Agree with those who say this is why cops are not helping their own image/situation, even if this sort of incident is very much a minority.
With all that cops have to deal with, from being on the front lines and dealing with the fringes of society, to being targeted and blamed for things out of their control, it’s not hard to understand why you’d have a chip on your shoulder as well as having your head on a swivel, and need a certain level of confidence/bravado in order to deal with it all. But I still believe that they need to do a lot of psychological screening for law enforcement. It takes a special kind of person to deal with the crap that they do and not want to take short-cuts and not to completely resent the people you are dealing with and trample their rights. It’s a very hard thing to do. I don’t think I could do it.
“It takes a special kind of person to deal with the crap that they do and not want to take short-cuts and not to completely resent the people you are dealing with and trample their rights. It’s a very hard thing to do. I don’t think I could do it.”
One of my wife’s best friends married our town’s first chief of police. That was twenty years ago. He had a heart attack and had to retire. He just had his 80th birthday, and he still bears the “scars” of a life as a police officer. It has taken all of the past 20 years to get over the notion that “everyone is a potential lawbreaker,” and to try as best he can to absolve himself of some of the “extra legal” actions he took “on the job.” He’s even recently joined his wife’s church and got himself baptized. So you’re spot on with your comments.