Replies

Interestingly enough there are the “bad parts of [some] town[s]” that you hear about cops not going at all.
How does that figure into the “they put their lives on the line” viewpoint? {Or the “police will do what’s right” viewpoint for that matter.}

Cops are individuals. Cops are men and women just like you and me, but they've got weird jobs. Aside from everyday stuff, they deal directly with a negative side of humanity that most of us barely suspect, let alone touch. A good cop hates the ugliness. A bad cop relishes it and I suppose avoids it if it risks his hide. The truth is: a city cop, a street cop, a road cop, puts his life on the line and is at risk of being shot, nice guy or schmuck.

The "police will do what's right" viewpoint is far from the way I view cops. Honorable men and women who are cops will do right. Cowards and weirdos who are cops will do wrong, and in my opinion, are worse than criminals.

Interestingly enough there are the “bad parts of [some] town[s]” that you hear about cops not going at all. How does that figure into the “they put their lives on the line” viewpoint? {Or the “police will do what’s right” viewpoint for that matter.}

there was an incident in my neighborhood with the LA county sherriffs that changed my perspective on metro policing ROE's.

a random gang shooting happened two streets away that had a mother and kids pinned down and called 911 from a closet, bullets had come in to her house from the front yard where they killed a guy as the kids played out front and they ran in, the cops massed troops for 45 minutes while the mother and kids waited in the closet, 911 told the mother to go out and see if it was safe for the officers to come in ( I am not kidding)but she refused ....at the special community neighborhood watch meeting held on the incident, the mother gave her testimony in tears asking why, other witnesses confirmed her testimony, and the watch commander replied that " my primary goal is the protection of my officers, our duty is to enforce the law first and foremost. Our duty is not protection of the public, it is to enforce the law" ...at which point I walked out of the meeting with a very loud parting comment of "COWARDS !" as I walked past the line of officers whos faces turned red