Cops' minds

The cases that illustrate the suspicious, paranoid and sometimes brutal police mentality:

1. Men arrested after deputy finds calf in backseat

New Mexico authorities have arrested three men found with a 220-pound calf in the backseat of their car.

The Carlsbad Current Argus reports that the men are accused of cattle rustling. They were jailed on charges of suspicion of larceny of livestock, conspiracy, lack of a bill of sale and exporting livestock.

So any time a person offers a ride to an animal, just being friendly to it, that person must be incarcerated? Even if the animal, as police confesses was "sharing the backseat with one of the alleged thieves"? Nah...

2. Man accused of urinating on co-workers' chairs

Police documents say Foley looked up employee photos in the agency database and then would go into the office during off hours and urinate on their chairs.

A non-prejudiced observer would have immediately spotted the fact that Mr Foley was behaving in a way typical for feline species: scent-marking his favorite people's haunts. Had reason prevailed, Mr Fouley would have been packed off to a research facility for dissection and study. As it is, he is wasting in the nick.

3. Idaho man with name tattoo tries to lie to police

An officer says he told three men who were walking on the street with a dog to move to the sidewalk, and that one looked like he might run away, so he asked for identification.

Contreras identified himself as Emiliano Velesco, and a police database search found no matches. The officer then had a dispatcher run a check with the birthday he was given and the last name tattooed on the forearm.

So, nowadays walking on a street with a dog and "looking like he might run away" is enough to get arrested by an overzealous gendarme? Notice the following too:

Contreras had three warrants for failure to appear on charges including providing false information.

The man has a problem with his name. Who knows, he may hate it because he fought with his parents. Or because he sees that name tattooed on himself too frequently. Or he just likes the name Emiliano Velesco - in fact, I like it too and will adopt it for my next meeting with a cop.

So where were we? Yes, them cops are a suspicious, paranoid and frequently brutal bunch. But yea, we kinda deserve them, you know.