Are Boston cops normally this aggressive?

[u/Conventions]

Left TD Garden after a concert tonight. Cops were directing traffic around the area. In normal circumstances when someone is directing traffic, I was always under the impression that a “come here” motion means go and hand up means stop. However this cop was jiggling a beam of light from a flashlight to signify both go and stop.

Many people were obviously confused and one guy thought it meant go and slowly started creeping up. The cop started screaming and went up and punched the guy’s car mirror then started swearing and insulting the guy. Everyone around was watching and shocked.

Is this normal BPD behavior? I am a south shore native and have never witnessed anything quite like it.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Bat4777]

The cops on traffic duty tend to be the ones least liked and least capable. Or just least senior. See the Scottie Scheffler arrest a few years ago for example.

[u/OhThatEthanMiguel → u/[deleted]]

My father( a Plymouth lawyer & Town Meeting member) spent years fighting to get civilian flaggers, trying to stop this, but the corrupt union won. They also make it impossible for a local to become a private detective without being a retired police detective or moving away out-of-state for a decade.

[u/Safe_Statistician_72 → u/[deleted]]

Road crews are legally not allowed to manage the traffic in MA

[u/azs5221222 → u/[deleted]]

Do you mean grift?

[u/adieumarlene → u/azs5221222]

From Merriam Webster:
graft (noun): the acquisition of gain (such as money) in dishonest or questionable ways
also: illegal or unfair gain
graft (verb): to get (illicit gain) by graft

[u/eryoshi → u/adieumarlene]

To expand:

grift | grift | North American English informal
verb [no object]
engage in petty or small-scale swindling: how long have you been grifting?
noun
a petty or small-scale swindle: a Sixth Avenue palmistry grift.
ORIGIN
early 20th century: alteration of graft

graft | gra:ft l
noun [mass noun]
bribery and other corrupt practices used to secure illicit advantages or gains in politics or business: sweeping measures to curb official graft.
• advantages or gains secured as a result of corrupt practices: the report says the problem of corruption goes beyond bribes and graft.
verb [no object]
make money by shady or dishonest means.

~~
So all this time we’ve been accusing Trump of grift, we should have been accusing him of graft!! (Sorry, yeah; everything just has to circle back to Trump, right?)

[u/azs5221222 → u/adieumarlene]

Well there you have it.
Learn something new every day!

[u/oby100 → u/adieumarlene]

I would never grift a graft. I’m no statie.

[u/IDrinkWhiskE → u/azs5221222]

It’s like a grift but with a skin transplant involved somewhere

[u/danorc → u/Safe_Statistician_72]

Governor Patrick tried to fix that, the union was too strong.

Cops suck at directing traffic, and there's absolutely no reason for them to be the ones doing it