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Perception, Cynicism and You

November 4, 2011 — 67 Comments

***Amended Post***

I think we can all agree that we’ve had some good laughs this week.  At least, most of us have.  I wanted to take this idea of what cops think is funny and what the gen­eral pub­lic thinks is funny and turn it on its head a bit and talk about per­cep­tion and cynicism.

Let me start by say­ing there exists a dis­tinct dif­fer­ence between three peo­ple: the cit­i­zen, the rookie cop, and the vet­eran offi­cer (also applies to other first respon­ders).  What I’m going to explain to you may or may not make sense, but I’m gonna give it a shot.

I have a chal­lenge for you.  I’m going to show you a pic­ture and I want you to go to the com­ments and write down the first thing that comes to your mind.  Be con­cise.  There is one caveat, though.  Since I mod­er­ate com­ments, I’m not going to post any of them for a few days or a week because I don’t want some­one else’s com­ment to influ­ence you.

I work with a cou­ple of guys that just returned from some train­ing and this issue about per­cep­tion and cyn­i­cism and what being a cop (or first respon­der) does to a per­son was extremely inter­est­ing.  Before I amended this post, I had said you could more or less describe every­thing you saw to what­ever extent you saw fit.  After work­ing some OT tonight with one of the guys that went to the train­ing, I’m amend­ing it to the first thing that pops in your head when you see the picture.

It may sound a bit sneaky and vague, but it’s sup­posed to at the moment.  I’m going to give you a peek behind the cur­tain of the Great and Pow­er­ful OZ.  For it to be suc­cess­ful, I need a lot of comments.

In your com­ments, I’d also ask you to state if you’re a cop and if so for how long.  Con­versely, if you’re not, please indi­cate that as well.  Ready?

 

 

So, with regard to the gen­tle­man wear­ing the glasses, what is the first thing that pops in your head?  If you have pre­vi­ously com­mented, please com­ment again!


If you enjoyed this post, please con­sider leav­ing a com­ment or sub­scrib­ing to the RSS feed to have future arti­cles deliv­ered to your feed reader.

Related posts:

  1. Per­cep­tion, Cyn­i­cism and You — The Point
  2. Speed Per­cep­tion (…again, Yours vs. Mine)
  3. Hum­ble Request
  4. Two Wheel Terror
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67 responses to Perception, Cynicism and You

  1. Andrew MacKie-Mason November 4, 2011 at 17:00

    Not a cop.

    The man is a Scout leader. I think he was an Eagle Scout when he was a teen, and I would pre­sume he’s Amer­i­can, though I don’t actu­ally know if scout­ing in other coun­tries uses the same uniform.

    Reply
  2. Justin Schorr November 4, 2011 at 17:06

    Male, early 50’s in no imme­di­ate dis­tress. Obese bas­ing height on female to his right, not­ing she is likely not wear­ing healed shoes as the female to his left might. He wears the uni­form of a Boy Scout Leader with mul­ti­ple patches (badges) over the left breast. This photo is from Korea, on a mil­i­tary base, imply­ing per­haps he is a ser­vice­man or involved with the mil­i­tary in one form or another.

    Basic stereo­types from media include: bald­ing, glasses, obese, tak­ing part in child activ­i­ties. In an episode of CSI he’s the child molester.

    Based on his stance he is proud of the salute he is giv­ing and likely believes in the oath he has given. He wears a ring on his left ring fin­ger indi­cat­ing marriage.

    I use all this to estab­lish he would be a good med­ical his­to­rian for him­self and his family.

    Not a cop, not look­ing for bad guys.

    –HM

    Reply
  3. Rus­sell Stine November 4, 2011 at 17:13

    Hi, I’m not a police officer.

    The large gen­tle­man is a white male wear­ing a tan boy scout type uni­form, stands about 5’8″, maybe 275–300 lbs. He is bald­ing with black hair and glasses. He is not armed and I bet I could out­run him and beat him in a fight so long as he doesn’t get me on the ground.

    Other than his phys­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics, he looks like a heart attack wait­ing to hap­pen. And he gives off that creepy child moles­ter vibe. I bet he has a high pitched squeaky voice or some sort of fem­i­nine voice.

    Reply
  4. T.Buddha November 4, 2011 at 17:24

    Civil­ian all my life.

    Cau­casian man, I’d esti­mate about 5 foot 8,between 200 and 240 lbs, over­weight, wear­ing brown pants and a long sleeved tan shirt with two breast pock­ets, var­i­ous club patches on it. He is bald­ing, is wear­ing pre­scrip­tion glasses, and seems to be aged at around 40 years old.

    I don’t know what you call that gar­ment he’s wear­ing around his neck like a neck­tie, but it appears to be a faded light red.

    Reply
    • T.Buddha November 5, 2011 at 01:35

      In regards to the amdended post, same as before.

      The frame of mind I am in is that I am a wit­ness and as a wit­ness I need to make note of every detail I can so that an offi­cer can eas­ily iden­tify the suspect.

      I think in a crowd, this guy would eas­ily stand out, so I’m sat­is­fied with my description.

      Eagerly await­ing the edu­ca­tion incom­ing from MC !

      Reply
  5. SSG John Broyles November 4, 2011 at 17:34

    1) Giv­ing wrong salute at Blue & Gold Ban­quet. Should be the Cub Scout salute instead of the Boy Scout one

    2) Cub­mas­ter not mem­ber of Order of the Arrow

    Will hunt more after I get off work

    Reply
    • Allen November 9, 2011 at 13:41

      Boy Scout leader, pos­si­bly Scout­mas­ter but the angle makes it hard to tell the badge of office. He is at a Cub Scout func­tion. Based on the Scout salute and the lady at right’s hand over her heart, a flag cer­e­mony is tak­ing place. It could be a Blue and Gold ban­quet based on the color scheme of the tables. Wear­ing Wood Badge wog­gle (neck­er­chief slide) and beads, indi­cat­ing that he’s attended Wood Badge (advanced lead­er­ship train­ing in Scout­ing). Over­weight, push­ing maybe 310. Bald­ing. The num­ber of patches above his left pocket indi­cates he’s been in Scout­ing for a while. Hand is in an odd posi­tion, he’s either got a thumb in his picket, or he’s used to hold­ing a sidearm. Strad­dling his chair, which restricts his move­ments. Prob­a­bly not for­mer LEO. Over­all impres­sion is that he’s harmless.

      Not LEO, but was in Scout­ing for a while.

      Reply
  6. canoe­head November 4, 2011 at 17:47

    I’m not a cop, and I would have assumed that this was a Boy Scout din­ner. I see the kid in the back­ground, and per­haps they are thank­ing the scout lead­ers for their service.

    Reply
  7. Suz November 4, 2011 at 17:52

    My very first impres­sion is of a dad/ at a BSA ban­quet, antic­i­pat­ing an award for his son, or for himself.

    He appears to be a mid­dle aged scout leader, likely the father of a scout. I don’t rec­og­nize the uni­form but it doesn’t look like police or mil­i­tary. Over­weight, but with good pos­ture, he may be for­mer police or mil­i­tary. The length of his hair sug­gests he is no longer either. Gray­ing thin­ning hair says he could be retired, but he looks a lit­tle young for that. He’s prob­a­bly mar­ried, his ring is on the cor­rect fin­ger. Instead of a par­ent, he could be a vol­un­teer through the com­mu­nity or church. He might even be a pedophile who is good at blend­ing in. I would char­ac­ter­ize his facial expres­sion as com­fort­able, pleased and fairly enthu­si­as­tic. He doesn’t appear bored or smug. He looks confident.

    Reply
  8. HonkingAn­te­lope November 4, 2011 at 18:58

    “Walk­ing heart attack wait­ing to happen”?

    Reply
  9. sheikyurb­houti November 4, 2011 at 20:24

    I am not in LE, just a cop lover, and a teacher under hire for 5 years in an inden­tured servitude/hostage sit­u­a­tion type of job. THe Guy with the glasses appears to be rep­re­sent­ing him­self as a mem­ber or leader of a scout type orga­ni­za­tion with the clothes and man­ner­isms. How­ever, the other lady and his over­all demeanor indi­cate that he has some skele­tons in his closet, and not just the large slabs of beef bought a Costco. IT just screams this is not a typ­i­cal event with aver­age cit­i­zens. He is sooo up to something.

    Reply
  10. Julie November 4, 2011 at 22:34

    290 Registrant.…Law Enforce­ment 14 years, cur­rently Civil­ian CSI.

    Reply
  11. Bill5250 November 4, 2011 at 22:38

    only thing miss­ing is a Roman Catholic priest!

    Reply
  12. Scrib­bles November 4, 2011 at 22:40

    Why is he wear­ing a boy scout uni­form and doing a girls scout salute? I would hate to lift him. He’s sweat­ing. The woman in the back has three glasses of water in front of her. Is that an arm over the chair In front of him? Ok you got me. I’m only an emtb. I’m sure I could go into his weight and his stu­pid look­ing smirk, but with­out being in the enivi­ro­ment I can’t pass judgment.

    Reply
  13. FrankT November 5, 2011 at 02:00

    First reac­tion: What’s with those things in his ear? “Good Lis­tener” merit badge?

    Unre­lated, here’s a fancy sky bike for you to look at, but it’s just a movie prop: http://johneaves.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/flying-cycle-friday/

    Reply
    • FrankT November 9, 2011 at 21:05

      For­got to add, Not a cop. And won­der­ing what this poor guy is going to think if he stum­bles onto this page.

      Reply
  14. CO-MC-50 November 5, 2011 at 05:35

    I am cur­rently a cer­ti­fied peace offi­cer (eight years sworn — eleven total if you count time as a dis­patcher), who has the great­est duty assign­ment in the world (motorcop).

    First thoughts as follows:

    Spec­ta­cled gent: Chomo (slang term for child moles­ter); dis­creetly try­ing to hide the aris­ing bulge behind the con­ve­niently placed chair in front of him. Note flushed skin tone and awk­ward smile.

    Stoic female by his side: Naïve sin­gle mother who has lived near the ‘very friendly, gen­er­ous, and kind’ neigh­bor­hood scout­mas­ter for years look­ing for­ward to the day he could take her and her son under his wing (coin­ci­den­tally stand­ing, par­tially vis­i­ble, behind her). Unfor­tu­nately unaware of the impend­ing years of emtional toil and pain her son is endur­ing as a result of the “one-on-one merit badge tutor­ing” sessions.

    Seri­ously though, that is the first thing that flicked through my brain with pro­fes­sion­ally honed cyn­i­cism. Then my at home, off-duty Chris­t­ian based cop fil­ter clicked on and I reluc­tantly thought, “What nice pic­ture of some clean cut, intel­li­gent, unselfish, kind hearted pil­lars of the com­mu­nity.“
    ;)

    Thank­fully I feel I have devel­oped over the years a healthy bal­ance at home between a nec­es­sary hyper­vig­i­lent instinct and the blind sheep-like vic­tim mentality.

    Reply
  15. Teri November 5, 2011 at 06:33

    I think he looks like an over­weight, kinda creepy boy-scout wanna-be.

    I’m not a cop.

    Teri

    Reply
  16. fel­low motor November 5, 2011 at 06:48

    #1 He ate the lit­tle boy scouts, #2 he is a 290.

    15 year cop.

    Reply
  17. Bul­lets November 5, 2011 at 08:23

    Sloppy and unpro­fes­sional. Shirts not even tucked in, salute is crap, even his glasses are askew, col­lar isnt but­toned, it seems like the col­lar is to small to be but­toned. It seems as if they are doing the pledge of alle­giance or the National Anthem based upon the plained-clothed woman to is rear with her hand over her heart. If that’s the case, his “atten­tion” is ter­ri­ble, hands in the wrong place, slouching

    LEO 3 years
    EMT 3 Years

    Reply
  18. Cuuck November 5, 2011 at 08:29

    Per­vert is the first thing I think of. I’m a 23 year vet­eran, a patrol sergeant, in an east coast town of 250,000 peo­ple and about 470 sworn officers.

    Reply
  19. Greg Binder November 5, 2011 at 08:42

    First thing, mouth breather. The guy looks a lit­tle out of shape to be a cub/scout leader; but it must be some­thing he enjoys. He sweats alot, i can see his face get­ting red under strain. I think he may be sin­gle, or mar­ried to a mousy woman or a for­eign born wife (Fil­ipino, Chi­nese, Russ­ian). The guy prob­a­bly likes the com­pan­ion­ship of pre-teen and teenage males, which is a red flag to me. I fig­ure there has been more than one alle­ga­tion of wrong­ful touch­ing against him. Prob­a­bly never legally proven. The guy is prob­a­bly a great talker and an atten­tive lis­tener, he always has a story. I work in Immi­gra­tion and I am also a vol­un­teer firefighter.

    Reply
  20. hartvixen November 5, 2011 at 09:20

    Fat guy that shouldn’t be in a uni­form. First thing that pops in my head. But I also see a proud man salut­ing the flag,

    Reply
  21. hartvixen November 5, 2011 at 09:23

    Sorry, I didn’t fol­low all the direc­tions. I am NOT an LEO but have LEOs in fam­ily and I have worked in LE, civil­ian employee.

    Reply
  22. Dan Alexan­der November 5, 2011 at 09:24

    Gas­tro­pod.

    Not LEO

    Reply
  23. R.K.C. November 5, 2011 at 10:23

    First thing that came to mind was that guy looked sus­pi­cious. Why is he smil­ing, and who is he look­ing at? Also why the salute/uniform.
    Not a cop.

    Reply
  24. Christy November 5, 2011 at 10:42

    Creepy–

    Reply
  25. Kim­berly November 5, 2011 at 10:50

    Large white bald­ing male with glasses in a boy scout uni­form saluting

    Reply
  26. Can­dace November 5, 2011 at 10:52

    Com­ing from a fam­ily of LE and being in LE for six years. First see­ing the pic was total PC290. LoL

    Reply
  27. Modc30 November 5, 2011 at 10:54

    290 reg­is­trant

    PD/FD/EMS dis­patcher 4 1/2 years and EMT/Paramedic 7 1/2 years.

    Reply
  28. Barstad November 5, 2011 at 10:58

    Shit­bag, but that’s com­ing from spend­ing time in the Marines where there’s lit­tle expo­sure to that look (except­ing Navy lol)

    Reply
  29. valerie November 5, 2011 at 11:19

    He needs to stop eat­ing dounuts

    Reply
  30. Shawn Smucker November 5, 2011 at 11:26

    The first thing(s) that I thought when view­ing the picture:

    Is he a boy scout leader?
    I never knew you were sup­posed to salute with three fingers.

    I am not a cop.

    Reply
  31. sheikyurb­houti November 5, 2011 at 12:07

    Din­ner is miss­ing and he looks full. You said to com­ment again. bwaahahbwahahaha

    Reply
  32. Ground­hog November 5, 2011 at 13:11

    Fat Boyscout troop leader (or some sim­i­lar type of orga­ni­za­tion) stand­ing for pledge of alle­giance (most likely). He’s obvi­ously over­weight but to me that’s just an obser­va­tion and not a neg­a­tive. Then again, I’m fat too so take that into con­sid­er­a­tion. It took a sec­ond thus it wasn’t imme­di­ate but I also had good thoughts that he was in some kind of Boyscout type orga­ni­za­tion and likely doing good there. I’m not a cop or medic. Joe civilian.

    Reply
  33. Jay November 5, 2011 at 18:15

    An over­weight health haz­zard doing a job the other par­ents didn’t wan’t to do.

    (Not a cop.)

    Reply
  34. Nicrit November 5, 2011 at 19:28

    Ded­i­ca­tion to some­thing he doesn’t get alot back

    Para­medic 7 years

    Reply
  35. Jared November 5, 2011 at 19:34

    Scout­mas­ter. Vol­un­teer­ing his time to help raise well-adjusted, respect­ful mem­bers of society.

    Or… A major pedophile. Could go either way.

    Not a cop, been in Fire and EMS for 22 years.

    Reply
  36. Sam Bradley November 5, 2011 at 20:44

    My first thought … this guy is a myocar­dial infrac­tion ready to hap­pen … not a cop but a medic!

    Reply
  37. Justin Schorr November 5, 2011 at 22:07

    OK, first glance only? I don’t trust him. The face, both the expres­sion and the fea­tures bother me.

    If I get the chance to talk to him my impres­sion would change.

    Very curi­ous to see what you have in mind here.

    –HM

    Reply
  38. Peggy November 5, 2011 at 23:19

    “That belly is huge.”

    Not a cop…fully civilian

    Reply
  39. 30YearBiker November 6, 2011 at 08:10

    I am not a cop.

    First thing that pops into my head, “man, I am sorry about the nation’s obe­sity prob­lem, but am happy to see the diver­sity in the scout­ing ranks.”

    Reply
  40. EMT GFP November 6, 2011 at 08:31

    First: That grin is a tad creepy

    Fol­lowed by: How on earth am I get­ting him out of there if he should col­lapse? (yup, not cop, EMT)

    Which lead to: Straighten your shirt! (I think I am becom­ing a good uni­form fanatic)

    Reply
  41. The Girl from New York November 6, 2011 at 12:39

    Boy Scout troop leader at an Eagle Scout Court of Honor.

    Reply
  42. jtblue3recon November 6, 2011 at 14:48

    Oif­fi­cer MC,I am not Law Enforce­ment and is it Ma and Pa Scout? Just askin’.….….

    Reply
  43. jtblue3recon November 6, 2011 at 14:51

    Dang! Offi­cer MC!

    Reply
  44. Viv November 6, 2011 at 17:33

    Dwight Schrute (The Office, US ver­sion). I am not a cop. Also he reminds me of an incom­pe­tent nin­com­poop called Her­mes Endarkis from an Aus­tralian 90’s kids show called “Ship to Shore”. I’m sorry, I’m sure he is very good at his job…

    Reply
  45. Cheryl November 7, 2011 at 00:56

    “I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a toys r us kid!”…

    Reply
  46. Adam November 7, 2011 at 06:24

    First thought: You know him, and you want us to make fun of him for you?

    Reply
  47. Clint November 7, 2011 at 13:12

    I’m not a cop, I was able to past the fire­fighter test and have been a fire­fighter for the past 16 years.

    Dude looks like a 290 registrant.

    Reply
  48. radtec November 7, 2011 at 13:23

    OMG…I can’t wait to get home and tell mother I sold the most pop­corn again this year!

    Reply
  49. SARAH November 7, 2011 at 15:53

    290 REGISTRANT!
    I’M A DISPATCHER MARRIED TO A MOTOR COP

    Reply
  50. offi­cer Tex November 7, 2011 at 16:22

    First thought in my mind, “Why is that woman in a BSA uniform?”

    Part-time for PD for 2 1/2 years.

    Reply
  51. Stryker1sf November 7, 2011 at 17:54

    Boy scout leader at a court of honor, dur­ing a flag ceremony.

    Reply
  52. Bob November 7, 2011 at 22:43

    Boy Scout leader, wears the “wood badge” arti­cles that sig­nify that this per­son demon­strates the ideals of scout­ing. to be tacky, does need to lose weight though, makes the uni­form look bad. I am a for­mer sol­dier, com­bat vet and never have been a cop.

    Reply
  53. Dave November 8, 2011 at 07:31

    Checked his fruit to see if he’s an Eagle Scout; can’t tell from the pic­ture, but prob­a­bly not, it would be on the bot­tom row with the Arrow of Light . I am not a cop.

    Reply
  54. Char­maine November 9, 2011 at 00:48

    I’m a sim­ple ol’ cit­i­zen. And hon­estly? First thing that came to my mind was “Too many donuts…”

    Reply
  55. Brian November 9, 2011 at 09:01

    It might be the angle of the pic­ture mess­ing with me when it comes to his eyes and glasses, but it looks like he may either be a bit cross-eyed or have a reduced men­tal capacity.

    Not LEO.

    Reply
  56. San­dra November 9, 2011 at 09:40

    My hon­est first thought was ‘per­vert’ and the inter­nal radar started clanging.

    My sec­ond thought (after I rep­ri­manded myself for being so crit­i­cal) was he’s prob­a­bly a proud dad help­ing his com­mu­nity by vol­un­teer­ing with the Boy Scouts. He’s prob­a­bly a nice guy, but I’d have to talk to him to get a proper read on who he is.

    LEO for 17 years.

    Reply
  57. Park­watch­man November 9, 2011 at 11:08

    I’m going to step out of the box here and com­ment on the above com­ments as a side note. Is there some­thing to be said when so many peo­ple can’t even rec­og­nize the Boy Scout uni­form nowa­days? That was an Amer­i­can sta­ple for decades.

    Pic­ture wise: The first thing that pops to mind is “over­weight”. The next is it’s always good to see some­one involved in com­mu­nity ser­vice. Yeah, he looks a lit­tle frumpy but at least he’s doing some good.

    Cur­rently a rookie cop, firefighter/emt, Army officer.

    Reply
    • sheikyurb­houti November 9, 2011 at 20:35

      Of course peo­ple don’t rec­og­nize the BSA uni­form. They don’t sell cook­ies, obvi­ously! hehehe Now pass me some thin mints and samoas.

      Reply
  58. 25M7 November 9, 2011 at 21:14

    If it walks like a duck…288er

    Reply
  59. glenn fiedler November 10, 2011 at 14:45

    first impres­sion only?

    1. pink, ver­ti­cal. no obvi­ous dis­tress early to mid for­ties, 290+ pnds.

    addi­tional thoughts? (besides the exit route, recruit­ing the addi­tional four peo­ple needed to carry back board,hoping that if i expose him i don’t find pic­tures of miss­ing boys tat­tooed to his chest etc.)

    2. fruit loop

    Reply
  60. Dan Alexan­der November 10, 2011 at 16:58

    Have to amend my Gas­tro­pod state­ment, it is easy to judge some­one fast, but in all like­li­hood this per­son is doing a good com­mu­nity ser­vice that many would shy from. I think the point here is if in pri­vate, humor can be crass, hell some of the fun­ni­est come­di­ans touch on uncom­fort­able bor­ders. Sorry, but humor is usu­ally funny because of it’s com­men­tary, even when it is stereo­typ­i­cal or short-sighted. We all need to vent and let off steam. And even the best of us have some sort of prej­u­dice built into us whether that is towards obe­sity or gen­eral creepiness.

    MC has good read­er­ship though lots of civic minded peo­ple, cheers to that.

    Reply
  61. cstiltz November 10, 2011 at 17:21

    I am not a cop. I have a hard time con­cen­trat­ing on him when Ive got the dis­tract­ing injury of a girl in the OA Brother sash. By the way, I think I rec­og­nize his Scout­mas­ter patch and Eagle scout badge. Looks like a blue and gold ban­quet in Korean Church base­ment. As an Eagle scout I gotta say I never ran into any child abuse in my 6 years of scout­ing. Then again I didn’t grow up in Happy Val­ley, PA.

    So whats the deal Motor? spill

    Reply
  62. canoe­head November 10, 2011 at 18:43

    So…what was the point you wanted to make, Motor­cop? We all have prejudices.

    Reply

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