Sunday, October 02, 2005

Why so many cops bitch at the public

And vice versa. Things like this. And the crap turning up with NOPD that I posted before(along with a lot of other people).

Said up front: there are a lot of good cops out there, good cops being defined as those who don't use their position to bully people and break laws and basically steal just because they can. They do good work, and deserve to be praised for it. I've known a number of them in my life that I would, without hesitation, have trusted with my kid's lives.

I have also known a number that I wouldn't trust to guard an empty dog house, let alone one with anything valuable inside. I've known some and dealt with some whose attitude was enough to piss off the Good Humor man, who must have had letters of complaint and formal complaints an inch thick in their files. And they were still cops. They might get yelled at, but fired? Uh-uh. And then they just went out mad and took it out on someone else. Those are some of the idiots I'm speaking of tonight, along with those like the clowns from NJ who felt it was their privilege, maybe their right, to ignore laws just because they were in a hurry. And developed a case of righteous anger when called on it.

The first line of the article Geek links to tells it all: "A speeding New Jersey police convoy should not have been warned to slow down here, its superiors say, despite numerous 911 calls from motorists claiming they were forced off Interstate 81." Think about the attitude behind that. It rots the respect the public should have for LE officers, and it leads to(sometimes follows) the arrogance of someone who believes he's above the law.

"
The news of the Augusta County stop incensed Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale, who, in a taped telephone conversation with Roane, lambasted the deputy for stopping his officers.

"If you think that that's not a disgrace, you should take that badge off your shirt and throw it in the garbage," Speziale said. "This is unacceptable, and I'll tell you what, I hope I get the opportunity to show you the same courtesy up here in New Jersey."

Speziale told Roane that "law enforcement is all about supporting each other" and said he was reporting the Augusta County stop to the National Sheriffs' Association."

This clown is the Sheriff, the chief LE officer of that county, and he not only told another officer he was a disgrace, and his conduct 'unacceptable', but he would report him to the NSA for daring to make his deputies slow down and stop running people off the road. This kind of crap is the disgrace, and this sheriff has his head so far up his backside he thinks it's the 'proper' attitude to have.

Sheriff, I have news for you; once your officers leave their jurisdiction, they no longer have the same powers they have when in it. They're not entitled to use lights and siren just because they're in a hurry at any time, let alone when in another state. They're not entitled to carry a gun in other places because they're a deputy in one county. Yeah, a lot of cops let them, and it kind of pisses me off. They don't know if the guy they're talking to is a fine officer or a disgrace to the badge, but because he does have a badge they let him get away with it. When they'd throw you or I into a cell without hesitation.

This is why I had ambivalent feelings about the proposed law to allow current and retired LE officers carry concealed nationwide; I don't generally have a problem with any law-abiding citazen carrying, but this makes one more point of separation betweel LE and the public, a privilege given to cops and denied to the rest of us. Why should an officer from Yazoo City MS be allowed to carry concealed anywhere, and an honest citazen be denied that? Publicola and Smallest Minority have written about this before, probably more eloquently than I could. It strikes me as being related to the attitude of people like Sen. Schumer and Feinstein and Rep. Boxer, who whine endlessly that guns should be banned and people shouldn't be allowed to carry concealed, while they have carry permits; sometimes for the types of firearm they insist should be banned. "You peasants can't be trusted with this, but WE are important/rich/special and so it's different for US". Which also helps lead to the mindset that allows cops who're supposed to be helping people after a natural disaster to point guns at honest citazens, in some cases beat up on them, so as to take the firearms those people were using to protect themselves; "You're not one of us, so I've got no problem following an illegal order". In fact, it probably never entered the minds of at least some of them that it COULD be an illegal order; they got it from Authority, and that's all that counted.

Some of the information from Kevin indicated that some National Guard and LE refused to perform that act, and "By Sunday, Sheriff's offices in Texas are looking for evidence of systematic intent to confiscate arms, vowing to pull their men out if that is in fact what is going on.", which helps point out that there are a lot of LE personnel out there who remember their oath, and who don't look on the honest citazen as either an enemy or a sub-human.

Part of the trouble is that LE has much the same attitude as doctors and lawyers, in that they'll too often cover up for and defend members of their profession that, personally, they wish would take a long dive in a shallow well. That Us vs. Them attitude that gets out of control and leads to people who should be thrown out of the profession, who sometimes should be jailed, instead being protected.

I'm starting to ramble on a bit, but this situation both pisses me off and worries me. Pisses me off for the obvious reasons; worries me because every time crap like this comes out, it pushes LE and the public further apart. Which is good for neither.


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