Explorations in Policing, Faith and Life (With a hint of humor, product reviews, news and whatever catches my attention)
Showing posts with label cops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cops. Show all posts

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Love the Police...Kiss a Cop...Wait Don't

There are two, among many, unique aspects of the law enforcement profession.  The first is that police officers over time slowly withdraw all their socialization from any non-law enforcement source.  What that really means is that they only hang out with cops, drink at cop bars, golf with cops, work massive amounts of overtime with cops.  They even withdraw from their familial relationships.

The second aspect is that we are solely judged by the one percent that are crazy, incredibly stupid or both.  Think if any profession was judged this way.   A brilliant New York neurosurgeon made to take ethics classes because an toxicologist in Omaha felt his patients up in the examination room.  But guess what, this happens to us all the time.  I can not tell you how many trainings I had to sit through because some moron did something I would never do, have never seen, and my co-workers would never do.  Oh and then when that person gets caught, a bunch of breathless articles come out trying to find this unreported epidemic.

Put paragraph one and paragraph two together.  Think you may get tired of friends, family, acquaintances asking you about an idiot (and without doing this purposely) making you defend yourself and your profession all the time.

So just to drive myself nuts I just googled searched "police" and here is the three in depth article list below. I evidently lie, hate one of the three peoples of the book, and arrest kids for not cleaning up.  I have never lied at the stand, there is no reason to do so because if you want to keep your house you only arrest people that are so guilty its a dead bang.  No one in my state or area has placed a young man/woman into custody for not cleaning up and great... an idiot department in Florida did  something stupid in training.  There are 900,000 law enforcement personnel on the streets of the United States, they serve 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, we don't stop for weather, we don't stop for disaster, we miss our children birthday parties and Christmas.  So with millions of civilian contacts a year, 99% positive or trust me we would get raked over the coals over it...what, not one positive story?

Strange then why cops only seems to love cops.

Matthew 7:2
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

    In-depth articles
  1. Why Police Officers Lie Under Oath - NYTimes.com

    THOUSANDS of people plead guilty to crimes every year in the United States because they know that the odds of a jury's believing their word over a police officer's are slim to ...
    New York Times
  2. The US schools with their own police - The Guardian

    More and more US schools have police patrolling the corridors. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the canteen floor.
    Guardian
  3. How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam - Meg Stalcup ...

    There aren't nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of America's police... n a bright January morning in 2010, at Broward College in Davie, Florida, about sixty police officers ...
    washingtonmonthly.com





Friday, May 20, 2011

Charles Barkley-You gotta love him...

I was listening to sports radio, Tuesday, while on another marathon vehicle surveillance (can't feel me knees anymore) when an interview came up with basketball legend/Michael Jordan confidant/TNT announcer, Charles Barkley.  Since it was with ESPN radio, the sycophantic sportscasters were gushing all over him and pushing the TNT broadcast that he would be on.  They asked the enviable question concerning his contribution to  Basketball and American society in general.

Charles said this, "I am just an entertainer.  I always say that there are only five real jobs.  Doctor, Police Officer, fireman, teacher and the military.  The rest, while nice, aren't necessary.  I am an entertainer.  I hope that for a few hours I can let people get away from their problems but my job has never been important."

Wow, can't argue with that.  I wish the rest of society would wind that swiftly into the clockwork in their heads.  But my hopes are not high.



Ephesians 4:11
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,

Addendum:  I wish I could fully embrace Charles except for the: drunken driving, gambling problems and driving around looking for a "blow job" (Dec 31, 2008).

 

Friday, July 16, 2010

Going out of business-The Police Business that is


One of the reasons to go into law enforcement and not the private sector (and I promise you my roommates in college consistently called me in the 90's telling me what they were making and what they were buying and what a dumb ass I was to be a cop.  Further, they had an open offer that when I was done "playing around" I could get a real job through them...What a turn around a bad economy can make in people's thinking, their opinion about my stupid decision has changed 180 degrees but I digress) is the security of the job and the stability of the position, well until the automatons take over.

What I am seeing for the first time ever is towns giving up their police forces or cutting them down to nothing.  Its a good trend for those who survive the purging and go back to "just the facts ma'am" from "oh sweet old lady your lonely let me have a cup of coffee with you and draw up an action plan".  But a troubling trend nevertheless.

Here is a brief summary of towns that have given up their Police departments.

San Luis, Colorado.  Chief and five officers gone.  Sheriff to take over.  Link: http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_fe7833bc-8668-11df-afee-001cc4c03286.html

Maywood, California.  41 officers.  Sheriff to take over.  Link:  http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/29/news/economy/city_fires_employees/index.htm

Bethel, Maine.  Five officers, Sheriff to take over.  Link:  http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/penny-pinching-towns-put-police-out-to-pasture/19550879

Fallowfield, Pennsylvania.   Five gone, Sheriff to take over.  Link Same As above.


Oakland, California.  80 Officers 10% of force.  Link:   http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/13/state/n172707D60.DTL

Etc Etc Etc.

Now I must acknowledge that there is an incredible duplication of services as each of these tiny cities throughout the Unites States fielded their own public services, fire and Police, that economies of scale would have produced better results.  But they have managed to keep their police and fire while cutting everything else.  Now it seems we are now on the block.  It can also be seen with the larger department pairing down their staffs in the hundreds, just look at Chicago Pd, 4,000 down and counting with no end in site.Your neighborhood watch better become armed.

Genesis 47:18
When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, "We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.