• Sentrovasi
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      201 year ago

      Sometimes I read some people try to defend cops by saying “you’re too scared to be a cop”, and I think to myself, actually, yeah. That’s the point: being a cop means needing to face desperate people and de-escalate; it means being able to be calm in the face of danger and make sound snap decisions. People’s lives and safety are in your hands. It’s a fucking terrifying and difficult thing to do, especially in a country as polarised today as America.

      The problem is that means that a lot of people who still want to be cops are people who don’t appreciate the difficulty of what it is they have to do.

      And for the few that do understand and are sensitive enough to prejudice to make this sacrifice: when they end up in a department of these other people who make wrong decisions every day and put money where it’s not needed, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d want to leave, be harassed out or worse, end up going through the motions and joining in as well.

      • Doug HollandOP
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        181 year ago

        That’s the crux of it all, right there.

        Cops ought to be what you describe in your first paragraph, but in reality the job is simply thug-with-a-badge.

        • Maeve
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          41 year ago

          Cops must take six weeks off BLET (basic law enforcement training). That’s mostly it, some cops get a two year criminal justice tech degree, and humanities weren’t part of the required curriculum when I was a student. If they are now, it apparently doesn’t sink in.

      • Maeve
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        51 year ago

        To further illustrate your point, consider Christopher Dorner.

        • @Batmancer
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          1 year ago

          Wow. I remembered his face when duckduckgo led me to a wikipedia article. Was fired for reporting use of excessive force, then went on to kill officers and their family members until they admitted their wrong doing of firing him. From wikipedia, “A manifesto posted by Dorner on social media declared “unconventional and asymmetric warfare” upon the LAPD, their families and their associates unless the department admitted publicly he was fired in retaliation for reporting excessive force.” I have conflicting feelings about this. It makes me happy he took a stand against those organized criminals but I’m sad the criminal’s, possibly innocent, family members got dragged into the bloodshed.

          • Maeve
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            21 year ago

            I’d be much concerned if you didn’t have conflicting feelings about it. I have conflicting feelings, but the predominate one is overwhelming sadness. The whole mess was easily preventable, with proper action by the lapd, and persecuting him wasn’t it, as we see.

    • @Shikadi
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      71 year ago

      Maybe if it wasn’t the way that it is