“Is he an exception or the rule?”
It doesn’t matter. The fact is the very nature of having “authority” over another human being causes human beings to become corrupt. It’s a simple fact. Most police I know (I know MANY) wanted the money. Many of my friends in High School wanted to become cops for various reasons. The problem is that they have ZERO accountability, and cover up each others’ crimes.
The video gaming industry hasn’t helped the younger generation. Many people don’t know that the video game was invented to get people to kill one another. In WWI (maybe WW2), the military found that most people off the boats wouldn’t shoot another human being, I think it was like 1/10 (These figures are from memory, but pretty close, but you can look up the numbers). Over the years the tried many things, to up the rate of return (shotting another human being). So they made targets to be in the shape of people, but look like targets (red/white), and it went up to like 4/10 would then shoot another human being in combat. Then they used targets that were photos of people IIRC, and it jumped to like 7/10 would shoot a living person. Then I think they were moving photo targets and it became 9/10. And then the video game was invented and 10/10 trainees would fire on another person.
And the generations for the last 30 years have been exposed to these video games. Regardless to whether or not one believe video games incite violence, the DO desensitize a person to the natural inhibition to NOT KILL another human being, and make a game out of it.
Like I’ve said before, and will ever say it again, police work is corruptive. I’ve known a few good men who could not stay in police work more than 2 years. They simply refused to play the game to cover for others, and be subjected to that kind of stress. Police work was never meant to be a lifetime job. It was meant to be voted in and out like any other public servant, because people are never supposed to fear police.
THis is a growing problem and will not be resolved without more and more citizenry being murdered by police until people get so tired of it that they say “Enough.” There is nothing sacred about being a police officer, and they deserve no respect. Individuals deserve respect. Unelected, murderous, thugs deserve nothing. If you don’t know your local law enforcement officers, then the local law enforcement is being run in a way that it shouldn’t be. Sheriffs, and their deputies were meant to be upstanding members of their communities, and the ONLY law enforcement we have. Anything else is just part of the corruption. Hence if you don’t know the unelected “officer,” he’s not accountable to you.
When people realize that they themselves are responsible for enforcing the law, and that a Sheriff is meant to facilitate that process, then we’ll be better off. There is not even a valid argument contrary to the citizenry being responsible for law enforcement. Citizens are witnesses, citizens are the final judges, the jurors (or supposed to be). Oh yeah, and citizens are allowed to arrest. WE ARE the legal system, we’ve just abdicated that to a bunch of thugs. It’s time to take responsibility, it’s the only way to have our freedom back. We can’t relegate our security to someone else, and believe they will be benevolent to us. Not only has it never happened, it never can. Those who are willing to mooch off of you to promise you security, don’t have it themselves, and cannot give it to you.
Part of me believes this was inevitable. As population grows, wealth grows, and expectations. More and more people “calling the cops” over things they could resolve themselves. Someone threatens to shoot someone under his breath or maim someone for a trivial disagreement...call the cops. Ok, what about other disagreements, say over cheating at cards? Call the cops. Call the cops for every little thing under the sun. How was this handled in the wild west? Assuming it wasn’t some drawn out heavy grudge, it was usually settled with words, or fists out in the yard. Then it was settled. Everyone went on with life. Not anymore. Now the perp will cap you and your wife as well. So the police think they are GOD now, and that we must be ruled over with an iron fist since we refuse to police ourselves and our neighbors.
Well that, and the fact that the Feds lock everyone up in this country for EVERYTHING.
http://www.fbi.gov/fieldnews/breaking.htm
The Wild West as it were was much tamer, relatively speaking, than what we have now.
I keep thinking about all the tv shows that have acclimated people to seeing the jackboot thugs breaking down doors. Of course, they are always the heros and there is always a clear and evil criminal. And leftist HollyScum has helped train us for the police state too.