[HenryLeeII]

Sell your diatribe to the widows and orphans of the police officers killed every year. Its a heckuva lot more dangerous than the jobs most of us have, and although a few of them are less than great at what they do, they deserve our respect and gratitude.

[watchin]

Agreed. But they're still not soldiers.

[archy]

Sell your diatribe to the widows and orphans of the police officers killed every year.

Several of whom are killed by their fellow officers under less than honourable circumstances. And of course, at least four are on death row for crimes they've themselves committed, including premeditated murders, and it appears possible that the feds might be adding four from Miami to that list.

-archy-/-

[eno_]

The problem with those military analogies is they advance the processes of militarizing police.

That is a VERY BAD trend.

We need cops that see their role as a civilian function, not a paramilitary function. Black BDUs, no-knock raids, and military weapons are a BAD THING when 99.9% of what cops do has no need of those things. We could have one highly trained State Police unit in each state to handle those situations, and spend more time doing dull work like taking fingerprints at burglary scenes and matching them to known criminals.

The lousy performance on solving property and ordinary violent crime is in large measure due to the "we have more important things to do" attitude.

To restore balance, I'd say that for every year a cop wore black BDUs, they ought to wear a pink bunny suit. That by itself would weed out a lot of cops that are in that job for the wrong reasons.

[thepitts]

, they deserve our respect and gratitude.

No they don't, they earn it just like everyone else.

[from occupied ga]

Why don't you sell your statist attitude to the parents, widows and orhans of the innocent "civilians" whom the police gun down every year and never suffer any consequences for. Why don't you try selling your love of authority to all of those in places like Baltimore and Detroit who are prevented by the police from effectively protecting themselves because of gun control. The homicide rate among ordinary citizens in both of those places is a lot higher than among the police in there.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"Sell your diatribe to the widows and orphans of the police officers killed every year."

Sell yours to the widows of cab drivers, fishermen, and other workers who face greater dangers without being made into "more equal" citizens with special powers and rights, along with the ability to strike against the people they "serve."

It's a government job. No inherent "heroism" for collecting the paycheck, or necessarily even getting killed on the job. Heroism is something else.