Belligerent officer taped, fired, defended by bretheren

At some point, maybe someone will find the stones needed to ask serious questions of the way we allow our police forces to operate. We give them virtually unchecked power and the benefit of the doubt in far too many situations. It's fortuitous that this kid had video and audio equipment in his car, because God only knows how many people this douchebag has pulled this act on before. Maybe one day we'll get over our hero worship of the police force and realize that quite a few (not a majority, but far more than a few bad apples) are power-tripping egomaniacs who shouldn't be trusted with a water gun, let alone a real one.

 

What a bag of douches. I know plenty of police officers, and they're nothing like that guy. Before we start castigating police officers in general, let's remember that this is one of many isolated incidents. Not every officer is a total ass, who's full of him/herself and the badge he or she wears.

This guy was out of line, but I don't blame his friends for defending him; that's what friends do. He was fired, which was the right reaction by the force. I'm sure a new career is ahead of the officer. Perhaps mall security?

 

Like any district attorney worth his salt when Mike Nifong was disbarred?

 

Take the Tasers away, first of all. Then, stop recruiting so heavily from the military, where interactions with civilians are severely limited and hardly indicative of the real world.

 

They're not his friends, though. They're random officers in Georgia.

And he never would have been fired if that kid hadn't stood up for himself, and more importantly, had recording equipment in his car. How many people have complained about that guy before, only to be told it's your word against his?

 

I'd suggest we pay police officers better, for one thing. But then that opens a whole other can of worms.

 

Yeah, I did duck the question. Apologies.

Colleges, for one thing. See if we can't get some of those idealistic types from the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, etc. Law students. They want to make a difference, right? Appeal to that.

Lots of departments do those citizen academies. Why not see if one or two of the people who do that might actually be interested?

Most high schools have resource officers. Involve them in the recruiting process. Get them to talk to the students, and see which ones might have the makeup to be police officers.

But, yeah, that's tougher than I thought.

 

Guess that police job finally came though for Boots................

 

It's tougher than you thought because the same type of people that are interested in, you know, protecting and serving/military ... are usually going to be interested in protecting and serving/law enforcement. Their job descriptions have major differences, but the backgrounds are very similar, which is why they attract like-minded people.

You want to recruit at colleges? Good luck convincing law students to give up their potentially lucrative careers to work for state wages on the police force.

The pay is a huge problem. You're going to have a hard time recruiting college students in general because they know jobs that require a degree are higher-reward, as well as lower-risk. Police work, especially on the beat, ain't very low-risk. I think we can all agree on that.

 

God gave us police departments so the high school bullies could have gainful employment.
But seriously...guy I was sitting next to at my high school graduation was shitfaced out of his mind, mumbling "Fuck the bishop, fuck'em all" through the ceremony at a cathedral. The guy on the other side of me (at the end of the row) had his girlfriend sitting next to him asking WTF was going on, and he (an Air Force guy with a bit of a temper himself) just snapped "Drunk!" I was this close to having a pew-clearing brawl in my lap.
Drunk guy, of course, went on to become a Providence cop (as did his father and older brothers). Whether it was the drinking or the pressure of not making detective as quickly as the rest of his family did, he took a gun and offed himself about seven or eight years in.
God only knows how many other men (and women) in blue are walking IEDs.