There are commercial pilots who take naps during flights. There are also pilots who scored some nookie when they are supposed to be working.
There are also badge groupies. Cooping (sleeping on duty) is a very old piece of police slang. My rather limited emergency services experiences include four officers who were fired for drunkeness on duty, theft of public funds, theft of a gun out of evidence, and drunkenness during dereliction of duty when a tour commander decided it was more fun to hang out in the next town over.
They are the exception, but they operate under the force of the authority of The United States. They are able to wield more power than some armies. The men in Tulsa used their positions as heavily armed, government officials to commit extrortion, armed robbery, and to distribute illegal drugs. If you can find a group of airline pilots who used their jobs at United or Delta to commit extortion, armed robbery, and to distribute illegal drugs, you’ll have the beginnings of an issue. But those pilots do not have machine guns and power of arrest as part of their job descriptions.
I think they should all get what's coming to them.
My point is that they do the same stupid things we all do. Now why would that be? Hmmmmmm let me think...Oh, because they're human.
But that's not, apparently, enough of a point for y'all, so let's try to look at it another way:
In East Germany, before the fall of the Berlin wall, in the old USSR, in Venezuela, do you think the TV and newspapers blast out breathless news stories about the abuses of cops? I don't think so. Why, because everybody already knows the cops are dirty. Everybody knows that they're thugs, Everybody expects to (and do) get shaken down. NO BIG NEWS
But here in our good ol' USA, it's news because it' outside of what we expect. It's outside of most folks personal experience. THAT'S MY POINT I'm not saying that cops don't do the kind of stuff they're accused of; I'm saying of course they do. But, ask yourselves What is the reason it makes "news"?
If you think it's because all cops are corrupt; because all cops do it (whatever "it" is), then you have to assume that all commercial pilots take naps, get nookie in the cockpit, land on the wrong runway, kill masses of people when they make mistakes, etc.
See guys, it's an exercise in logic not a body count.
My head isn't in the sand. In my career, I sent two cops to prison and fired a bunch.. Bad cops stayed far away from me because they knew I'd catch them. Now I know that some of you have had a bad cop experience. My point is this is America, we have the right to raise holy hell about bad cops. Just don't paint all the good ones with the same brush. Yes, cops have the authority, given them by the people, to take away someone's life, to take away their liberty, but most don't abuse that authority.
IMHO, there are whole organizations that are corrupt. BATFE is one. We should go after them with a vengeance. But to say or imply that a corrupt organization is the norm is trying to live your lives with "Half your brain tied behind your back". And you're no Rush Limbaugh. END