Holy crap. I thought Sgt. Jenkins was well within reason already, with that info (the guy just finished tearing up a restaurant and assaulting a bunch of people!) I’m surprised he didn’t do worse and sooner.
I obviously have a problem with fairness and justice.
I always get screwed. You’d think I would learn. 
You mean like in post #28?
If you think this is the case, report it…don’t call others a troll or make this accusation outside of the Pit, though.
I am always polite. But I bet I have a much different clientele.
See, I wouldn’t use the word “polite” for how the officer spoke to the suspect. I’d say he wasn’t offensive, and he was direct and professional, but he wasn’t polite.
If anyone who wasn’t a cop walked up to you and started issuing you direct orders with the same wording and tone as that cop, you’d naturally be resistant. The polite way to address a request to a complete stranger is “Excuse me, do you think you could…” or Please, could you…" or something like that. “Take your hands out of your pockets and step over to my car” isn’t polite.
I’m not saying the cop did anything wrong - especially given the background of the situation. But he wasn’t polite, by any normal meaning of the word. He may have been “polite for a cop” or something like that. But the average adult not in the military rarely encounters a situation where someone they’ve never seen before starts issuing instructions, and it’s hardly surprising that a lot of them take it personally and get their hackles up because of it.
Of course I meant “polite for a cop”.
Good call.
My dad was career LE, as was one of my uncles. I part-timed as a deputy for several years where I worked with people from various local and state agencies. I’ve been around a lot of cops over the years. It is a fact that some use their “command voice” as the default in dealing with the public, whether the immediate situation requires it or not. Cops have a difficult job, but so do lots of other people. IMPO, the badge does tend to attract authoritarian types who enjoy being able to boss others around and use physical force on the non-compliant. At the very least, you have to have a tolerance for doing those things or you absolutely won’t last any length of time before quitting.
I never call a police officer, “Sir.”
If I’m stopped, I’ll address him as “Officer,” unless I can see he’s a sheriff’s deputy (“Deputy”) or a Virginia State police officer (“Trooper.”)
Or if I see he has rank, I’ll use that. (“Sergeant”) Never been stopped by a lieutenant or higher.
And obviously the masculine gender includes the feminine in speech.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, being a trucker is more dangerous than being a police officer (in U.S) http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfar0020.pdf
There are a dozen (probably more) jobs that are more dangerous than being a police officer.
Being a cop is actually pretty far down the list. ‘Firefighting’ is even practically safe by comparison.
However, notice the leading cause of death of the jobs above police. Only Supervisors, proprietors, sales share Homicide with the police. The others are all accidental.
As I’ve seen it quoted(don’t know who) “The police and firefighters run toward danger when everyone else is running away.”
(And no, I’m not ignoring other services such as the Coast Guard or Search and Rescue teams who do the same thing.)
I don’t see how the cause enters in to it.
Farmers go to work every day knowing full well that they may be squished by a particularly nasty implement.
And I keep waiting to get a phone call from someone who is collecting donations for a Fallen Fisherman’s Memorial, but it never comes.
Roofers put themselves in harm’s way so that my stuff doesn’t get wer when it rains.
Of all of the job categories examined, I think that police and firefighters are the only ones who receive special treatment based on the perceived dangers of their occupations.
I think we need to differentiate among police deaths on the job. Some of them are killed by suspects. A lot, though, die in incidents involving automobiles. These deaths range from things like plain old accidents to things like getting run over by a passing motorist while writing another motorist a ticket. For some organizations, these automotive deaths constitute the majority of their fallen officers. What is necessary, here, is to get a handle on how many cops are deliberately killed in the pursuit of their duties.
That site I linked above is definitely worth looking over as it breaks down officer deaths right down to the individual officer level and gives figures at the state level. In most states, vehicular and other accidental deaths are more common than death by deliberate gunfire. Texas has an unusually high number of officer deaths by gunfire and stabbing. All things considered, if we want to consider whether cops warrant special consideration due to risk, everything but deliberate killing should be ruled out. Anybody can have a heart attack at work, anybody can die in an automobile accident, and so on. Just because it happened at work doesn’t mean it was because of work.
But just because anyone could die in an auto accident doesn’t mean that type of death has nothing to do with one’s work. Police tend to spend a lot of time in a car or standing near traffic. It’s a pretty good bet they die in auto accidents at a significantly greater rate than the general population.
Flaggers for road construction spend even more time standing in traffic than cops. Delivery people and truckers spend their days in traffic. so do taxi and limo drivers. What, supposedly, makes police work special is the possibility of violent death.
Violent death at the hands of a violent person they are required to deal with, so that the general public isn’t put at risk.
Farmers, fishermen and roofers are all allowed to take whatever safety precautions they want, without getting criticized for being jackbooted thugs because they use a proper safety harness. Policemen protect themselves by closely managing interactions with people they feel may harm them. That means seeing hands, allowing no surprise movements, and potentially tackling or tasing someone who refuses to do as they are told.
No doubt. As I noted upthread, I’ve done a little LE myself. I take issue with your use of the word “required,” though. The job requires certain precautions, but nobody is required to be a cop. Taking the job is purely a voluntary choice and, as I noted above, it is a job that seems to attract candidates who enjoy “closely managing” others.
I’m all for officer safety. I wanted my dad to come home safely after work. I wanted to come home safely. The constant climbing up on a cross about the risks they take “for the general public” is all out of proportion to the actual hazard, IMO.
I noted I’ve known a lot of people in LE. I never knew one of them who decided to put on a badge for the sake of “the general public.” Some just needed a job and police work looked steady and not too physically demanding compared to something like working in a coal mine or steel mill. Some got out of the military and thought being a cop, since it involved uniforms and guns, would be similar. And a lot, too many IMO, just like the whole idea of being in authority. So, I’m not buying into anything that uses what they do “for me” as a justification.
This is a micro/macro issue. While it’s true that “nobody” is required to be a cop, “somebody” has to be a cop. There is no law without law enforcement.
Whoever that person winds up being, they’re the person who is stuck dealing with the drunk asshole who smashed up a McDonalds. Somebody has to stop the drunk asshole, and they shouldn’t have to take any more crap than absolutely necessary. They shouldn’t have to suffer an attack from someone, because they don’t have the tools necessary to effectively control the situation. They shouldn’t have to stand 3 feet away from the guy wondering if he’s going to pull an icepick out of his pocket and stab them in the chest. You saw how fast the cop’s takedown was, how much slower do you think a stabbing would be?