An unpopular fellow

Why not? Service Members and Police Officers are well respected here, so long as their attitude towards the Constitution for the United States is that is should be protected from all enemies foreign and domestic, and the attitude towards protecting the Constitutional rights of the people is that it is the duty of every member of government, then you will be welcomed with opened arms.

Popularity isn't important. Doing only that which is just is important.

-Sans Authoritas

Police Officers are well respected here

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


That's rich.

I think it's best put that police officers are held to a high standard around here.

From reading the many posts on this forum for the last few months, I have decided that a fellow who was an Armed Forces recruiter and later became a cop probably shouldnt mention his background here.

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Sorry, I don't get why you'd think that. If you read posts from people in the service, and we have a whole lot of 'em there, it is rare for a post not to either begin or end with "thank you for your service". If that means somebody's unpopular, you define the word differently than I do.

As far as police issues go, we get pretty hot on some ISSUES. (Particularly no-knock warrants, especially right now.) That does not mean that PEOPLE are unwelcome, that their posts are derided simply because they're LE. Quite the opposite. If they're "unpopular" maybe it's because they're behaving badly. The LE's who are respectful and straightforward with others seem to get that same treatment from others, ya know?

If you come looking for people to dislike you, my guess is you'll find them. Chips on shoulders have a tendency to get knocked off.

Springmom

Uh, I did a tour in recruiting (non-vol) ... and after retirement, became a ... er, got a job at Wal-Mart ...

Mostly, you only see the cop-screwed-up posts.

It's rare that someone's motivated to publish a cop-was-a-good-guy-and-really- helped post.

Cop-gets-kitten-out-of-tree stories are not newsworthy, except around here, if it's a cop-gets-kitten-out-of-tree-while-I-was-carrying-my-(insert gun)-and-didn't-say-a-word story,

Or did say a word.

It takes all kinds around here.

I'm a police officer, and I've made my opinions known in a number of the debates on this thread.

Some guys on here are in LE, some aren't. Some love cops, some can't stand them. Personally, before I became a cop I was one of those people who was always neutral towards LE... I had my share of speeding tickets as a kid, and I didn't like those. But, I always respected the officers, and was polite when contacted.

My biggest gripe with the negative posts about LE around here is that I find many of them to be a bit misguided. Sometimes I read them and shake my head thinking "you guys really think I can do that stuff at work?? I wish I could do half of that!".

But, anyway, to make a short story long... It takes all kinds!

I've got nothing against LE, a lot of good people on here with similar backgrounds.

A few bad apples can ruin things for a lot of people, i think that's how it works w/ cops to the public. but its a specific issue, and shouldn't be as generalized as people make it.

anyway, welcome!

As a new poster let me give my opinion. It's not LEO's in general that people are upset with. It's a system that's more concerned with protecting the bad apples than protecting peoples rights. Bad LEO's are always innocent until proven guilty. The victims are always tazered, shot, beaten, charged with a crime, thrown in jail, assumed guilty, before proven innocent. Some of my best friends are Sherif deputies. I've heard some stories.

"The victims are always tazered, shot, beaten, charged with a crime, thrown in jail, assumed guilty, before proven innocent. Some of my best friends are Sherif deputies. I've heard some stories."

Some of these things are necessary when you have a drug crazed maniac threatening you with a gun, knife etc.

I like to hear from LE when they post. I think a few problems arise when there is a "Holier than thou" flavor to the post or a "I'm smarter than everyone else" theme.

The other problems I see are LE being in a bad position. By nature of what they do, watch everyone else and make sure they obey, it is expected they will live to a higher standard when at the end of the day, they are just humans as well.

The problem is LE has more legal power than your regular joe-schmo and most of us are powerless against an abuse of police power, which we don't like.

If all LE were living perfect lives, respecting others, and all around "Super-men", I suspect nobody would have a problem with them. But that isn't reality.

I know several LE and all but one of them I think do an excellent job. But just like EVERY other facet of life, you have good, bad, and ugly.

"Some of these things are necessary when you have a drug crazed maniac threatening you with a gun, knife etc."

Most definitely. But is it really necessary to tazer people in wheel chairs until thier hearts stop?
http://onlinelunchpail.blogspot.com/2007/09/wheelchair-bound-woman-killed-by-taser.html

I don't blame the LEO's. I blame the system. I know the vast majority of force used is perfectly legal. There are some real bad guys out there. But there is a police state mentality right now and more and more innocent victims are being hurt.

Count Down To Lock-Off in:

10-9-8-...

I've altered my recent posts. It got old quick.

Ibtl...

I'd say that police officers don't get a free pass, or any extra points for being cops here. Most seem to expect either or both.

clearly more rational than most of the masses

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Statements like this show that cops actually do perceive the people who pay their salaries as a bunch of idiots.

It certainly reinforces the stereotype that cops, since they deal with the bottom end of society most of the time, begin to believe that the people whom they arrest represent some sort of cross-section of that society.

Understandable, yes.

Rational, no.

That's not what "rational" means.

You give yourself a bit too much credit, "MASTEROFMALICE."

I think it's best put that police officers are held to a high standard around here.

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Police officers should be held to a high standard everywhere no?

As for "cop bashing" try looking around at some of the other gun forums. THR is very mild and it's clearly not tolerated by the mods.

You can't say that about most of the other places.

There's always going to be someone that complains, that's just the "interwebthang"

Service Members and Police Officers are well respected here

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I respect the man/woman, not the uniform.


-T.

EDIT:

MASTEROFMALICE said:

As well it should be. We are, after all, held to a higher standard because we are trained better and clearly more rational than most of the masses.

It's not an easy job to save you from yourselves and if we need better equipment or more aggressive tactics to do then so be it.

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Is he serious?

TexasRifleman said:

Police officers should be held to a high standard everywhere no?

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Definitely. Unfortunately, should be and are often fail to coincide.

I think some officers become a little unused to actually being held to the standards that they should be, and find that it chafes a little bit when they are.

I've been held to a higher standard most of my professional life so it really gets under my skin when others aren't held to the same standards. (Doctors, police officers, ect.) I hold police officers to a very high standard and most of the time I'm not disappointed. Other times I'm sorely disappointed. People who hold public office serve at the pleasure of the people, we don't serve them. As a current government employee I can tell you that accountability is sorely lacking at least in my department.

I'm a huge opponent of tactics that place LEO's and civilians in danger unless there is a dire need to do so.

That said, I'm interviewing for a LE job at the end of the month. I fully expect to be held to this higher standard should I be entrusted with the position.

So let me get this right.

We should be held to a higher standard, but we shouldn't be given any special priveleges because we should be like everyone else.

So we're just your average Joes who are held to a higher standard, which actually would actually make us a persecuted class.

Can I get some handicapped licence plates for that?

XJ, welcome. I really, truly, honestly hope you get the job.

Mostly because I want to see how your posts change three years from now.

There's a phrase, "The older I get, the smarter my father gets." You'll see that hold true on other occasions.