Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

[Viligant_Warrior]

Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

'It can be fearful': Police feeling under siege

In his 21 years on the Marion, Ohio, police department, Jay McDonald has run into burning buildings, been shot at and rushed into houses with a SWAT team to serve warrants on armed suspects.

And one thing is certain: He doesn't want any of his three children to follow in his professional footsteps — especially now, as anti-police sentiment sweeps the country following several high-profile cases of unarmed black men killed by white officers.

"It's a very frustrating profession," McDonald says. "I've dedicated my professional life to this community. ... You're in danger at any time. And now you're in danger of being called a racist and have your integrity attacked. It is stressful."

Not to forget to mention, many thugs and punks have apparently decided the current atmosphere makes it OK to declare open season on police officers. There have been a half dozen incidents nationwide since NYPD's Ramos and Liu were gunned down inside their own patrol car the Saturday before Christmas, with some officers injured, some fire upon, but thankfully -- thus far -- no more deaths.

This anti-cop campaign must stop. Don't hesitate to stand up for police officers when you hear other disparaging them, even if you think the recent incidents are indicative of latent racism or other ugly facet of police departments around the country. The fact is, if that is the case -- and I would vehemently argue with you to the contrary -- continuing the diatribe is making it unhealthy for our men and women in blue.

If anyone thinks police departments need to be reform, by all means, take your case to those departments. But don't contribute to open warfare against them by not standing up to the radicals who want that war.

 

[Utah]

Re: Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

I know many police officers. You can see their inner light shine brightly when they're first sworn in, but give them about ten years on the beat and their light is dim, if not gone completely, and they count the years, months and days until their retirement. Who needs that nonsense?

 

[Desdichado]

Re: Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

I know many police officers. You can see their inner light shine brightly when they're first sworn in, but give them about ten years on the beat and their light is dim, if not gone completely, and they count the years, months and days until their retirement. Who needs that nonsense?

This is the case not only with police, but also with the military.

Many of these men and women join because they believe they are entering a culture that promotes honor and justice. Instead they find a politicized bureaucracy that treats the doers like expendable functionaries.

 

[Human]

Re: Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

Not to forget to mention, many thugs and punks have apparently decided the current atmosphere makes it OK to declare open season on police officers. There have been a half dozen incidents nationwide since NYPD's Ramos and Liu were gunned down inside their own patrol car the Saturday before Christmas, with some officers injured, some fire upon, but thankfully -- thus far -- no more deaths.

This anti-cop campaign must stop. Don't hesitate to stand up for police officers when you hear other disparaging them, even if you think the recent incidents are indicative of latent racism or other ugly facet of police departments around the country. The fact is, if that is the case -- and I would vehemently argue with you to the contrary -- continuing the diatribe is making it unhealthy for our men and women in blue.

If anyone thinks police departments need to be reform, by all means, take your case to those departments. But don't contribute to open warfare against them by not standing up to the radicals who want that war.

A few months ago a friend of mine sent me a viral video about eight to ten minutes long, with a police officer punching, abusing, throwing, chucking, slapping, beating to excess, a person who showed virtually no resistence to arrest, or who was too drunk to stand, or who was a woman. Eight to ten minutes of little vine clips strung together.

That's something you just don't hear about in the UK, it rarely if ever happens, but it seems quite prevalent in the US. The police come across far more aggressive, much more heavy handed, often unnecissarily so, and quite militarized and authoritarian. I can certainly imagine why people might take a dislike to a police force that works in that way.

In the UK we have a concept here; the police don't work for the government, they work for the citizens. Murder of police officers is fairly rare. In fact the only murders I've heard of since my time in the UK have been in Northern Ireland, due to paramiltary executions.

I don't agree one iota that killing police officers is right, but as you suggest, it certainly seems the police service could do with reform in the US.

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

Re: Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

A few months ago a friend of mine sent me a viral video about eight to ten minutes long, with a police officer punching, abusing, throwing, chucking, slapping, beating to excess, a person who showed virtually no resistence to arrest, or who was too drunk to stand, or who was a woman. Eight to ten minutes of little vine clips strung together.

I've seen that video. It's ... how to put this? ... male bovine excretory material. You see only what the officer did, not what fomented the reaction. Most of those vignettes, seen in their entirety, show the officer was attacked in some fashion and did what was necessary to defend him/herself and arrest the perpetrator.

That's something you just don't hear about in the UK, it rarely if ever happens, but it seems quite prevalent in the US. The police come across far more aggressive, much more heavy handed, often unnecissarily so, and quite militarized and authoritarian. I can certainly imagine why people might take a dislike to a police force that works in that way.

That's what the loudmouthed demonstrators marching around yelling "What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want them? Now!" would like you to believe. The truth is, incidents in which an officer is at fault for assaulting a suspect or civilian for no cause is exceptionally rare. Even though Comrade Eric Holder has filed a dozen civil rights actions against U.S. police forces over the last six years because of alleged violations of suspects' right, his department has only managed to bring three cases to trial, and two of them were dismissed before they ever got to a jury, the cases were so circumstantially and politically biased.

If you go by the rhetoric of our current administration and its media lapdogs, you would come to the conclusions you have come to. Those conclusions are based on lies.

In the UK we have a concept here; the police don't work for the government, they work for the citizens.

Same here. It is our government that seems to forget the necessities of law enforcement.

Murder of police officers is fairly rare. In fact the only murders I've heard of since my time in the UK have been in Northern Ireland, due to paramiltary executions.

In 2013, 30 officers were shot and killed in the line of duty in the U.S., of 107 who died on the job. The rest were involved in car accidents, other violence in the execution of their duties, or health-related problems arose, such as heart attacks, while on duty. This year, with a few hours left before 2015, the number of officers shot by armed criminals has risen 56%, to total 50, out of 130 who died in the line of duty. It is the first uptick in those stats in seven years. I don't think it is coincidence that thugs, punks, and violent criminals have felt somehow more justified in turning deadly force on a police officer in a year when people were free to shout about wanting dead cops now, on a public street in New York City, particularly when less than a week after that happened, two were murdered in their police car.

Police officers aren't the problem. Out-of-control thugs and hoods are the problem, and the efforts our city, state, and federal officials are putting into curbing their ability to arrest people. Strange that they can't look at the nation's vastly reduced crime statistics and think, "Gee, maybe the last generation actually know what it was doing." Instead, they want to undo 50 years of hard work to make our streets safer, making them decidedly unsafer, particularly for the men and women who, up to this point, have been responsible for those stats being where they are today.

I don't agree one iota that killing police officers is right, but as you suggest, it certainly seems the police service could do with reform in the US.

I don't suggest that at all. I said, if anyone feels the need to advocate for "reform" they should do so rather than encouraging radicals who, in turn, encourage violence against police officers. I don't think we should do anything but thank our police officers for the outstanding job the vast majority of them do, day in and day out.

 

[skipp]

Re: Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

Police officers aren't the problem. Out-of-control thugs and hoods are the problem, and the efforts our city, state, and federal officials are putting into curbing their ability to arrest people. Strange that they can't look at the nation's vastly reduced crime statistics and think, "Gee, maybe the last generation actually know what it was doing." Instead, they want to undo 50 years of hard work to make our streets safer, making them decidedly unsafer, particularly for the men and women who, up to this point, have been responsible for those stats being where they are today.

This doesn't surprise me, I've been expecting it for some time now. This type of attitude started off in the public school system, when the ability of teachers to keep order and discipline in their classrooms was done away with. Teachers were basically told that they had all of the responsibility and none of the authority and as a result you have a large number of public schools that are chaotic, dysfunctional, violent messes. The lack of discipline has pretty much destroyed low income inner city schools and made them into complete hell holes for both students and teachers. I kept thinking that they would go after police officers next and whittle away their ability to keep order and I was right. People want police officers, teachers, and other public servants to get perfect results but then they don't want to give them the authority that they need to keep order.

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

Re: Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

This doesn't surprise me, I've been expecting it for some time now. This type of attitude started off in the public school system, when the ability of teachers to keep order and discipline in their classrooms was done away with. Teachers were basically told that they had all of the responsibility and none of the authority and as a result you have a large number of public schools that are chaotic, dysfunctional, violent messes. The lack of discipline has pretty much destroyed low income inner city schools and made them into complete hell holes for both students and teachers. I kept thinking that they would go after police officers next and whittle away their ability to keep order and I was right. People want police officers, teachers, and other public servants to get perfect results but then they don't want to give them the authority that they need to keep order.

Amen, Skipp.

I came across this today in my LinkedIn feed. I think it is well worth sharing:

James Murphy, Accomplished Law Enforcement Instructor and Security Professional: I Am The Police

I am the police, and I'm here to arrest you. You've broken the law. I did not write the law. I may even disagree with the law but I will enforce it. No matter how you plead, cajole, beg or attempt to stir my sympathies, nothing you do will stop me from placing you in a steel cage with gray bars. If you run away I will chase you. If you fight me I will fight back. If you shoot at me I will shoot back. By law I am unable to walk away. I am a consequence. I am the unpaid bill. I am fate with a badge and a gun. Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed, I think, I love, and yes I *can* be killed. And although I am but one man, I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me. They will lay down their lives for me, and I them. We stand watch together. The thin-blue-line, protecting the prey from the predators, the good from the bad. We are the police.

"Fidelis Ad Mortem"

No way I can top that.

 

[wisebeardman]

Re: Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

notice how they don't like white cops killing a black. but yet won't speak a word about the hundreds of blacks who kill blacks each year.

 

[Bushido8000]

Re: Feeling under siege, many police officers asking selves "Why is it I do this?"

Perhaps if the "good" cops didn't sweep things under the rug for the "bad" cops there wouldn't be such an issue.

the "good" cops protect the "bad" cops in their abuses of power, which make them just as corrupt.