Those of you behind the badge, be careful

[Blitzkrieg]

The war against violent criminals has a price and you are paying it to help us defeat the scum

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/u...-police-officers-are-on-the-rise.html?_r=3&hp

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[rufus]

The most under respected job there is.

 

[wichaka]

I see two problems that may or may not be the cause, but I tend to lean toward these being the cause;

1) Those on the edge are fed up with 'rogue' cops, and are fighting back;

2) The justice system has failed miserably, in allowing more violent people to walk.
If the judges themselves were the ones that had to re-capture these type of people,
you'd see a lot less of them being let out.

 

[Redcap]

I see two problems that may or may not be the cause, but I tend to lean toward these being the cause;

1) Those on the edge are fed up with 'rouge' cops, and are fighting back;

2) The justice system has failed miserably, in allowing more violent people to walk.
If the judges themselves were the ones that had to re-capture these type of people,
you'd see a lot less of them being let out.

I tend to agree with that assessment.

 

[rufus]

I tend to agree with that assessment.

Me too.

 

[JGRuby]

I wonder how this compares to the total number of shooting engagements the police are invovled in. Is there any conection to the police now acting as para Military units instead of law enforcement?

James Ruby

 

[accessbob]

1) Those on the edge are fed up with 'rouge' cops, and are fighting back;

Now, before anyone gets all testy, I know what he was trying to say.

However, what he did say is that they are fed up with RED cops.

The difference between Rouge (a red) and Rogue (a dishonest, knavish, scoundrel of a person). So while a misplaced letter doesn't necessarily do it, it can change the entire meaning.

 

[wichaka]

More coffee is obviously needed!

 

[wichaka]

I wonder how this compares to the total number of shooting engagements the police are invovled in. Is there any conection to the police now acting as para Military units instead of law enforcement?

James Ruby

The rules of engagement for LE is extremely broad, so I will disagree with the 'para-military' thing, and go with more along the lines of what I posted above.

When some of the low end of society act 'para-military', one either rises to meet the threat or gets trampled. Unfortunately sometimes the innocent are hard to tell from the guilty.

 

[Steve06]

What ever the reason, anything to do with law enforcement or the Justice system has lost much of the respect that it had even 20 years ago.

 

[JGRuby]

The rules of engagement for LE is extremely broad, so I will disagree with the 'para-military' thing, and go with more along the lines of what I posted above.

When some of the low end of society act 'para-military', one either rises to meet the threat or gets trampled. Unfortunately sometimes the innocent are hard to tell from the guilty.

The question still stands are the police actively invovled in more shootings now than they were a few years ago?

James Ruby

 

[dmancornell]

Yes let's put "rogue cops" in quotes and pretend they don't exist:

Pro Libertate: "Criminals With Badges": Denver's Militarized Police

 

[wichaka]

The question still stands are the police actively invovled in more shootings now than they were a few years ago?

James Ruby

From what I'm reading it varies from agency to agency. Some are up, some are flat, while others are down.

Overall...I'm not sure.

 

[MountainBear]

Technology has come a long way. Many of my friends were police officers in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. The stories they tell would make even the bad officers today look like angels. I would venture a guess that the behavior of officers hasn't changed much (and sometimes that's a bad thing), but with the advent of cell phone cameras, YouTube, internet, social media, etc. we see and hear about the bad actions of some officers quicker and more often. No one is arguing that bad officers exist. They obviously do. But I would argue that the advent of technology has made them seem like a larger section of the departments than they are.

The question still stands are the police actively invovled in more shootings now than they were a few years ago?

Or are we simply hearing about them? A tweet or breaking news story on the internet is easier to see than a news story from somewhere we don't live on the 32nd page of the newspaper.

 

[JGRuby]

Thank you for the answers - I can respect the honesty. To me I have lost a lot of faith in the Portland Police department. The Freshour situation has made me completely disgusted. Shoot an unarmed man in the back and get fired ( thats it ) and now they want to reinstate him and all of his back wages. This kind of police mentality makes me disgusted with those in LE as a whole. The problem I see is that the police do not get rid of thier own bad apples but keep them in place by thier commraderie. Every time a police officer screws up the public gets to pay for it over and over again. I use PPD as a example but this is happening around the country and is big reason alot of citizens wont call a police officer for help anymore.

James Ruby

 

[wichaka]

No one is arguing that bad officers exist. They obviously do. But I would argue that the advent of technology has made them seem like a larger section of the departments than they are.


Or are we simply hearing about them? A tweet or breaking news story on the internet is easier to see than a news story from somewhere we don't live on the 32nd page of the newspaper.

I guess one would have to take the number of 'rogue' (spelled it correctly this time! ) cops/reports, and compare that to the total number of cops in the nation...then one would see how small the number truly is.

We hear about them more often because of how the media has progressed, there are so many outlets for the media to plug into.

Along with the media, which may or may not distribute the facts correctly, or slanted...you have lots of rank and little leadership in the admin. of a lot of dept.'s across the country. Folks too concerned with politics, which leads to the lack of focus of the mission at hand.

 

[Tangent123123]

It's a thankless job for little reward and you are constantly being second guessed by people who are not in the situation you are in. You take a chance every time you do something as simple as pull someone over for a traffic violation, never mind the more serious situations. The only time someone is happy to see you is when they need to complain about something.

No matter how you feel about cops, they do a job that quite frankly, you couldn't pay me enough to do. It's a bubblegumty and thankless job and I'm glad they are willing to do it.

 

[wichaka]

Thank you for the answers - I can respect the honesty. To me I have lost a lot of faith in the Portland Police department. The Freshour situation has made me completely disgusted. Shoot an unarmed man in the back and get fired ( thats it ) and now they want to reinstate him and all of his back wages. This kind of police mentality makes me disgusted with those in LE as a whole. The problem I see is that the police do not get rid of thier own bad apples but keep them in place by thier commraderie. Every time a police officer screws up the public gets to pay for it over and over again. I use PPD as a example but this is happening around the country and is big reason alot of citizens wont call a police officer for help anymore.

James Ruby

Let's put this in perspective.

Shoot an unarmed man in the back and get fired ( thats it )

Its not the job of the Police to prosecute, that's the job of prosecutor. If they decline to do so, there's not much anyone can do.
So no blame on the Portland P.D. there.

...and now they want to reinstate him and all of his back wages.


The problem I see is that the police do not get rid of their own bad apples but keep them in place by their commraderie.

Again, that's not the Portland P.D. decision, that's a state arbitrator's ruling on the matter, due to a union grievance, nothing more.
Portland P.D. did their job of firing the guy, now they are being forced to bring him back. Let's go with facts, and not false blame.

I have no problem with anyone pointing out the misdeeds of any LE person, but let's not go down the road of the Trayvon debacle and distort the facts.

 

[JGRuby]

Let's put this in perspective.





Its not the job of the Police to prosecute, that's the job of prosecutor. If they decline to do so, there's not much anyone can do.
So no blame on the Portland P.D. there.








Again, that's not the Portland P.D. decision, that's a state arbitrator's ruling on the matter, due to a union grievance, nothing more.
Portland P.D. did their job of firing the guy, now they are being forced to bring him back. Let's go with facts, and not false blame.

I have no problem with anyone pointing out the misdeeds of any LE person, but let's not go down the road of the Trayvon debacle and distort the facts.

I disagree the police officer Freshour pulled the trigger on a man who did not have a weapon on him or near him and is getting away scott free. The Police union is backing this type of activity and hence I beleive the police department is at fault. By not making an example they reinforce this type of behavior and say its ok to shoot unarmed men. Wether right or wrong others see it this way as well which does not lead to good will between the police and the civilian populace.

James Ruby

 

[wichaka]

You need to differentiate between the Police Union and the Police Dept., they are NOT the same...if you believe so, you'll need to do a bit of homework on the matter.

First off, I'm not siding with the Portland P.D., my point being, its not the decision of the Police Chief or Mayor to bring him back.

For some reason or another, there wasn't enough to legally fire him to begin with...and I have no idea what that may be.
You'll need to obtain the arbitrators decision to get the facts of the matter. It should be public info., so it shouldn't be hard to get.