Sure, it “helps” to know that this person screaming in your face is actually having other problems in their life, and they are just taking it out on anyone they can find that they do not see in a position to consequence those actions.
Of course, you may have problems in your life, too, that the person screaming at you cannot fathom, but one of your problems is that you are being screamed at by customers who displace their frustration onto you.
Along with the social status that makes one feel free to abuse others often comes a financial divide as well, and the person being abused is rarely getting paid nearly well enough to put up with it.
The New Orleans Police Department has shrunk to levels last seen in the 1970s and is continuing to fall. Of course the city is smaller now but crime certainly isn’t.
I think twice about driving the interstate through the city and certainly would not go downtown without a very good reason.
Yes. But when a patient parent is rude to me I am in a role that I am paid to be in. If I really thought it was about me it might bother me. Recognizing that it rarely is helps it not bother me. I think empathy helps avoid having too much negative reaction. Being empathetic is to some degree selfish of me I guess.
We have patient families across the SES spectrum. There is no observable correlation with SES. Or if anything less rudeness among the higher SES families. Which fits my guess about correlating with other stresses in life which our higher SES families have but less frequently as multi factorial as our stressed lower SES families.
Your preconception is incorrect. It’s more that their lived perception is different than what the receptionist or roomer experienced. Again at least as likely to be someone who otherwise has to deal with systemic disadvantages than someone named Karen.
We were just on Bourbon Street last spring. Before that we walked across the bridge into Juarez, Mexico. Allegedly one of the most dangerous cities on the planet.
Don’t let fear control your life. Just be aware and prepared.
An environment where management of a store or similar public interface can remove troublemakers from their premises without legal, financial, or social media consequences. Also one where we can actually enforce the “no guns permitted” sign on our door.
A lot of them are too far gone to re-educate, I fear, but if we can remove them from public we’ll minimize the damage. They can order their groceries on line and a person with suitable protective gear (mask/gloves or body armor as appropriate) can leave the order outside their door.
In other words - treat 'em like the toddlers they (mentally) are. If they can’t behave in public they will be removed from public and put in a corner until their figure out the error of their ways and can be trusted not to be an asshat if let out again.
While that is true is some cases in others there are people who basically love to shit on people they perceive as beneath them.
We actually HAVE banned some people from our store, but it’s a process and a headache to do it so it’s only reserved for the very worst.
In other cases we have to put up with White people who use the n-word as if there are no Black people in earshot, bitch about [f-word][insert ethnic/religious slur] immigrants or whoever, Black people who scream “RACIST!” at anyone paler than themselves… basically, if they don’t actually physically hit one of us there is very little we can do regarding verbal abuse. Well, if they start breaking stuff we can do something. Or running people over with a scooter. Or spitting. Or ripping off a facemask. But just words? Nope, not much to be done there. Well, we or management can ask them to stop. Sometimes that works - but then they call the corporate headquarters and demand that this or that person be fired. Out-and-out lying, as contradicted by the security videos.
Some people just like to kick puppies.
Then there was the person who used to regularly leave a long, juicy turd on the bench in the men’s changing rooms. Since covid shut down the changing rooms in the clothing department we haven’t had to deal with that, at least.
Yeah, well, that doesn’t work so much for us retail workers. Some of our Karens get VERY specific.
If it correlates with anything in my area it is a propensity to display one’s political loyalty via t-shirts, hats, and bellowing. Next correlation would be wealth (though it’s only a minority of the wealthy who act like asshats) and Sister-Bertha-Better-Than-You church ladies, which I will mention are different than simply church attendees, they’re a subset who view themselves as superior to everyone else.
I’m sure the first part is true. And having stressors does not excuse or justify bad behaviors.
That person though? Pooping in the men’s changing room?
I’d suspect there is something else significantly problematic going on with him and his life more than him just enjoying annoying strangers who work in retail.
Arguably, it’s a sign of mental illness of some sort. Just once it could be a matter of some physical dysfunction (Unfortunately, the plastic chairs by the pharmacy get scrubbed and disinfected frequently to do the surprising number of frail adults who have bodily waste accidents). Regular basis? Well, there is a sort of juvenile that might find that hilarious.
I don’t understand your reponse. Departments arent cutting back, per se. It’s that they can’t get anyone to apply. There are zillions of LEO jobs out there but few applicants.
Who is crazy enough to spend 4 years to get a degree in Criminal Justice only to lose your job and pension over a minor mistake or saying the wrong thing? In years past cops got a pass or a slap on the wrist for minor things. Now you’ll lose everything.
Who is crazy enough to take a job where you can go to prison over the actions of another officer. And spare me the “officer override” b.s. they’re pushing. You’ll end up getting choked half to death by an equally armed officer. What a choice.
Being a cop always had it’s benefits and downsides. Buy in 2022 the downsides far, far outweighs the benefits. You’re just not going to find that many young people starting out willing to do it anymore.
The problem is that in some departments (not all by any means) the slap on the wrist wasn’t just for minor things, they let officers get away with a lot of serious, bad stuff, like in Chicago Jon Burge getting away with torturing the confessions out of over a hundred people, some of whom wound up on death row. Then there were the guys in my county who were selling fully automatic weapons to drug cartels (at least those guys are in prison now). And so on. This has tarred the reputation of all police and resulted in a backlash that no doubt has gone too far in some places.
I agree, failure to attract new officers is a problem. I don’t know how to fix it.
You’re talking about major crimes and I was talking about guys getting suspended for a week without pay because they ate their lunch in public (it happened!) or they forgot to enter some minor detail in the roll call daybook (it also happened), or they got fired because after the got attacked and were fighting for their lives they may have used a bad word (also happened). I don’t even know YTF you brought up what you did. Nobody is not applying to law enforcement jobs because they cannot get away with major crimes. They’re not applying because in just a few years the left and the media have beaten to death stories about a handful of bad eggs and turned popular opinion against all police. 100K a year, 4 weeks vacation, an extra week of personal days, 15 paid holidays, 3 weeks annual sick leave indefinitely accruable, all by your 3rd year, and a state pension to boot aren’t even enough to overcome that.
Yes, I know. And you’re absolutely correct about the stupidity of firing someone for eating lunch in public and similar things, but you hit it right on the head with this:
The problem is that those “handful of bad eggs” almost literally got away with murder in a few cases that, as I said, tarred every police officer out there. With the help of the media. Because some horrible departments allowed this, and protected the perpetrators of major crimes, everyone in your profession suffers. Yes, it’s unfair. Unfortunately, I don’t have a fix for it, certainly not in the short term.
Going forward, police really do need to trumpet punishing the bad eggs in their own ranks and send them to prison just like any other criminal. Otherwise the civilian world will not trust them.
I’m in electronic manufacturing, and we make stuff for the oil industry, but we’ve been on production stop for 2 months because of parts issues. We’re supposed to get these parts at the end of September, but there’s no guarantee we will.
You pretty much answered my question. I was wondering if candidates were worried about being fired or prosecuted in the course of doing their job.
If that could happen in NY, I could get officers fired all the time. There has to be more to the story than that.
The media didn’t make up those stories. It’s that video now shows that police routinely lie in their versions of events. And it’s not a few bad eggs. either. Law enforcement has been covering up their crimes for decades, all with the backing of fellow officers and police unions.
You’ve been in law enforcement for decades. How many times did you report other officers for crimes or ignoring regulations? Surely you must have witnessed some things over that period of time.
I am a supervisor for a child welfare social work agency in western PA.
Since covid we have had crazy staff shortages and retention issues.
We should have 17 caseworkers but are currently limping by with 11.
Our support staff numbers (clerical, etc) are up and down but generally filled rather quickly.
We just can’t seem to even find people willing to come in for interviews! This seems to be a common complaint in other nearby counties.
Since the exodus of caseworkers I have been “blessed” with taking over the responsibility of doing several jobs.
I never envisioned spending my last couple years learning an entirely new job.
So - I started my retirement plans this year. I have given this place 28 - 30 years of my time and energy.
Not only are less and less people applying for law enforcement jobs across the board (including corrections, dispatching, etc), enrollment in criminal justice programs at universities and technical colleges is way down as well. This is not a good thing as more and more states are requiring at least an associate degree to be a LEO. Also, less and less veterans are leaving the service to go into police work.
On November 1st I can take a full (100% salary) retirement. And this is my 2nd career having already retired from a Sheriffs office in 2007. In years past they’d have given me incentive to retire years ago. I’m at top pay with massive vacation and comp time accruals. Normally they’d want someone like me the hell gone. But with nobody to replace me with they are upping incentives to stay.
And the few candidates we are getting are real doozies. They have degrees and such, but do terribly in the testing and interviews. In the scenario tests they completely fall apart. And we’re getting more and more applicants failing drug screening. And applicants not able to successfully pass the physical agility tests. Jesus, I’ll be 62 in October and I can pass them. I do one every year just to prove to myself I can.
There is another department in our county that is supposed to have 115 sworn officers. They have 46. This situation is at critical mass. The overtime is burning people out and convincing more people to leave and it’s destroying municipal budgets.
