was certainly the impression I managed to collect.

Then there was another story I read about how people behave differently in different social settings, but the author uses a whole different set of words to describe it.

Previous posts about what's wrong with mass transit.