If anything, police should be held to a higher standard than that of the public…As it stands now, police can commit crimes with impunity because, in most situations, they investigate themselves…Behavior that would get an ordinary citizen charged, convicted and incarcerated is routinely ignored by “the powers that be” because police are considered to be “above the law” as the “law” is whatever they say it is, the Constitution be damned…
Police officers are the only group that can murder someone by falsely claiming that “they feared for their lives”, have 48 to 72 hours to “get their stories straight”, and have a union lawyer and compliant prosecutor-steered “grand jury” absolve them of responsibility.
Police demand immediate compliance (Israeli-style)–with two or three cops issuing and yelling out conflicting commands, it is easy to see how a person under police control could lose his life for merely attempting to follow conflicting directions.
Ever notice that police unions are “fraternal”? This should tell you something. The “thin-blue-line” is a gang, little different than street gangs–at least when it comes to “covering-up” their questionable and quite often, illegal and criminal behavior.
In today’s day and age, “officer safety” trumps de-escalation of force. This, in part, is due to the militarization of the police along with training in Israeli police tactics. This becomes a problem, with the “us vs. them” attitude that is fosters, along with the fact that Israel is a very different place, being on a constant “war footing”, its police tactics are very different.
It is interesting to note that our military operates under “rules of engagement” and “escalation of force” doctrine, unlike American police departments which have NO “rules of engagement” policies.
There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.
Police officers, who want to do the right thing, are quite often marginalized and put into harms way, by their own brethren…When a police officer is beating on someone that is already restrained while yelling, “stop resisting” THAT is but one reason police have a “bad name” in many instances…this makes the “good cops” who are standing around, witnessing their “brethren in blue” beating on a restrained suspect, culpable as well…
anarchyst
June 1, 2018 2:41 pm
Here are changes that can help reduce police-induced violence:
1. Get rid of police unions. Police unions (fraternities) protect the guilty, and are responsible for the massive whitewashing of questionable police behavior that is presently being committed.
2. Eliminate both “absolute” and “qualified” immunity for all public officials. This includes, prosecutors and judges, police and firefighters, code enforcement and child protective services officials, and others who deal with the citizenry. The threat of being sued personally would encourage them to behave themselves. Require police officers to be “bonded” by an insurance company, with their own funds. No bond=no job. You can bet that insurance companies would be more diligent in weeding out the “bad apples” than our present system…
3. Any public funds disbursed to citizens as a result of police misconduct should come out of police pension funds–NOT from the taxpayers.
4. Regular drug-testing of police officers as well as incident-based drug testing should take place whenever an officer is involved in a violent situation with a citizen–no exceptions.
5. Testing for steroid use should be a part of the drug testing program. You know damn well, many police officers “bulk up” with the “help” of steroids. Steroids also affect users mentally as well, making them more aggressive. The potential for abuse of citizens increases greatly with steroid use.
6. Internal affairs should only be used for disagreements between individual officers–NOT for investigations involving citizen abuse. State-level investigations should be mandatory for all suspected abuses involving citizens.
7. Prosecutors should be charged with malfeasance IF any evidence implicating police officer misconduct is not presented to the grand jury.
8. A national or state-by-state database of abusive individuals who should NEVER be allowed to perform police work should be established–a “blacklist” of abusive (former) police officers.
9. Most people are unaware that police have special “rules” that prohibit them from being questioned from 48 to 72 hours. This allows them to “get their stories straight” and makes it easier to “cover up” bad police behavior. Police must be subject to the same laws as civilians.
10. All police should be required to wear bodycams and utilize dashcams that cannot be turned off. Any police officers who causes a dash or body cam to be turned off should be summarily fired–no excuses. Today’s body and dash cams are reliable enough to withstand harsh treatment. Body and dashcam footage should be uploaded to a public channel “on the cloud” for public perusal.
11. All interrogations must be video and audio recorded. Police should be prohibited from lying or fabricating stories in order to get suspects to confess. False confessions ARE a problem in many departments. Unknown to most people, police can lie with impunity while civilians can be charged with lying to police…fair? I think not…
12. Any legislation passed that restricts the rights of ordinary citizens, such as firearms magazine capacity limits, types of weapons allowed, or restrictive concealed-carry laws should apply equally to police. No special exemptions or “carve outs” to be given to police. Laws must be equally applied.
13 “Asset forfeiture” is a form of “legalized robbery under color of law” and must be abolished. We must return to Constitutional principles when it comes to “crimefighting”. The so-called “war on drugs” is actually a “war on the citizenry” and has had an extremely corrosive effect on the Constitutional principles that our country is (supposed to be) founded on.
14. “No-knock” raids must be abolished as they put both police and (especially citizens) in harms way. Even the Nazis “knocked on the door” before gaining entry.
15. SWAT teams must be reigned in on their “dynamic entry techniques”. Utilizing SWAT teams for routine situations is dangerous to both police and citizens. Smashing everything in sight “just because they can”, blaming it on an “adrenaline rush” must end. There is NEVER a reason for destroying property.
16. The “21 foot rule” must be modified or abolished. American police training assumes that ANYONE that gets within 21 feet of a police officer and is deemed a threat, even a non-life-threatening situation is “fair game” for the use of lethal force. Persons with rakes, sticks, knives, or even their fists have been executed, even when non-lethal means would have been more appropriate. Police hide behind the “21 foot rule” in order to justify questionable police shootings. Their “excuse”, when brought before a prosecutor or grand jury is that “they feared for their life” or “that is the way they are trained”. THAT has to change. Police have a greater responsibility NOT to use deadly force against those that they could easily subdue by other means.
17. Clear and concise “rules of engagement” must be established for ALL American law enforcement personnel. Any deviation from these rules must be severely punished. It is interesting to note that American military veterans in combat zones operate under more restrictive “rules of engagement” than American “law enforcement”. In fact, American “law enforcement” operates under NO “rules of engagement”. They have total “carte blanche” to destroy whoever they want. THAT has to change…
Police work is not inherently dangerous…there are many other professions that are much more dangerous.
A little “Andy Taylor” could go a long way in allaying fears that citizens have of police.
That’s an admirable list of reforms there, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for them to be adopted. They just don’t fit with the agenda that’s being implemented.
Besides I never bought into the futility of trying to reform the corrupt. Bucky Fuller nails it here.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” -Buckminster Fuller
My opinion is that the only way to defeat the overlords is to make them irrelevant and obsolete by building the new model. It seems to be the usual way empires get extinguished.
Just get rid of the government monopoly police services altogether and allow ONLY a fully competitive, private market in private security services to provide the needed protection that society REQUIRES and WANTS. There might be some subsidized by larger businesses that would benefit beyond their immediate property limits, some might come via homeowner’s insurance costs, some might be by direct subscription, but one way or the other, these folks would be ACCOUNTABLE to the customers, and would be about protecting US from others, rather than protecting the government from those that do not obey THEIR rules and regulations. No need to try and make unaccountable government somehow accountable. IT CANNOT BE DONE. ONLY the market can deliver accountability and that comes with one’s ability to take one’s money and walk.
anarchyst
June 1, 2018 2:44 pm
For almost every cop, making it to a cushy retirement is the ultimate goal. All one has to do is look at the (in)action of the police officers during the last number of mass school shootings, where these “trained professionals” SAT ON THEIR HANDS while the carnage was going on. You can bet that us military veterans in such a case would be drawn TOWARD the sound of gunfire. Today’s human nature dictates that the person with all of the “training” (especially) “law enforcement” DOES cower in fear, while a 90 lb. armed teacher would reluctantly, but successfully “take out” the shooter. Being “forced” into a situation also forces one to act. There are many examples of persons, who one would normally think, would not be capable of acting in an extremely high-stress situation, but DO come out on top–stopping the threat, and saving lives. Sad to say, today’s police practices dictate that the cop’s life is MORE IMPORTANT than that of those he has sworn to protect.
All one has to do is look at the Medal of Honor recipients, who are almost always mild-mannered, initially reluctant to act, but DO act, and perform feats who most would think are normally beyond their capacity and capabilities–TRUE bravery in the heat of battle. The same applies to those civilians who act during school shootings.
Human nature has a habit of propelling (actually forcing) the normal, average person into a true “hero” and life saver, while showing the true (cowardly behavior) nature of those we assign to protect us. A good example of our “protectors” cowering in fear is the deputies who FAILED TO ACT despite having all of the equipment necessary and the preferential laws on their side (that protect them from lawsuits and liability).
TRUE heroes ACT, while our so-called “protectors” (failed to) REACT.
If I had my way, publicly-funded municipal police departments would be abolished in favor of privately-funded police.
anarchyst
June 1, 2018 2:49 pm
No One Cares If You Go Home Safe At The End Of Your Shift
Jan 02, 201812:50AM
Category: Politics
Posted by: Michael Z. Williamson
Here at the house, I have a couple of decades plus of military experience. I have tools to dig in or out of natural disasters. I have extinguishers and hoses. I have a field trauma kit and bandages. I have weapons both melee and firearm. I know how to use them. I know how to trench, support and revet. I understand the fire triangle and appropriate approaches. I understand breathing, bleeding and shock. I know how to detain, restrain and control. I have done all of these at least occasionally, professionally. I’ve stood on top of a collapsing levee in a flood. I’ve fought a structure fire from inside so we could get everyone out before the fire department showed up, which only took two minutes, but people can die that fast. I’ve had structures collapse while I was working on them. I’ve been in an aircraft that had a “mechanical” on approach and had to be repaired in-flight before landing. I’ve helped control a brush fire. I’ve hauled disabled vehicles out of ditches in sub-zero weather.
My ex wife has over a decade of service and some of the same training.
We have trained our young adult children.
My wife is a rancher who knows her way around a shotgun, livestock, sutures and tools, hurricanes and floods, and works in investigations professionally.
Our current houseguest is another veteran.
This means if anything happens at the house–and last year we had a lightning strike, a tornado and a flood within 10 days–we’re pretty well prepared.
Now, we’re probably better off than 95% of the households out there. The level of disaster that necessitates backup varies.
If we find it necessary to call 911, it means the party is in progress and it’s bad.
You will probably not be going home safe at the end of your shift.
And you know what? If it gets to that point, I really don’t give a shit. I don’t give a shit if you get smoked. I don’t give a shit if you fall under a tree. I don’t give a shit if you get shot at.
Because at that point, I’ve done everything I can with that same circumstance, and run out of resources.
If my concern was “you going home safe,” then I’d just fucking hunker down and die. Because I wouldn’t want that poor responder to endanger himself.
Except…that’s what I pay taxes for, and that’s what you signed up for. Just like I signed up to walk into a potential nuke war in Germany and hold off the Soviets, and did walk into the Middle East and prepare to take fire while keeping expensive equipment functioning so our shooters could keep shooting.
There’s not a single set of orders I got that said my primary job was to “Come home safe.” They said it was to “support the mission” or “complete the objective.” Coming home safe was the ideal outcome, but entirely secondary to “supporting” or “completing.” Nor, once that started, did I get a choice to quit. Once in, all in.
When that 80 year old lady smells smoke or hears a noise outside her first floor bedroom in the ghetto, she doesn’t care if you go home safe, either. She’s afraid she or the kids next door won’t wake up in the morning.
If I call, I expect your ass to show up, sober, trained, professional. I expect you to wade in with me or in place of me, and drag a child out of a hole, or out from a burning room, or actually stand up and block bullets from hitting said child, because by the time you get there, I’ll have already done all that. And there will be field dressings, chainsawed trees, buckets and empty brass scattered about.
I don’t want to hear some drunk and confused guy squirming on the ground playing “Simon Says” terrified you so much you had to blow him away. I don’t want to hear that some random guy 35 yards away who you had no actual information on “may have reached toward his waist band. Or that “the tree might fall any moment” or that “the smoke makes it hard to see.”
Near as I can tell, I don’t hear the smokejumpers, or the firefighters, or the disaster rescue people say such things.
But it’s all I ever hear from the cops. If you and your five girlfriends in body armor, with rifles, are that terrified of actually risking your life for the theoretically dangerous job you volunteered for and can quit any time, then please do quit.
You can get a job doing pest control and go home safe every night.
Until a bunch of fucking pussies with big tattoos, small dicks, body armor and guns blow you away for minding your own business.
Because what you’re telling me with that statement is, your only concern is cashing a check. That’s fine. But if that’s your concern, don’t pretend you’re serving the public. If you wanted to help people at risk of life, you would be a firefighter, running into buildings, dragging people out, getting scorched regularly.
If you’re cool with writing tickets, then there’s jobs where you can do just that.
If you want to tangle with bad guys and blow them away, fair enough. But understand: That means they get to shoot first to prove their intent, just as happens with the military these days. Our ROE these days are usually “only if fired upon and no civilians are at risk.”
If your plan is “shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, then if anyone is still alive try to ask questions,” and bleat, “But I was afeard fer mah lahf!” you’re absolutely no better than the thugs you claim to oppose. All you are is another combatant in a turf war I don’t care about.
Since I know your primary concern is “being safe,” then I’ll do you the favor of not calling. Cash your welfare check, and try not to shoot me at a “courtesy” sobriety checkpoint for twitching my eye “in a way that suggested range estimation.”
If you’re one of the vanishingly few cops who isn’t like that, then what the hell are you doing about it? If there’s going to be a lawsuit costing the city millions, isn’t it better that it be a labor suit from the union over the clown you fired, than a wrongful death suit over the poor bastard the clown shot? Both are expensive, but one has a dead victim you enabled. So how much do you actually care about that life?
How is the training so bad that it’s not clear who is the scene commander who gives the orders?
How is it that trigger happy bozos who, out of costume, look no different from the gangbangers you claim to oppose, get sent up front to fulfill their wish of hosing someone down because “I was afraid for my life!”?
Why does the rot exist in your department?
If you can’t do anything about it, why are you still in that department?
At some point, collective guilt is a thing.
You’ve probably not been a good cop for a long time.
And I still don’t care if you go home safe. I care that everyone you purport to “serve and protect” goes home safe.
Don’t hold back Anarchyst tell us what you really think.
Yeah SWAT team guys act really tough when they are raiding some guy for dealing drugs and he is sitting on his couch in a wife-beater t-shirt, however, when someone starts shooting back they run for cover like anyone else.
And it will come back into fashion, in a big way, because the low-lifes who should be in jail don’t stay there and the people you call to stop them are as likely to kill the homeowner as the burglar.
The more it happens, the less likely the police will get called.
“shoot, shovel and shut up” is going to apply in more and more circumstances as it gets worse.
Stucky
June 1, 2018 5:46 pm
The state of Florida believes the life of a human being snuffed out by a COPFUK is worth …… four cents. You read that correctly.
“A family in Florida is seeking justice after a jury awarded them a total of 4 cents in compensation for the death of their father, killed in his own garage by police officers who arrived on a noise complaint.”
That was a nigger with a gun and his “fambly” was trying to win the ghetto lottery. Fuck them.
MrLiberty
June 1, 2018 5:50 pm
A most interesting character and band from the 80s:
Boat Guy
June 1, 2018 6:25 pm
Badge wearing just doing my job minions will keep close ranks with the entire corrupt judicial system ! The big “THEY” are counting on it !
Remember all us property owners and savers who worked and saved living within or below our means to retire with some security and comfort well fuck us now that we are weaker and to old to play catch up . The big “THEY” can and will tax us out of our homes and savings and should we refuse the minions will force us into the street ! Yes it can and it will happen here . The big “THEY” have already spent our grandchildren’s future for their imadiate gain now . Do not expect mercy or fairness !
Remember that when you hear government employees bragging about retirement and how much they are guaranteed it will be confiscated from us ! The big “THEY” have saved nothing !
22winmag - when you ask someone which floor they'd like, and they respond with "ladies lingerie"- they're referencing the AEROSMITH SONG!!!
22win one never knows who folds and who digs in we must be cautious the government minions have an invincible thread that goes to their collective head
22winmag - when you ask someone which floor they'd like, and they respond with "ladies lingerie"- they're referencing the AEROSMITH SONG!!!
I’m just starting shit. It’s really a horrible story.
These peacetime charades (cop flash mobs executing and maiming citizens) are bad, but not the same as SHTF when citizen bullets really start flying.
Thunderbird
June 2, 2018 12:29 am
If one investigates the premise and intents in the body of administrative law one can see that it is contract law; not suited for criminal justice. And our administrative courts judge by facts; not values.
This is why there is no “Bill of Rights” or “Due Process of Law” in administrative law. The practice of values in society is the glue to order and understanding. So the law has to practice those same values of the people or the law will become alien to the people; as is happening now.
Seems like law enforcement is being used as automatons to enforce many questionable laws, ordinances, etc. from small bodies of men & woman elected to serve the entire community; yet want to make rules based on their own imagination.
How many ordinances are created out of fact and how many out of value? This is an important question. Except the ones that do not know the difference between fact and value.
Administrative laws have diminished our inner conscience. We now live by laws; not conscience. What does that say for us? People who live by laws don’t want responsibility. People who want to be responsible are being restricted by administrative laws.
With our attention focused on our technical gadgets we seem to be focused on virtual reality rather than the real world around us. Could this be why so many seem to be moving out of the stream of critical thinking in the now and descending into the abyss of video games?
22winmag - when you ask someone which floor they'd like, and they respond with "ladies lingerie"- they're referencing the AEROSMITH SONG!!!
He should get 5 to 10……..
nails?
only takes 1 pass if its a wood chipper….
If anything, police should be held to a higher standard than that of the public…As it stands now, police can commit crimes with impunity because, in most situations, they investigate themselves…Behavior that would get an ordinary citizen charged, convicted and incarcerated is routinely ignored by “the powers that be” because police are considered to be “above the law” as the “law” is whatever they say it is, the Constitution be damned…
Police officers are the only group that can murder someone by falsely claiming that “they feared for their lives”, have 48 to 72 hours to “get their stories straight”, and have a union lawyer and compliant prosecutor-steered “grand jury” absolve them of responsibility.
Police demand immediate compliance (Israeli-style)–with two or three cops issuing and yelling out conflicting commands, it is easy to see how a person under police control could lose his life for merely attempting to follow conflicting directions.
Ever notice that police unions are “fraternal”? This should tell you something. The “thin-blue-line” is a gang, little different than street gangs–at least when it comes to “covering-up” their questionable and quite often, illegal and criminal behavior.
In today’s day and age, “officer safety” trumps de-escalation of force. This, in part, is due to the militarization of the police along with training in Israeli police tactics. This becomes a problem, with the “us vs. them” attitude that is fosters, along with the fact that Israel is a very different place, being on a constant “war footing”, its police tactics are very different.
It is interesting to note that our military operates under “rules of engagement” and “escalation of force” doctrine, unlike American police departments which have NO “rules of engagement” policies.
There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.
Police officers, who want to do the right thing, are quite often marginalized and put into harms way, by their own brethren…When a police officer is beating on someone that is already restrained while yelling, “stop resisting” THAT is but one reason police have a “bad name” in many instances…this makes the “good cops” who are standing around, witnessing their “brethren in blue” beating on a restrained suspect, culpable as well…
Here are changes that can help reduce police-induced violence:
1. Get rid of police unions. Police unions (fraternities) protect the guilty, and are responsible for the massive whitewashing of questionable police behavior that is presently being committed.
2. Eliminate both “absolute” and “qualified” immunity for all public officials. This includes, prosecutors and judges, police and firefighters, code enforcement and child protective services officials, and others who deal with the citizenry. The threat of being sued personally would encourage them to behave themselves. Require police officers to be “bonded” by an insurance company, with their own funds. No bond=no job. You can bet that insurance companies would be more diligent in weeding out the “bad apples” than our present system…
3. Any public funds disbursed to citizens as a result of police misconduct should come out of police pension funds–NOT from the taxpayers.
4. Regular drug-testing of police officers as well as incident-based drug testing should take place whenever an officer is involved in a violent situation with a citizen–no exceptions.
5. Testing for steroid use should be a part of the drug testing program. You know damn well, many police officers “bulk up” with the “help” of steroids. Steroids also affect users mentally as well, making them more aggressive. The potential for abuse of citizens increases greatly with steroid use.
6. Internal affairs should only be used for disagreements between individual officers–NOT for investigations involving citizen abuse. State-level investigations should be mandatory for all suspected abuses involving citizens.
7. Prosecutors should be charged with malfeasance IF any evidence implicating police officer misconduct is not presented to the grand jury.
8. A national or state-by-state database of abusive individuals who should NEVER be allowed to perform police work should be established–a “blacklist” of abusive (former) police officers.
9. Most people are unaware that police have special “rules” that prohibit them from being questioned from 48 to 72 hours. This allows them to “get their stories straight” and makes it easier to “cover up” bad police behavior. Police must be subject to the same laws as civilians.
10. All police should be required to wear bodycams and utilize dashcams that cannot be turned off. Any police officers who causes a dash or body cam to be turned off should be summarily fired–no excuses. Today’s body and dash cams are reliable enough to withstand harsh treatment. Body and dashcam footage should be uploaded to a public channel “on the cloud” for public perusal.
11. All interrogations must be video and audio recorded. Police should be prohibited from lying or fabricating stories in order to get suspects to confess. False confessions ARE a problem in many departments. Unknown to most people, police can lie with impunity while civilians can be charged with lying to police…fair? I think not…
12. Any legislation passed that restricts the rights of ordinary citizens, such as firearms magazine capacity limits, types of weapons allowed, or restrictive concealed-carry laws should apply equally to police. No special exemptions or “carve outs” to be given to police. Laws must be equally applied.
13 “Asset forfeiture” is a form of “legalized robbery under color of law” and must be abolished. We must return to Constitutional principles when it comes to “crimefighting”. The so-called “war on drugs” is actually a “war on the citizenry” and has had an extremely corrosive effect on the Constitutional principles that our country is (supposed to be) founded on.
14. “No-knock” raids must be abolished as they put both police and (especially citizens) in harms way. Even the Nazis “knocked on the door” before gaining entry.
15. SWAT teams must be reigned in on their “dynamic entry techniques”. Utilizing SWAT teams for routine situations is dangerous to both police and citizens. Smashing everything in sight “just because they can”, blaming it on an “adrenaline rush” must end. There is NEVER a reason for destroying property.
16. The “21 foot rule” must be modified or abolished. American police training assumes that ANYONE that gets within 21 feet of a police officer and is deemed a threat, even a non-life-threatening situation is “fair game” for the use of lethal force. Persons with rakes, sticks, knives, or even their fists have been executed, even when non-lethal means would have been more appropriate. Police hide behind the “21 foot rule” in order to justify questionable police shootings. Their “excuse”, when brought before a prosecutor or grand jury is that “they feared for their life” or “that is the way they are trained”. THAT has to change. Police have a greater responsibility NOT to use deadly force against those that they could easily subdue by other means.
17. Clear and concise “rules of engagement” must be established for ALL American law enforcement personnel. Any deviation from these rules must be severely punished. It is interesting to note that American military veterans in combat zones operate under more restrictive “rules of engagement” than American “law enforcement”. In fact, American “law enforcement” operates under NO “rules of engagement”. They have total “carte blanche” to destroy whoever they want. THAT has to change…
Police work is not inherently dangerous…there are many other professions that are much more dangerous.
A little “Andy Taylor” could go a long way in allaying fears that citizens have of police.
Very good points!
That’s an admirable list of reforms there, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for them to be adopted. They just don’t fit with the agenda that’s being implemented.
Besides I never bought into the futility of trying to reform the corrupt. Bucky Fuller nails it here.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” -Buckminster Fuller
My opinion is that the only way to defeat the overlords is to make them irrelevant and obsolete by building the new model. It seems to be the usual way empires get extinguished.
Anarchist, good list but all you need to do is implement #3 and the problem will correct itself.
Just get rid of the government monopoly police services altogether and allow ONLY a fully competitive, private market in private security services to provide the needed protection that society REQUIRES and WANTS. There might be some subsidized by larger businesses that would benefit beyond their immediate property limits, some might come via homeowner’s insurance costs, some might be by direct subscription, but one way or the other, these folks would be ACCOUNTABLE to the customers, and would be about protecting US from others, rather than protecting the government from those that do not obey THEIR rules and regulations. No need to try and make unaccountable government somehow accountable. IT CANNOT BE DONE. ONLY the market can deliver accountability and that comes with one’s ability to take one’s money and walk.
For almost every cop, making it to a cushy retirement is the ultimate goal. All one has to do is look at the (in)action of the police officers during the last number of mass school shootings, where these “trained professionals” SAT ON THEIR HANDS while the carnage was going on. You can bet that us military veterans in such a case would be drawn TOWARD the sound of gunfire. Today’s human nature dictates that the person with all of the “training” (especially) “law enforcement” DOES cower in fear, while a 90 lb. armed teacher would reluctantly, but successfully “take out” the shooter. Being “forced” into a situation also forces one to act. There are many examples of persons, who one would normally think, would not be capable of acting in an extremely high-stress situation, but DO come out on top–stopping the threat, and saving lives. Sad to say, today’s police practices dictate that the cop’s life is MORE IMPORTANT than that of those he has sworn to protect.
All one has to do is look at the Medal of Honor recipients, who are almost always mild-mannered, initially reluctant to act, but DO act, and perform feats who most would think are normally beyond their capacity and capabilities–TRUE bravery in the heat of battle. The same applies to those civilians who act during school shootings.
Human nature has a habit of propelling (actually forcing) the normal, average person into a true “hero” and life saver, while showing the true (cowardly behavior) nature of those we assign to protect us. A good example of our “protectors” cowering in fear is the deputies who FAILED TO ACT despite having all of the equipment necessary and the preferential laws on their side (that protect them from lawsuits and liability).
TRUE heroes ACT, while our so-called “protectors” (failed to) REACT.
If I had my way, publicly-funded municipal police departments would be abolished in favor of privately-funded police.
No One Cares If You Go Home Safe At The End Of Your Shift
Jan 02, 201812:50AM
Category: Politics
Posted by: Michael Z. Williamson
Here at the house, I have a couple of decades plus of military experience. I have tools to dig in or out of natural disasters. I have extinguishers and hoses. I have a field trauma kit and bandages. I have weapons both melee and firearm. I know how to use them. I know how to trench, support and revet. I understand the fire triangle and appropriate approaches. I understand breathing, bleeding and shock. I know how to detain, restrain and control. I have done all of these at least occasionally, professionally. I’ve stood on top of a collapsing levee in a flood. I’ve fought a structure fire from inside so we could get everyone out before the fire department showed up, which only took two minutes, but people can die that fast. I’ve had structures collapse while I was working on them. I’ve been in an aircraft that had a “mechanical” on approach and had to be repaired in-flight before landing. I’ve helped control a brush fire. I’ve hauled disabled vehicles out of ditches in sub-zero weather.
My ex wife has over a decade of service and some of the same training.
We have trained our young adult children.
My wife is a rancher who knows her way around a shotgun, livestock, sutures and tools, hurricanes and floods, and works in investigations professionally.
Our current houseguest is another veteran.
This means if anything happens at the house–and last year we had a lightning strike, a tornado and a flood within 10 days–we’re pretty well prepared.
Now, we’re probably better off than 95% of the households out there. The level of disaster that necessitates backup varies.
If we find it necessary to call 911, it means the party is in progress and it’s bad.
You will probably not be going home safe at the end of your shift.
And you know what? If it gets to that point, I really don’t give a shit. I don’t give a shit if you get smoked. I don’t give a shit if you fall under a tree. I don’t give a shit if you get shot at.
Because at that point, I’ve done everything I can with that same circumstance, and run out of resources.
If my concern was “you going home safe,” then I’d just fucking hunker down and die. Because I wouldn’t want that poor responder to endanger himself.
Except…that’s what I pay taxes for, and that’s what you signed up for. Just like I signed up to walk into a potential nuke war in Germany and hold off the Soviets, and did walk into the Middle East and prepare to take fire while keeping expensive equipment functioning so our shooters could keep shooting.
There’s not a single set of orders I got that said my primary job was to “Come home safe.” They said it was to “support the mission” or “complete the objective.” Coming home safe was the ideal outcome, but entirely secondary to “supporting” or “completing.” Nor, once that started, did I get a choice to quit. Once in, all in.
When that 80 year old lady smells smoke or hears a noise outside her first floor bedroom in the ghetto, she doesn’t care if you go home safe, either. She’s afraid she or the kids next door won’t wake up in the morning.
If I call, I expect your ass to show up, sober, trained, professional. I expect you to wade in with me or in place of me, and drag a child out of a hole, or out from a burning room, or actually stand up and block bullets from hitting said child, because by the time you get there, I’ll have already done all that. And there will be field dressings, chainsawed trees, buckets and empty brass scattered about.
I don’t want to hear some drunk and confused guy squirming on the ground playing “Simon Says” terrified you so much you had to blow him away. I don’t want to hear that some random guy 35 yards away who you had no actual information on “may have reached toward his waist band. Or that “the tree might fall any moment” or that “the smoke makes it hard to see.”
Near as I can tell, I don’t hear the smokejumpers, or the firefighters, or the disaster rescue people say such things.
But it’s all I ever hear from the cops. If you and your five girlfriends in body armor, with rifles, are that terrified of actually risking your life for the theoretically dangerous job you volunteered for and can quit any time, then please do quit.
You can get a job doing pest control and go home safe every night.
Until a bunch of fucking pussies with big tattoos, small dicks, body armor and guns blow you away for minding your own business.
Because what you’re telling me with that statement is, your only concern is cashing a check. That’s fine. But if that’s your concern, don’t pretend you’re serving the public. If you wanted to help people at risk of life, you would be a firefighter, running into buildings, dragging people out, getting scorched regularly.
If you’re cool with writing tickets, then there’s jobs where you can do just that.
If you want to tangle with bad guys and blow them away, fair enough. But understand: That means they get to shoot first to prove their intent, just as happens with the military these days. Our ROE these days are usually “only if fired upon and no civilians are at risk.”
If your plan is “shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, then if anyone is still alive try to ask questions,” and bleat, “But I was afeard fer mah lahf!” you’re absolutely no better than the thugs you claim to oppose. All you are is another combatant in a turf war I don’t care about.
Since I know your primary concern is “being safe,” then I’ll do you the favor of not calling. Cash your welfare check, and try not to shoot me at a “courtesy” sobriety checkpoint for twitching my eye “in a way that suggested range estimation.”
If you’re one of the vanishingly few cops who isn’t like that, then what the hell are you doing about it? If there’s going to be a lawsuit costing the city millions, isn’t it better that it be a labor suit from the union over the clown you fired, than a wrongful death suit over the poor bastard the clown shot? Both are expensive, but one has a dead victim you enabled. So how much do you actually care about that life?
How is the training so bad that it’s not clear who is the scene commander who gives the orders?
How is it that trigger happy bozos who, out of costume, look no different from the gangbangers you claim to oppose, get sent up front to fulfill their wish of hosing someone down because “I was afraid for my life!”?
Why does the rot exist in your department?
If you can’t do anything about it, why are you still in that department?
At some point, collective guilt is a thing.
You’ve probably not been a good cop for a long time.
And I still don’t care if you go home safe. I care that everyone you purport to “serve and protect” goes home safe.
Don’t hold back Anarchyst tell us what you really think.
Yeah SWAT team guys act really tough when they are raiding some guy for dealing drugs and he is sitting on his couch in a wife-beater t-shirt, however, when someone starts shooting back they run for cover like anyone else.
+1,000,000,000. Well put Sir!
There are times when you have to make your own justice.
That’s not bluster. That’s truth.
And it will come back into fashion, in a big way, because the low-lifes who should be in jail don’t stay there and the people you call to stop them are as likely to kill the homeowner as the burglar.
The more it happens, the less likely the police will get called.
“shoot, shovel and shut up” is going to apply in more and more circumstances as it gets worse.
The state of Florida believes the life of a human being snuffed out by a COPFUK is worth …… four cents. You read that correctly.
“A family in Florida is seeking justice after a jury awarded them a total of 4 cents in compensation for the death of their father, killed in his own garage by police officers who arrived on a noise complaint.”
https://www.rt.com/usa/428409-florida-cents-death-compensation/
Moral of the story. Don’t point a gun at cops
That was a nigger with a gun and his “fambly” was trying to win the ghetto lottery. Fuck them.
A most interesting character and band from the 80s:
Badge wearing just doing my job minions will keep close ranks with the entire corrupt judicial system ! The big “THEY” are counting on it !
Remember all us property owners and savers who worked and saved living within or below our means to retire with some security and comfort well fuck us now that we are weaker and to old to play catch up . The big “THEY” can and will tax us out of our homes and savings and should we refuse the minions will force us into the street ! Yes it can and it will happen here . The big “THEY” have already spent our grandchildren’s future for their imadiate gain now . Do not expect mercy or fairness !
Remember that when you hear government employees bragging about retirement and how much they are guaranteed it will be confiscated from us ! The big “THEY” have saved nothing !
Bet him and his ilk crumble in a real firefight.
Yep, would fold like cheap lawn chairs.
22win one never knows who folds and who digs in we must be cautious the government minions have an invincible thread that goes to their collective head
I’m just starting shit. It’s really a horrible story.
These peacetime charades (cop flash mobs executing and maiming citizens) are bad, but not the same as SHTF when citizen bullets really start flying.
If one investigates the premise and intents in the body of administrative law one can see that it is contract law; not suited for criminal justice. And our administrative courts judge by facts; not values.
This is why there is no “Bill of Rights” or “Due Process of Law” in administrative law. The practice of values in society is the glue to order and understanding. So the law has to practice those same values of the people or the law will become alien to the people; as is happening now.
Seems like law enforcement is being used as automatons to enforce many questionable laws, ordinances, etc. from small bodies of men & woman elected to serve the entire community; yet want to make rules based on their own imagination.
How many ordinances are created out of fact and how many out of value? This is an important question. Except the ones that do not know the difference between fact and value.
Administrative laws have diminished our inner conscience. We now live by laws; not conscience. What does that say for us? People who live by laws don’t want responsibility. People who want to be responsible are being restricted by administrative laws.
With our attention focused on our technical gadgets we seem to be focused on virtual reality rather than the real world around us. Could this be why so many seem to be moving out of the stream of critical thinking in the now and descending into the abyss of video games?
Not much room for values in the prosecutors office.
Sadly, most politicians are former prosecutors or attorneys.