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Post by Big Lin on Mar 31, 2012 19:22:10 GMT
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Post by Hunny on Apr 1, 2012 14:19:11 GMT
Hi Lin. Well, not to try and outdo you, but i think the United States is the absolute worst for police abuse. www.ferbles.com/t124-about-the-united-states#915 And as for the racist element in it, well...we used to live in the cities here (the whites), but when they all became places for factories , we left those cities (to go live in the suburbs), and the only people who were too poor to leave were the blacks, who at the time would get denied entrance to restaurants and such. The Klan would hang them and the police would "look the other way" for this. So the blacks were under terrible racist treatment then, and they were who got stuck staying in the cities - and those areas were very poor, we called them the ghettos. Racism was actually considered right here, as late as the 60's. In the last few decades, things changed a lot in this country though, all the way to the point of there being a black president now. Racism is seriously disliked and discouraged. But there are still predominantly black areas in the cities, and the cops -being the predatory bullies who tend to take those jobs- have not joined the rest of us in the 21st century. They overlook things for "their own" (whites) and they go to the black areas to hunt. We call this "racial profiling". It's such a problem that statistically, if you're a black male in this country, by the age of 25 you will have been to jail. -NOT that blacks commit more crimes, no, but because we put so many of these vile hunters we call "cops" on the streets and let them do as they wish, and so often what they wish is to beat up and electrocute and chain a black man. A famous example of the cops attitude is the Rodney King incident, where a black man was beaten mercilessly by a dozen cops, even after the man was on the ground subdued and under control. They beat him over 80 times with their clubs, and they kicked him. All this was caught on video and the ensuing outrage became a riot. A recording of one of the officers calling for more officers, saying "we got a n***er to beat" as if his fellow officers should hurry and get in on the fun , was aired. (and that was the tone in his voice, they were joking and laughing about it) - And though a riot is an awful thing, I actually was glad to see the people of Los Angeles go to war, essentially, rather than just take it. ("No justice, no peace!" they were yelling.) Anyway, that case was just one of so many examples that have been filmed by now, since everyone is carrying a camera now, and these often get put on the internet as youtubes. I have one where the cops shot a black man one hundred times, claiming he had been ramming their cruiser with his truck - but we could clearly see there were no marks on said truck, at all, so he hadn't in fact rammed anybody. The cops just started shooting and then all wanted to get in it too. One hundred shots. They kept shooting him even after he was dead. Again, this is not an unusual thing here. Racial profiling is what the cops do. And in general, now, in the US, you can be white, a child, an old woman, and the cops will electrocute you as standard procedure for making an arrest now (the cowards are afraid to get hurt when abusing people, so they just shoot them with an electrocution device). All in all, the United States has more of its own population in jail than any country in the world (more than 1%). The claim is that this is to "fight crime", but there is just as much "crime" as there was before the cops went haywire and caged all those people (a highly disproportionate percentage of which being black). And of course, let's not leave out, if you're rich, or a cop, or a politician, you are exempt from obeying laws. We are all on camera here now, and in fact you have to present a picture ID, on camera, at the food shop, or else they will fine you. (a shop will fine you, yes. It's no joke that business has taken over the government here, and exempted itself from laws and taxation, while simultaneously exerting a historic amount of oppression on "the people", to prevent them from fighting back against all this disgusting goings on. America is a scary place to be. I see it as occupied, just the same as Iraq, the only difference being here the uniforms are blue, instead of desert khaki. We are under threat of being electrocuted, beaten, shackled and put in a cage - or even getting rammed into a ditch or shot - and the soldier-bullies who will do it are everywhere, and it's even part of why we have a "fat epidemic" in this country (people just stay home, it's less risky, but it does lead to a fat butt from all that sitting). And I just want to know one thing. What century is this? What century is this that we treat our own people this way? How can America teach it's young that medieval torture methods were barbaric, when what we do now is just as horrible? We taze old ladies. We taze children. We arrest children. No one is safe from the bastards, except themselves, and it is because they used to work for us, but now we have no control at all over what these, our so called public servants do. They literally go around as armed as the soldiers we sent to Iraq were. They prey. They prey on people. So yea, police abuse, racist police abuse, you can get a you tube search engine add-on for firefox, and look at films of it all day (don't, it will make you feel sick and very angry) I'll leave this with, again, my constant question: "We electrocute and beat people, and keep them in cages..and the public supports it. What century is this?"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2012 15:58:55 GMT
Oh, I remember the Rodney King case - that was awful.
Videos are great for recording abuse, but we have to remember that they never tell all the story. A police officer was filmed knocking a demonstrator to the ground - the Nicola Fisher case. Both were white, BTW, but the principle is the same. The attack looked brutal, but all the filming was done by other demonstrators. Spectators from office buildings gave evidence at the police officer's trial saying that before any recording took place she had been taunting and provoking the officer - he hit her when she rushed him with something in her hand. It turned out to be a paper drinks carton but he might not have realised that. Anyway against all expectations he was acquitted - it didn't help that Ms Fisher never turned up to testify.
So it may be that the complainant had been making remarks such as "you've only picking on me 'cause I'm black" before the racist remarks began. But I am a bit surpised that the police didn't treat it more seriously from the outset.
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Post by sadie1263 on Apr 1, 2012 23:35:36 GMT
It's a very difficult job with usually not a lot of pay......what do you believe would make things better? Better training, more pay, more support from the communities they serve?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2012 8:58:29 GMT
Police officers geet paid quite well IMO, but no money in the world can make up for stress caused by long hours, lack of support or whatever.
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Post by Hunny on Apr 2, 2012 12:12:40 GMT
It's a very difficult job with usually not a lot of pay......what do you believe would make things better? Better training, more pay, more support from the communities they serve? I think we've made a spectator sport out of it (the TV shows cops and judges and lawyers and detectives shows round the clock, while people meanly hate at the poor sap whose been labeled "the perp". I'm not religious, but I read the bible people claim to believe in, and I feel confident Jesus would have said to HELP those who make mistakes, or commit desperate acts. They need help, not to be hurt. "If a man steals your bread, give him some fish to go with it, he must be hungry" it says (not flog him and encourage everyone to hate at him stick him in a cage!!). As for what we could do to make the cops' situation better, flatly I say replace cops and cages with something else, some other way of keeping the peace. There are other ways. (rewarding good behavior can be effective at eliminating unwanted behaviors / punishing is not the only way to get it done) (also it makes people NOT responsible (the opposite of what you want) when you use threats to make them obey a controller, so they dont have control - we've disabled people from being responsible for themselves by having them think bullies will always handle everything. The point is that our whole system of using threats and abuse as a means of controlling the populace is barbaric. To have spying bullies posted everywhere is not different than having soldiers keeping the members of an invaded country from having their own control of things. It's a myth that there are "criminals" -millions of them!- who "must be" locked away because they're monsters who cant be fixed. It's a mean horrible myth. In my country, my ugly horrible country, we have three million people in cages. Three million. You can't tell me the majority of them are serial rapists. (In fact the statistics are that most of them are young and were experimenting with drugs, or they got in a fight, stuff like that). And we cage them, and encourage people to say "there's no other way" or "there would be anarchy without gun-toting bullies threatening us all. " (wow. just wow. How does a government get a people to parrot the excuses for their own victimization?) This is not a description of "freedom", as America boasts of. Now, the reason our cops behave as aggressively as they do, even against women and the aged and kids, is because we train them to do that. They are trained to "take control", take it immediately, and to do it by anger, threat and FORCE . Hence we get those youtubes of 12 year-old boys getting assaulted by a seemingly "angry' cop, for skateboarding. The cops are trained to do that! It's what they see their job is to do. This was not how things were 40 years ago. The cops didn't start out this way. They originally had "to protect and to SERVE" printed on the doors of their cruisers, and we taught our kids "the policeman is your friend"(if you get lost or need help). And indeed -if anyone remembers the show "Adam 12", cops would show up at a domestic situation, and they would act like counselors, like they cared that these people resolve their problem, and without police interference. That show made a lot of people think it might be cool to actually BE a cop, because they were viewed as HELPFUL. What has happened since then is the organization which is the police has evolved. And being the control bully types of people they are that would take the job of cop, the direction of the evolution has been in taking more and more control away from people, and finding more effective means of using FORCE (as in law enFORCEment)...and so as we get more and better technology, it is used to make these people as intimidating as possible, and as well armed and protected. (The tazer, as an example, is such an improvement (they dont have to wrestle anyone anymore), so is the use of rubber gloves as if we're all too dirty to touch. But much as these "improvements" make sense to them, to us out here they seem horrible! And no i don't think people should be electrocuted as standard procedure. In fact what does the rest of the world think of us for doing that? or for using rubber bullets, or for ramming cars into ditches etc. Is America seen as the awful right wing nightmare it has become? or does the rest of the world join us in doing these things? You know, the Canadian president recently stated that the country needs TORTURE as a means of national defense. Canada said that. Peaceful Canada. So yea i think maybe what we do here infects other countries. But what we do here is horrible. Truly horrible. It's why I keep asking "what century is this" that we behave this way? I use too many words I know, but I'll leave it with this: I told a cop off (at a youtube) and he messaged me back "what it's like to be a cop. He said, "We get to be a part of the biggest gang in the country and beat n****s every day and do whatever we want. It's great." That's what he told me. Well, I know I'm of a very small percentage of people's view, but the "bad apple" excuse doesnt apply to this situation. The whole "cops & criminals" game these adult boys play while the country vicariously enjoys the hating and abuse on the telly is no different than the use of racks and iron maidens and burning women and all that lovely behavior in the past. We are just as horrible as that. We have not evolved into a decent society. We have not progressed or changed. What i wonder is what will the world be like 500 years from now. If you cannot see anarcha-democracy happening now, if you buy that "there would be chaos and mayhem without threatening and abusing people!", well ok. But surely you can imagine a future where we have evolved to something more civilized? ...Well all I'm saying is the future needs to start now. People need to lose their fascination with lawyer and judge and cop shows; they need to develop a distaste for the whole system; to stop making excuses for it. There IS other ways.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2012 13:18:06 GMT
There is a lot in what you say hunny but I'm not so clear in my own mind whether society needs to get tougher or softer. I do think we devote too much time to sorting out the bad at the expense of children who are not getting into trouble: they need rewards and just as much attention.
Are you sure he was a cop?
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Post by Hunny on Apr 2, 2012 15:20:19 GMT
There is a lot in what you say hunny but I'm not so clear in my own mind whether society needs to get tougher or softer. I do think we devote too much time to sorting out the bad at the expense of children who are not getting into trouble: they need rewards and just as much attention. Are you sure he was a cop? Fairly sure. He had been talking about procedure and such, with other cops. I probably shouldn't have confronted him, but I feel some safe distance, on the internet (though that may not be wise). And he had been talking so horribly about how a guy they shot "deserved it". Going to those police abuse you tubes isn't something I should do, I finally decided. It's always disturbing. ...This is something too personal to post, probably, but there was a time in my life when I resorted to sleeping in my car at the state park, where it's ok to do that. About 1 AM, a cop came. He was about 57 years old I'd say. And instead of shining his flashlight into my eyes to disorient me, which is initial assault, he merely shone it on his hat, so I would know he was a cop, not someone there to victimize me. He gave me a nice smile, he told me they just have to check and make sure everything's ok, and when I said it was, he wished me good night and left. No car search. No "let's see your ID". But you see he was an older cop. he was from that previous generation who acted helpful like that, instead of predatory and defensive as they do now. Some nights later when i again parked the car there overnight, cops came again, but this time they were young guys, new generation cops. The kind who wear their hair skinhead style. They wear rubber gloves so they don't have to touch you. They brought back up. They brought a shotgun. They banged on my window with a club. And when i was asked to step out of the car, and I went to put my shoes on, they reached for their guns and demanded I make no sudden moves. Of course, none of this behavior was necessary, they already knew who I was and that I was ok. And they weren't apprehending a criminal, they were checking on someone doing something the state parks were actually intended for. (camping, including in a car) but it's what they teach them to do now. They get sent to academy and trained to act that way in all situations. But it's weird. It's like they've become very afraid of us all, even to the point of not wanting any germs on their hands! (The bastards always discard the gloves by littering on the spot before they leave. Like a dog peeing on territory to mark it. Like a bully society leaving a threat to remind us all "we're watching you". hmm.. I'm gonna' run with that tangent. A local resident got fed up with seeing the gloves everywhere, and we do have a law against littering (it's fineable). Theoretically, at least, the cops themselves are subject to obeying the laws too, but when this man collected a box full of the gloves and asked to apply for charges of littering, he was told to get the hell out of the station. He then went to the newspaper and told his story, hoping to gain the support of the whole community, and perhaps go to the city government with the complaint. But in the end, it was just like that youtube cop said to me, they "get to do anything (we) want". They regularly exempt themselves from obeying laws, or from being punished.
Bit of a tangent there, but yea, I think it's the difference between the old style police tactics, and the new way of thinking they get taught. It's predatory, defensive, aggressive, even gangish and territorial; it isn't "the policeman is your friend" any more. If i weren't so wholeheartedly against the idea of having a system of threats and abuse (cops and punishments) to control people, at all...if i were to just think in terms of we need their service, what do we do to prevent abuse?, I would say they need to be overseen, because these guys don't answer to anybody, they aren't held responsible when they do wrong, they get excused by the chief. It's just not right that they aren't subject to laws and supervision themselves. That, and being taught to act like soldiers, rather than as the helpful public servants they used to be is what you'd need to change. So... that'd mean passing some new laws to change what the Academies are teaching, and to form a department above them that watches and punishes them when they do wrong themselves. (rather than allowing them to police themselves, which incredulously is what we do now). ________________ As for them being under stress and all that, well, the older cop I met in the night didn't seem stressed at all! But he wasn't going about thinking of himself as being on high alert like his younger counterparts do. Another thing that would help is if we didn't allow everyone to buy guns as we do. That really does give the cops something to fear! ..In England, even the cops didn't carry guns back in previous decades. Why are they so "necessary"? I guess I just don't accept the excuse they all make about it being a different, or more dangerous world now. I think it all boils down to their idea of law enFORCEment, of forcing people. If you're going to force people, then you do need to expect they may resist. So maybe they are doing too much forcing. I mean think of the US with three million out of 300 million of its own people in cages. Is the crime rate any lower? You'd think it would be with all the "bad people" safely locked away, right? But nope, there's still just as much "crime". So issuing harsher and harsher threats to the public is not even working. And that's because we have problems that we don't address right (like drugs), we just criminalize them and, keep getting "tougher and tougher on the crime". Meanwhile, what we really need to do is solve the problem, not use it for sport. And the first step in doing that would be to decriminalize some of the drugs and act a little smarter like Europe does. Because a lot of who's in jail is people who should be in rehab (addiction is a disease. Why is a disease criminal?) We spent 60 billion dollars on an insane "drug war" in the 70's and 80's, and it didn't reduce the amount of drugs getting into the country! When confronted with the numbers, the department in charge of that just went into denial and kept parroting "it's working", "it's working". But it isn't. We haven't solved the problem of drugs at all, we have merely made many buildings full of people violating each other (prisons) instead. I gotta stop, but it gets worse, because there's profit in "law enforcement", there's profit in prisons. This can be read about elsewhere, but it's like our insurance industry. That is insane profit taking we're getting bankrupted and left with no health care by, but with profit involved, and those who make the profit being the ones who make the rules, America is guaranteed to continue to be this way for a long time. ________________ I think we actually could have a system of cops and laws that would be less like soldiers at war, here. But there's so much needed to change. Anyway, all this is why I resist the easy answer that the cops are under stress and there's a "bad apple" here and there etc. No, it's worse than that. Sorry for the lecture (I hope i didn't do that) (three times ) It's definitely a significant subject to me though. I've been pondering on this stuff for 52 years. *shakes head* It makes me wish there was still an empty continent somewhere, where people could go and start a society run a smarter way. Failing that, perhaps it really is up to Europe to set a better example. Because the U.S. is not going to change. And I actually fear what things might be like in another five or twenty years, with us acting this way and thinking we're in charge of the whole world, influencing other countries to do same.
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Post by sadie1263 on Apr 2, 2012 15:50:45 GMT
My husband is an officer. Yes....they have to try and get control of a situation quickly or it can get worse real quickly. My husband has been shot at (by a 15 yr old), spit on (that's a regular thing), beat up (that's fairly regular too), had someone try and run him over with a car. We have been at restaurants and told by a waitress not to eat the food and leave because the cook hates cops and she was afraid they would do something in our food. Had eaten at one of those places before where we all got sick...including my parents. A couple of years ago...several towns in our neighborhood there were a lot of burglaries of homes that all belonged to officers....the houses were completely trashed inside....not so much burglary but just destruction of everything. Had 3 officers killed responding to a domestic abuse call. The guy shot them in the head when they got out of their cars. They never had a chance. I personally saw my husband tackle an armed robber that had a gun and have to fight over his gun in the middle of a five lane road....after the guy had robbed a place at a gunpoint. I've seen him literally jump out of our car to run out in the middle of a busy road to help someone that had just had an accident and was in the road! (that's another regular thing)........He does so much to help....and that's all he wants to do.....he doesn't want to shoot anyone....wrestle with anyone or taser anyone. A wonderful day is when NONE of those things happen. Believe me....I want my husband to come home every night just like everyone else.
We have to buy his gun and all the other stuff that goes with it. He is not supplied a bullet proof vest....we had to buy it. Some places supply that. Too many budget cuts here though. My husband had some of the guys under him scheduled for more classes this summer. The budget was cut so they won't be able to attend.
There are bad cops out there. I think the media attention given to that makes it harder for the thousands of good cops out there. Builds distrust and more and more people want to fight them or run....or shoot. The millions of good things they do every day are never mentioned.
I don't see a world anytime soon with no crime. So....if we do not have officers or jails or any type of system to deal with criminals.....what happens?
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Post by Hunny on Apr 2, 2012 17:00:51 GMT
My husband is an officer. Yes....they have to try and get control of a situation quickly or it can get worse real quickly. My husband has been shot at (by a 15 yr old), spit on (that's a regular thing), beat up (that's fairly regular too), had someone try and run him over with a car. We have been at restaurants and told by a waitress not to eat the food and leave because the cook hates cops and she was afraid they would do something in our food. Had eaten at one of those places before where we all got sick...including my parents. A couple of years ago...several towns in our neighborhood there were a lot of burglaries of homes that all belonged to officers....the houses were completely trashed inside....not so much burglary but just destruction of everything. Had 3 officers killed responding to a domestic abuse call. The guy shot them in the head when they got out of their cars. They never had a chance. I personally saw my husband tackle an armed robber that had a gun and have to fight over his gun in the middle of a five lane road....after the guy had robbed a place at a gunpoint. I've seen him literally jump out of our car to run out in the middle of a busy road to help someone that had just had an accident and was in the road! (that's another regular thing)........He does so much to help....and that's all he wants to do.....he doesn't want to shoot anyone....wrestle with anyone or taser anyone. A wonderful day is when NONE of those things happen. Believe me....I want my husband to come home every night just like everyone else. We have to buy his gun and all the other stuff that goes with it. He is not supplied a bullet proof vest....we had to buy it. Some places supply that. Too many budget cuts here though. My husband had some of the guys under him scheduled for more classes this summer. The budget was cut so they won't be able to attend. There are bad cops out there. I think the media attention given to that makes it harder for the thousands of good cops out there. Builds distrust and more and more people want to fight them or run....or shoot. The millions of good things they do every day are never mentioned. I don't see a world anytime soon with no crime. So....if we do not have officers or jails or any type of system to deal with criminals.....what happens? Well, it wouldn't be wise to just end having police altogether suddenly, but we have so many now, if we cut half, and started re-writing the rules so that people are encouraged to be self-responsible, rather than under threat of reprisal, this would be a constructive step. Rewards for desired behaviors could replace some of the punishings for unwanted behavior method. Either way works as motivation, so why not try at least some of the pleasant way? If we do none of that ever, we fail to even try a less violent approach. We fail to give it a chance. Everything's all about "force" right now. Your husband is running into a lot of ugly resistance to people being "forced". People don't like force, and being caged is horrible, so they resist. But i don't think it's your husband's fault. He's not the one making the rules. It's the state that makes the rules which has gone overboard. Every time a politician wants to get elected he promises to add more cops, and be "tough on crime". After a while of that, a nation can end up with too much toughness, too many guards. We really do have a higher percentage of our own people in cages than any country in the world. It's more than one percent. More than one in every 100 Americans is in jail. *shakes head* That's messed up! So..just a change in direction, try some new methods, is what I'd like to see. Your husband sounds like a great guy, by the way, and i hope i didn't go too heavy implying"all cops are bad" as i probably did. I had a very good friend on the force. For 25 years he was over my house having coffee and watching funny things on my TV every day. And then there was Joe, a relative, and I thought quite well of them both, and i appreciated it when they were the first responders when my mom died. It made me feel good that there were people who flew to the scene to try and help. I'm sure positive thoughts like that are missing from all I typed, but yea, I've met cops I really appreciated and i wish they were all like that, because I've also met some pretty angry-natured ones that made me feel the need to pray for them because how could they be happy feeling so mean all the time. Well, I'm a bit of an idealist. I just hope i didn't offend you with all that I said is all. Congrats on being member of the month!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2012 18:29:25 GMT
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Post by sadie1263 on Apr 2, 2012 18:34:29 GMT
Thanks Hunny.
I am very sensitive about the subject. My husband does a lot and is a very good man. But the bad cops give all of them a bad name and just make their jobs harder.
I don't know what the answer is........but there are bad people out there that laws don't do a thing to stop them...so IMO self governing isn't the answer.
There may be too many cops in some areas.....here we are very short of them. I live in Texas and the oilfield is booming right now. No business can compete with what the oilfield pays right now. Also....because of being so close to Mexico....drugs travel thru here like crazy.....and with that a lot of crime.
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Post by trubble on Apr 11, 2012 10:50:38 GMT
This thread is very interesting reading. Thank you. An exalt is on its slow way to all of you for such good contributions.
Sadie, you have a good man on your hands and I send him my admiration!
I know this might sound odd as I don't live in America but I am shocked and embarrassed to live in a 'western block' that tells a policeman to buy his own gun and bullet-proof vest. I feel like apologising to you and your husband for it! It's a scandal.
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Post by sadie1263 on Apr 11, 2012 13:07:06 GMT
Yeah.....I'm the most upset about the bullet proof vest. My hubby keeps his in his trunk....which drives me crazy.....it's hot and bulky....so he doesn't like it. We had a huge incident of a military guy that was on the crazy side....lived way out of town in a compound type of situation.....some people came by to read a meter or something and he shot them.....luckily they survived.....but then the police responded....he shot two of them.....it took two days to get him out.......he had high power rifles...was shooting over their heads the whole time.....my hubby called me from out there....I could hear the bullets.....and meanwhile his bulletproof vest was hanging in out closet. Made me nuts!!! That's when he had to at least have it in his car.
It's a job that is needed. But again....since they are human and just like with any profession you are going to get bad people. That abuse the position or are not there for the right reasons. They see the worst of humanity over and over again....every day......it can be hard to not let it tinge your view of people in general......to work accidents and see the injured and dead....and have to go tell their families.......it's heart breaking. There is a huge rate of alcoholism and divorce.
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Post by Hunny on Apr 11, 2012 14:41:48 GMT
Yeah.....I'm the most upset about the bullet proof vest. My hubby keeps his in his trunk....which drives me crazy.....it's hot and bulky....so he doesn't like it. We had a huge incident of a military guy that was on the crazy side....lived way out of town in a compound type of situation.....some people came by to read a meter or something and he shot them.....luckily they survived.....but then the police responded....he shot two of them.....it took two days to get him out.......he had high power rifles...was shooting over their heads the whole time.....my hubby called me from out there....I could hear the bullets.....and meanwhile his bulletproof vest was hanging in out closet. Made me nuts!!! That's when he had to at least have it in his car. It's a job that is needed. But again....since they are human and just like with any profession you are going to get bad people. That abuse the position or are not there for the right reasons. They see the worst of humanity over and over again....every day......it can be hard to not let it tinge your view of people in general......to work accidents and see the injured and dead....and have to go tell their families.......it's heart breaking. There is a huge rate of alcoholism and divorce. Wow. You must have been downright frightened when that happened. I lived in a small town for many years. The cops there were our friends and neighbors. Very Mayberry RFD, for the most part. So I was lucky to live away from the more serious problems that happen in the city (where I am now). But even in that small town, we had one cop go amok from stress so bad that he never worked again, and another became a bad alcoholic and got kicked off the force. It took me a while to understand why they felt so pressured, when often the calls they'd answer were to get a cow out of the road, but apparently they dealt with bigger things down by the highway. They worried about getting shot. They worried every time they approached the driver's door. And even the social aspects of being a cop can be stressing. Dealing with people. And dealing with their attitudes. My friend Pete was crushed when Rodney King happened. He took it so personally, because he had to deal with hate towards the cops, and that situation just created more. I remember Pete had to buy his own uniforms and gun, yes. But he got payed well. (He took a lot of details, was good at working the system to get the most overtime pay) And he was happy about getting a glock, instead of a service revolver as some departments issue. His vest stayed in the cruiser, but he complained it was hot and heavy too. I guess we could use some better technology there, so they'd be thinner and breathable. I bet they will improve that. You know what Sadie, I said a few things at Jen's and it had gone right out of my mind someone had said her husband is a cop. I said this already, but i don't want to make anyone feel bad. Sometimes I present my feelings a bit angrily I think. I mean well, I have empathy, but I can rub people the wrong way sometimes. mm... I don't know whether what I said was abrasive or not actually. But if I was, I'm so sorry. I gotta' stop doing that! Well, anyway, so I have had some friends who let me in on their world and what they go through. It didn't seem like a job I'd want! (They had some funny stories sometimes though. You know, calls that were just screwy and something hilarious happened (like the 80 year old woman who called about a "strange buzzing sound" in her home! It was frightening her. Well, Pete and Clarence had to go in and investigate, and apparently a vibrator had fallen off a closet shelf, turned on, and was buzzing against the hardwood floor. Pete told me it was incredibly hard not to laugh as they told the woman it was alright.
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