Cops today

It's not often I talk about my profession. Even today, I'm discussing societal roles more than specifics of my job.

See, I saw a blog post from McThag talking about cops, and why he generally dislikes them. Go. Read.

http://mcthag.blogspot.com/2016/02/facebook-drove-me-insane.html?m=1

I don't blame him, for feeling the way he does. Hell, my best friend regularly posts things about cops and abuse of power on facebook, and will get into arguments about how all cops are crooked.

Which is funny because he's a great friend, who plays D&D with me. And my dad (also a cop) has had him at our dinner table regularly. I guess if you're a victim of profiling, though, it breeds distrust... which is what McThag says, basically. All the experiences he has with cops have been negative, so he associates cops with negativity. I understand why,  and it makes me happy that he somewhat admits that he understands this is prejudiced.

(As an aside, please understand that this is my interpretation of what he wrote, and in no way am I trying to put words in his mouth)

Anyway, I find it amusing that all my friends either love cops, or hate cops. No one I personally know is ambivalent to them.

Personally, I don't think cops deserve being hailed as heroes just because of the job we do. I don't think we deserve discounts at restaurants, and I don't think we are above the law in any way. In fact, I feel we have to be held to a higher standard than the communities we police.

One of my best friend's favorite sayings is "who polices the police?" The police do, of course. And he points to a local cop who shot a kid, because he was trying to harass the kids father(who was sleeping with the cop's ex)and the kid got in the way. I have to shake my head.

The cop is in jail, because other cops arrested his sorry ass. He was arrested by cops who knew him, because putting him in jail was the right thing to do.

Does the Thin Blue Line exist? Absolutely. For a week after that kid died, I kept telling everyone who asked me about it to wait. I wasn't ready to see the cop rot, because I didn't have all the facts. I have seen too many times good cops get their reputations smeared because they made a split second decision, and someone ended up hurt. Truth is, waaaayyy more often than not, a cop involved in a shooting or use for force encounter is doing the legal, ethical, and safe thing. But someone ends up shot, and the that cop is the bad guy.

Nevermind that the cop was getting his head pounded on by the suspect.

Nevermind that the suspect was known to the cop, and the cop knew he had a history of violence.

No, the cop shot some "unarmed" guy, and so is obviously out abusing his power as a law enforcement officer.

But sometimes a cop does a horrible thing. Like kill a kid, and tries to use his badge as a shield from justice.

I hope every one of those guys ends up in a federal-butt-rape prison for life. They have tarnished what it means to serve and protect.

I digress. Hell, I'm gonna do it again.

So there was this one time, I had a guy that I knew was selling weed. He was in his early 30's, and had been a street level dealer since he was 14.

He got picked up by local police for a distribution of cocaine charge, and bonded out before I could get him hemmed up.

And the next day, he showed up at my office, knowing I had a warrant for him. After he was in cuffs, I asked him why he came in, knowing I had a warrant.

He said "because I know you're fair. Read the arrest report"  I figured I didn't have anything to lose, so I sat him in an empty room, and called local. They faxed me over a copy of the report, and it was the damnedest thing I ever read. He was arrested for " distribution of cocaine", but cocaine was never mentioned in the report. All that was listed in evidence was a Marijuana roach.

So I let him go, and recalled my warrant. I knew that he was no angel, and was actively peddling Marijuana, but that isn't was the warrant was for. The warrant was for Cocaine. And based on the arrest, I couldn't prove that.

So he walked free.

I say that to get you thinking. We cops have to police our own, right?

And we are also tasked not to violate someone's rights on suspicion, right?

We should only make arrests based on provable facts with hard evidence, right?

I live by that. Most of the cops I know do too.

There are some that I suspect have a more lax interpretation of the law.

And if I ever see them commit a crime, you can be damned sure I'll arrest them.

I owe my community no less.

Cops are people,  just like you. They work and go home, and love their family, and fight with their spouse of who washes the dishes.

But contrary to popular belief, most of them are in the job for the right reasons, and just want to make their community a better place.

And sometimes, they're assholes.

But not all of us are.

Not even most of us are.

We're here to help. Call us if you need something.