# Dear American Cops. Look how the real pros do it. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 9, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933 "2016-06-09T17:42:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/61 "2016-06-10T18:09:20Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > I realize America selects it’s cops for the pool of high school graduates, with little or no other skills needed for the job. Every cop I know is a college graduate PLUS a police academy graduate. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/62 "2016-06-10T18:12:57Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Every cop I know is a college graduate PLUS a police academy graduate. Where is that? I believe they just need to have graduated from High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/63 "2016-06-10T18:34:28Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Where is that? I believe they just need to have graduated from High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Northern Virginia. The younger ones I knew in NYC were also college educated. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/64 "2016-06-10T18:43:05Z")
[QUOTE=YogSothoth] Doesn’t matter. Crime comparison is expressed as a number per X amount of people. France could have a population of 1 million and we could still compare crime rates [/QUOTE] You would have to compare apples to apples, which you aren’t doing. > [@](#): > > What is this, a subtle dig at immigrants? So what if they are mostly French people? There is no relevance. You might as well state how many left-handed people there are. I AM an immigrant to the US, you moron, so no…not a subtle dig. Just your own idiotic preconceptions. And it DOES make a difference that the US is made up of so many different racial and ethnic groups…most of who (the vast majority actually) are WHITE PEOPLE. Like you, pendejo. > [@](#): > > It sounds to me like you’re saying that the French are more homogenized, so that makes them less violent overall, and the history of race and immigration in the US leads to violence by criminals and heavy retaliation by cops. Its a good thing we’re in the Pit because I couldn’t say this anywhere else: You’re a fucking racist The French are more culturally assimilated, yes. Being French and all. While the US is definitely more diverse…being French, and English, and Swedish, and Spanish and…and…and… And you are a fucking idiot. > [@](#): > > The comparison is apt, you just don’t want to see it through your immigrant-hating glasses. US police can be taught not to retaliate as the first, second, and third options. They can be taught that sometimes firing a warning shot is ok. They can be taught conflict resolving methods that doesn’t involve a hail of bullets. They can be taught that if one officer fires, that’s not the signal for every other cop within a 2 block radius with a gun to unload their whole magazine. They can be taught that you don’t shoot to kill, that you shoot to disable. All of these things have little bearing on the fearmongering you wanted to spread about the dangers of the immigrant criminal. They are behaviors we can instill in our cops so they don’t think “hail of bullets” is a proper solution to any problem So, I hate myself for being an immigrant and just can’t see why a homogeneous European nation that has been culturally assimilated for over a thousand years (and FORCES IT’S FUCKING IMMIGRANTS TO ASSIMILATE TO IT’S FUCKING CULTURE) and with a population a fraction of ours could possibly be less violent and that this might have an impact in some cherry picked spots in a nation that is the size of a continent verse one the size of a state? Yeah, got it. And I get that your knee jerk reaction to anyone disagreeing with you is to play the racist card (me being hispanic and all, and you being a white pendejo idiotic mother fucker) and anti-immigrant (which is just hilarious, considering I came to the US from Mexico). You know, until this thread I guess I never realized what a complete asshat you are. Thanks for clearing that up for me. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/65 "2016-06-10T19:38:45Z")
We do have to admit that France does have a much lower crime rate, especially Paris, one of the safest cities in the world: > [@](#): > > Paris police authorities “systematically” wiped tens of thousands of crimes from their books as part of a decade-long cover up to make the capital seem safer than it was, according to “explosive” new government data released on Monday. > > Some 16,000 criminal acts were airbrushed from police books for 2011 alone, an audit of crime figures for Paris revealed. The Telegraph - [“Paris police wiped 16,000 crimes off books”](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10673482/Paris-police-wiped-16000-crimes-off-books.html) - 03 Mar 2014. French police are certainly smarter, no American cop would have thought to do this. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/66 "2016-06-10T19:48:29Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I AM an immigrant to the US, you moron, Touche’. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/67 "2016-06-10T21:38:46Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > GED with 2 years active military service. And why are you denigrating a GED? Local PDs around here have various formulas where things like age, military service and years of college experience in particular are qualifying attributes. > [@](#): > > Qualifications > > To be considered for the Dallas Police Department, an applicant must: > > 1. Be a U. S. citizen. > > 2. Be 19 ½ years of age (60 hours from an accredited college – minimum 2.0 GPA) or Be 21 – 44 years of age (45 hours from an accredited college – minimum 2.0 GPA) > > 3. Have a valid driver license. > > 4. Must not have committed any felony or Class A Misdemeanor. > > 5. Have no Class B Misdemeanor convictions within the last 10 years. > > 6. College credit requirement will be waived if you have three (3) years of active military service and an honorable discharge, as stipulated on your DD-214. > > 7. Physical Fitness > > 8. No worse than 20/100 vision rating in either eye, correctable to 20/20. > > 9. No pending traffic citations or court cases. > > 10. Must not have been convicted of three (3) or more hazardous traffic violations in the last twenty-four (24) months. (Does not include “Deferred Adjudication” or “Driver’s Safety Course.”) So not super-stringent, but more than a lot of careers require. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/68 "2016-06-11T00:27:27Z")
> [@XT](#): > > pendejo If it weren’t for the Dope I’d have no idea I was being insulted when someone calls me that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/69 "2016-06-11T03:19:48Z")
> [@XT](#): > > (me being hispanic and all, and you being a white pendejo idiotic mother fucker) [Moderating] Don’t call other posters mother fuckers. No warning issued. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/70 "2016-06-13T22:07:06Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I AM an immigrant to the US, you moron, so no…not a subtle dig. Just your own idiotic preconceptions. And it DOES make a difference that the US is made up of so many different racial and ethnic groups…most of who (the vast majority actually) are WHITE PEOPLE. Like you, pendejo. I’m pretty sure I’m Asian. 😛 Anyways, the whole point is that cops in other countries don’t use violent retaliation as a first, second, or third option. They seem to kill less people and get killed less as well. We here in America think we’re better than everyone else at everything, but simple math shows that we’re not. Its high time we start abandoning some of our preconceived notions of what is and isn’t a good idea and borrow from countries that are better than us at certain things. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/71 "2016-06-13T23:20:14Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > They seem to… and get killed less as well. It is going to be a problem to talk the cops into that. If they stop killing people, they will be killed for a bit, and it will be hard to convince them to stop. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/72 "2016-06-13T23:26:35Z")
GIGN is a tier one counter-terrorism team like seal team 6, the SAS or delta force. You really can’t expect millions of cops to have the same level of training and competence as the most elite few thousand counter terror soldiers on earth. Having said that, I do enjoy reading stories about police who have more restraint, either overseas or domestically. Cops who do not mistreat the mentally ill are nice. I like reading stories about cops who actually help the sick rather than terrorize them. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/73 "2016-06-13T23:31:56Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > “his shift”? You are a filthy misogynist. And stupid. > **[Table 74](https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-74)** 73.4% of law enforcement agents are male. The percent of ‘officers’ (I assume this disqualifies LE associated workers who do not work on the streets like dispatchers, etc) is even higher, close to 90% male. It is not misogyny to refer to a group that is 73-90% male as ‘he’. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/74 "2016-06-13T23:35:56Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Many of our cops have been trained to live in fear and use deadly force with the minimal amount of justification. They’ve been taught to act aggressively under the guise of controlling the situation. This is all because they are treated like attack dogs that are supposed to risk their lives to protect the rest of us. I don’t like this at all, I think cops should take every measure to protect themselves and society has to face the reality of the world we’ve created. A cop shouldn’t sacrifice his life to prevent a potential threat to others. The problem with that is cops are getting more aggressive and militant while crime keeps going down. Compared to 20-30 years ago, violent crime is down drastically (something like 50-70%) but cops are more militant and paranoid than ever. Now you have a situation where cops engage in SWAT raids over minor drug offenses, giving PTSD to the spouses and children of small time criminals. There aren’t enough life or death, active hostage situations for the cops to engage in, so they use violent paramilitary tactics for minor crimes instead. Plus you add in the criminalization of mental illness, and the fact that a bunch of violent, paranoid cops who are always on edge and mix them in with mentally ill people who are awkward and have trouble following social rules, and bad things happen. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/75 "2016-06-14T01:03:16Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Plus you add in the criminalization of mental illness, and the fact that a bunch of violent, paranoid cops who are always on edge and mix them in with mentally ill people who are awkward and have trouble following social rules, and bad things happen. A policeman was an off time security guard at the library where I worked, declared, “On the street, I AM the law!” I knew a guy who learned to fly and quit being a policeman to become an airline pilot who was just as disgusted by that fellow as I was. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/76 "2016-06-14T18:52:30Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > GIGN is a tier one counter-terrorism team like seal team 6, the SAS or delta force. You really can’t expect millions of cops to have the same level of training and competence as the most elite few thousand counter terror soldiers on earth. > > Having said that, I do enjoy reading stories about police who have more restraint, either overseas or domestically. Cops who do not mistreat the mentally ill are nice. I like reading stories about cops who actually help the sick rather than terrorize them. I don’t expect our cops to have that same standard of training but it seems we’re looking for the lowest common denominator when it comes to recruitment and criteria. I would like our cops to be trained differently, not special forces level that will take time and money, simply differently. As Americans, we need to acknowledge that we’re not the best at everything and be more open-minded to accepting things that are not automatically intuitive to us. And maybe we’ll find out later that some things don’t work here for a reason, and we can put that to bed. But my annoyance is at people who won’t even try ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/77 "2016-06-14T19:03:06Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > A policeman was an off time security guard at the library where I worked, declared, “On the street, I AM the law!” I knew a guy who learned to fly and quit being a policeman to become an airline pilot who was just as disgusted by that fellow as I was. Did he [sound like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJiYrRcfQo)? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933/78 "2016-06-14T20:59:14Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Did he [sound like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJiYrRcfQo)? Not _quite_ that bad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-american-cops-look-how-the-real-pros-do-it/756933.md?page=3)