Re: Hey Police Officers RANT
18R:<br /><br />Your comments would have been perceived in the manner in which you claim they were offered had you not offered them with the distinct "flavor" of corruption and misconduct. I agree, people do what they're good at and they're good at what they do. There's no question that it takes a certain "it" to do police work - like many skilled professions. Most fields don't require their participants to do much more than apply their training with some semblance of competance whereas police work and similar fields require their participants overcome the most basic of human responses with near perfection in an instant's notice. <br /><br />Easier said than done - especially if you're standing on the sidelines having never stepped foot onto the field of play. <br /><br />txswinner:<br /><br />I get what you're saying - and agree that you know the hours when you take the job. What I'm objecting to is the idea that cops are fair game for abuse and that they have no complaint, no matter how they're treated. <br /><br />All:<br /><br />I've been sued once. The guy who sued is an ex-cop who runs dope and **********s for the Hell's Angels. I put a federal dope case on him and he put a federal civil rights suit on me. We spent three days in court listening to ridiculous testimony and allegations of police misconduct, excessive force, and other assorted violations. The jury spent 25 minutes coming back with a finding for us. It probably took them 20 minutes to pour coffee, pass out donuts, and elect a jury foreman. He's an example of a cop who was policed by his own - first, when he lost his job, and later, when he went to prison.<br /><br />I appreciated the attorneys who defended us. I appreciate the prosecutors who prosecute our cases although they fall down on the job too often to get my two thumbs up. I even enjoy the defense attorneys I deal with when they don't go to ridiculous extremes to clear their clients. They're a necessary part of the legal system - but also the primary reason we'll never see legal reform in this country. They have a very strong political lobby and many holding elected office are or were attorneys. <br /><br />Like I said before, it's not the crooks, it's the uninformed but judgemental public and the political nature of our own administrations, occasionally filled with hypocrites, that offer the average cop the most stress. Truth be told - I like dealing with the crooks. I know where I stand with them, and they with me. The trick is in determining who's a crook and who isn't with grace and diplomacy. Most of the complaints made in this thread cite precisely this failure. <br /><br />I challenge those with nothing but complaints to walk a mile in my moccasins so to speak. Surely there's room for you to join your local police reserves. You won't be "in the game", but you'll be close enough to see what it's really about. <br /><br />I think you'd be surprised at what you see and learn about human interaction in the worst of circumstances.
