They do have ride-along programs in a lot of city and county law enforcement agencies. I haven’t had one single critic yet take up on the offer to ride with me or my fellow deputies. And we get our fair share even down these parts.
We get our share of Monday morning quarterbacks and (as Sneevil) puts it. “armchair moralists”. Christ, people, if you want to make judgement calls about police procedure, at least go on a ride-along or attend a citizens police academy/seminar and see how life on the streets really is. It may surprise some of you that there are people out there who would happily slit your throat and your family’s for a few dollars and laugh about it over a beer. Exaggeration? Let me know and I can post some serious “no-shit” reports here on line.
What’s the most force you can use? Five hits with a baton, a full can of OC, ten cops piling on with fists and kicks? Several shots of semi-jacketed 9mm hollowpoint? It’s whatever is needed to end a dangerous situation to yourself, your partners, and the general public. One baton hit may be too excessive, or fifteen slaps with an ASP baton may not even be enough. It is situational, a competant review board will determine it along with reliable on-scene witnesses from both police officers and public bystanders.
Watching assorted clips from CNN and “he says, she says” accounts combined with your preconceived notions of your past experiences with police does not light a path to the truth. How would you like it if the district attorneys prosecuted you on these grounds? Not too cool right? I
won’t comment on the actions of the Philadelphia cops, I wasn’t there. I’d assume we’d give them the assumption of innocent until proven guilty, just the same as we would give the suspect in this situation. Is that a little too fair for some of the posters on this thread? Some will always hate cops and what we do. Fair enough, I’m not asking anyone to waltz out and donate to the Police Athletic League after this. Just show some moderation and common sense, maybe even a little logic and reasoning?
If you’ve never had the pleasure of taking down a suspect high on drugs and/or alcohol, it don’t work out like TV cop shows. In our county, deputies can count on one or maybe two other deputies for backup after a wait of 30 minutes to an hour depending on our sectors and work load. I hit a suspect, who was riding a meth and malt liquor roller coaster, thirteen times using a combination of baton, fists, knee smashes and elbow strikes. It took two other deputies and myself over ten minutes to subdue one BM who was 5’10, 160. It’s documented on video and I went up on a review board like I would expect to.
I’m 5’7, 168, average build. My pic on the People Pages. I don’t look like Rambo or Robocop. Most of us, surprisingly, are fairly average people asked to do some real weird things on occasion. When asked by the board why I used the degree of force that I did, I replied that I (1) wanted him to stop reaching for my service weapon and (2) did not want to see him enter his vehicle, a hi-performance Mustang Cobra while his brain was juiced up on a meth and malt liquor cocktail. (Facetiously I wanted to reply that I hit him 13 times in honor of the Original Thirteen American Colonies, but that would’ve been flippant and disrespectful) I stopped hitting the suspect when he agreed that handcuffs and lying still were a much better alternative to three deputies beating him to jelly. Would’ve been great if this guy got into his car for a cool chase on the I-10 on that fine weekend. Just the thing to see caroming into your rear view mirror on that trip with the wife and kids to see Grandma and Grandpa right? Even if he got off from all charges, at least we prevented him from doing that. That’s a fair trade in my book.
Yeah he was a BM. Sound racist? Ready for Rev. Sharpton to pay a social call? Play the race card and see if I give a rat’s ass. Crime is an equal opportunity employer. That ain’t a caucasian face staring at you under my name on the People Pages. One of my backups was black and wound up getting bit by this asshole in the process of cuffing him. We all drank a few pints of his saliva and wore his blood all over ourselves. Fortunately no HIV or Hep, this time. After we cuffed and stuffed, all three of us looked like we had went a few rounds with Lennox Lewis and came out second. We just sat there shaking and thankful we weren’t hurt badly. My other female backup was fighting down tears and holding a sprained wrist. This is the reality of what goes on. We don’t high-five each other and run off to the donut store in celebration. I even cleaned up at the station and put on my last spare uniform before I went home so my wife wouldn’t notice what happened. Most of us don’t enjoy this, contrary to public opinion, it just comes with the turf. And we’re definitely not doing this for the money.
Well, didn’t mean to ramble on, I’m sure if you already hate cops then this won’t mean a damn thing. Do or say whatever it takes to float your boat. It wasn’t my intention to advocate a “law and order” platform in this forum. To those of you that understand what it’s all about, it is very appreciated by me and a lot of my fellow brothers and sisters.