Why would anyone be a police officer in an inner city?

[Railman96]

Originally Posted by don1945

I just listened to a show on Public Radio the other day about how police departments all over are having trouble attracting new applicants. WELL, NO KIDDING !!!!!!!!!!!! Who would take a job where you are asked to be a soldier in a war against thieves, drug dealers, murderers, and more, and then you are forced to wear gloves while they fight bare knuckled ? God forbid one of these criminals ever gets hurt during a scuffle !!

You could not pay me enough to be a cop today.


Don

There's enough biased cops out there.

[jp03]

Originally Posted by Gtownoe

Your narrow grasp of the topic clearly shows that you have no clue about the problem being discussed.

No I do have a grasp. My point with this comment is..Do the right thing and all will end well.

[jp03]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Why pose something as a question when all you wanted to do is rant?

I posed it as a legitimate question. What are you on about??

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by jp03

When the criminals are more protected than the police, its time to get out of that job. There is no way to do it properly anymore.

That ^

Originally Posted by jp03

I posed it as a legitimate question. What are you on about??

Is not a question, it is a rant

[jp03]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

That ^



Is not a question, it is a rant

What? Its a fact. And it is directly in line with the question.

[notmeofficer]

[quote=Paka;39459804]

Originally Posted by ackmondual

There may be several reasons. I don't know of any in person, nor seen any of their opinions otherwise, but if I were to surmise:
1) better than some of the other jobs available
2) sense of duty (some come from generations of cops)
3) I hear retirement benefits aren't half bad


Yeah, I'll give you #2, and then negate #1 & #3 as neither applied to my brother, who was shot and killed in the line of duty in 1999, we buried him on what would have been his 32nd birthday.

Oh, and the killer WAS black, and all 3 officers killed (and the other two injured seriously) WERE white, but this was NOT a racial hate crime, but a HATE crime no less....HE HATED OFFICERS!!!!! (The ONLY color not covered by "hate crime rules" these days it seems are those willing to protect and defend)......

Sorry paka.... sincerely...notme...
You honor him by not forgetting him.. and knowing that people like me stand beside him forever


My grandfather was a Irish immigrant Boston motor cop in the early 1900s.. then we skipped a generation down to me... all my siblings went for white collar work and wealth

Me... I was the rebel.. riding my Harley around as a young man getting stopped daily for equipment violations.. at some point after meeting so many nice officers who wrote me tickets I began admiring what they did... my parents wanted me to think about embassy corps.. but i wanted local government service

I went to BPD's academy..( I feel for all of Baltimore's officers today) and they asked me to stay on..but I felt loyal to the department that hired me and remembered how hard it was to get a job at that time as a white male.. Females and minorities were given preference points.. I won a lottery draw of white male applicants otherwise I don't think I would have made it....

I worked the state roads and freeways of Maryland in the beginning in a yellow radio car that looked like a bumblebee but quickly became bored,, and tired of freezing my butt off in the winter watching cars crash..writing tickets and working early mornings and then going to college all day... young,,,wanting more.. knowing that real service was somewhere in front of me

And so I came west and went to work for one of the largest departments in the US,,, spent most of my adult life there,,, went to the ghetto because I couldn't stand the jail and wanted out as quickly as possible. I also understood if you wanted to be a "real" policeman and really make a difference go to the ghetto... and so I did.. I also had heard stories that training there was the roughest of anywhere in the US and if you could make it there you could police anywhere in the world.. it wasn't just the tough work environment it was the other officers... who were very (necessarily) strict about who could work at this chosen station... most new officers said no way and went for some nice clean white area where people would say "hi" to them and where there weren't running gun battles in the station parking lot by suspects making a last ditch attempt to remain alive.

My first day reporting for duty I had to wait for the back door to be opened for me...I knocked and no one answered.. although they could see me (it was obvious I was a new FNG) (all part of the training).. and tradition.. An inmate trusty actually opened the door for me (as he was one level down on the pecking order from FNG's but not by much)....As I walked in to report to the sergeant's office a man ran through the front door of the station and jumped the front public counter and onto a counter officer.. and the fight was on.. I had no time to think,, the fight was on for me too.. the suspect was dusted on PCP,, very popular then,,, we fought for several minutes and at one point there was a person was over my shoulder giving me directions with bars on his collar,, a lieutenant .. gently advising me,, OK,, harder,, harder,, as I applied a carotid restraint (we cannot use choke holds they were against policy).. eventually rendering the duster unconscious..he felt nothing.. dusters never did

I hadn't been there 15 seconds

I was directed to write the report while waiting for my FTO.... as I was appropriately three hours early for every shift (unpaid and expected as a part of being an FNG)...Knocking on the sergeants office door and being rebuked for making noise the report got turned into the watch sergeant for approval .... seconds later I was summoned over the loudspeaker to respond immediately "code three" to his office with a fire extinguisher and a field fire report.. which I dutifully did,, finding the waste basket on fire.... in it was the charred remains of my report,,, which he didn't like,, (it wasn't bad.. but it wasn't perfect either) and so I got to rewrite it... fill out a field fire report.. fill out a discharge of fire extinguisher form and my FTO hadn't even arrived yet. Then I was directed to formally brief the entire upcoming shift on what had transpired.. the policy on use of force... including all manual sections from memory.. why my report got burned and what I had to do to correct it... the other trainees sat nervously in the corner wondering when it would be their time in the grinder...miniscule things meant extra reports.. pushups.. occasional "PT" sessions or locker room "boxing" or martial arts with other officers..lumps were a part of the job... maybe 50 percent of the trainees made it.. some quit.. some recycled.. some just went back to the jail.. you had to be hard and you had to be humble.. whatever your weakness was .. was found out and exploited until you no longer had that weakness

That night as we drove around there was placa all over the walls with 187 x'd out with my FTO's name... he had been mistakenly Id'd by Florencia 13 for killing a gang member the month before in a OIS. That night we went to the La Alianza bar with the entire shift.. a Florencia hangout... we did a bar check with shotguns in hand,, as we entered you could hear guns dropping on the floor,,, we arrested 67 people out of the bar for various crimes from drunk in public to ex con with a gun..me and another trainee booked every one of them and I wrote the paper. We didn't stop long enough to even crap.. so i pissed in a cup and carried it around until I could throw it away later... and as soon as I got back in the car we began contacting other officers taking every report that was assigned to them.. I got 12 my first night... including the La Alianza caper.. we established what was known as cred..or credibility... even the gang bangers respected the action... they understood better than us... and they knew about the traditions of professional training at our station as well as any person there... sometimes we would see the inmates using some of our training techniques on their new "fish"

It was the most incredible six month training experience one could ever imagine... every person there would have died for me and I felt the same way,, we were tough with each other because there was no one else to call.. we were 911,,, we don't get to "not come". I slept most of the time while on training at the station... I ate jail food and wore jail underwear and t-shirts.. I was poor at first but I didn't care.. I got a crappy apartment but I spent most of my time at the station anyway... I usually slept in the shower because trainees weren't relegated to the bunk room.. all part of the training and teachings.. and tradition.. teaching respect was huge.. and all for a good reason.. because everything I learned.. even though I had already been a policeman .. prepared me for the ghetto.. its hot.. and dirty.. and dangerous.. but I came to love it.. just like everyone I worked with. Everyone was addressed "yes sir" "no Ma'am".. even the bangers got addressed like this.. or the "wets" fresh from the border... and it made a difference.. its all about respect

The community was awesome.. the crooks knew we would chase them and arrest them.. and if they fought with us they got shot.. or went to jail.. it was unwritten.. the ninety percent of good people that lived there were very supportive.. because they knew we were the ones that were going to come.. the rare and only agent of functional government that would respond to their calls.. god knows they got ignored otherwise.

Why would I work the ghetto... does anyone really have to ask? Policeman who have never worked a ghetto station really cannot identify

Now Im far away... and about to pull the plug... forever... partly because its not fun anymore..partly because my mind is getting older... more tolerant in many things..less in others... and I have a retirement job potentially picked out working a bomb dog for a major amusement park. Ive built at least ten policeman in my life who modeled what I taught them.. maybe their trainees will carry it on... tough to do today.. I hope so. I have worked for three departments.. two large and one small... and its been a wild ride..


If I had to do it all over again.. I would go back to the ghetto in a heartbeat I used to say white people were a pain in the ass.. now I feel that way about dopers... as that's one of my collateral duties currently.. and what a pain they are... screwing up the world for all of us...

When I read the crap on here I think to myself... you dont have a clue.... Ive probably been a policeman longer than a bunch of posters have been alive.. and the crap I read makes me want to puke,,, as do the stories of idiots (police) screwing up... REALLY screwing it up for the rest of us

Will this type of policing continue,,, Im not sure... new police today are growing up on video games and living at mommy and daddy's house until 25... some of them hit the academies having never been in a fight in their life... soldiers make good applicants provided they can pass the background and psych tests.. which gets a lot of them passed over (and for good reason... they have already made their sacrifice)

Society is changing too... and I dont think for the better.. drugs.. meebies... gimme gimme gimme its my right crap... a lot of people sucking off a lot of others

Now... I want small town America if its still out there.... let the cities go to crap... I cannot care anymore.. I want a quiet sedate life away from drugs dopers and crooks.. where people still care about their neighbors and not just themselves

For most people.. they will sit and judge... pontificate... and be clueless

[frankrj]

Originally Posted by jp03

When the criminals are more protected than the police, its time to get out of that job. There is no way to do it properly anymore.

** sigh ** Was the man on the bike a criminal?

Is everyone a criminal if you get taken down to the station for some trumped up charge or simply because you live in a poor community? Of you say yes, or most, or stats say blah blah.... I get it. but that's a mind that is already made up and the same mentality of cops in other countries too.
If you live there and look like a .... you must be one, must be arrested, and in some cases executed.
I am actually for street justice (or dealth penalty in a few years) when the evidence, facts, and the suspects past is overwhelmingly wrong and has caused death or serious injuries.

[WaldoKitty]

I don't see how anyone in their right mind would want to be a police officer in any city in USA where most of the population is "African American".

[ipdsharkey]

Similar story as above except in NJ. Had my first firefight one week out of the academy which set the stage for the rest of my career. In many ways in helped to have that violent incident early on because cred is everything on the street. It is respected as long as respect is given to the other side when appropriate. It is excepted you have a job to do and will do that job no matter what. Even with other Officers especially on the climb up the ranks, your credibility makes you. Without that and respect you get no where. I'm not talking about being a brute just to be tough, but if you come across a fighter you better be ready to fight, which means for an Officer you Can not lose. Its easy if you are the criminal, you can throw up your hands and be taken to jail, for an Officer it means death, maybe having your weapon taken and used on you or other Officers. As much as most people like to believe in civilization and proper behavior there is a primal element most people do not see. It is recognized early on by Police, really cant be put into words and yes it is living on the edge many times. I am now retired after 28 years and even with all that is going on now, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Again it is hard to put words to it, but a part of me thinks we really are the line between chaos and society. Those rare times that you get a hug, kind word, or even just a smile makes all the insults dissolve. I would never try to talk anyone into doing it, you have to feel the calling, those that don't and somehow work themselves into Police work, are quickly shown for what they are and usually are forced out, or in some cases caught up in controversies like some of the recent incidents where policies or procedures were not followed or ignored and the rest are left to deal with it. Can any sane person think an Officer gets up in the morning and says, "today I want to kill someone and start a riot".
I was fortunate enough in my career to be in a county SWAT team, and then a commander in that team , work my way to Lieutenant and almost to Chief. Its been 5 years now retired and I sometimes wonder if I really did a lot of what happened and I do so miss much of it. But I am also now enjoying the peace and quiet. Watching my Grandchildren grow and my wife and I spending meaningful time together without being called in at all hours of the night in the worst weather imaginable. For my brothers and sisters in Law Enforcement, no one will know what you go through except those at your side. Be safe and well and make it to your retirement...

[eastmemphisguy]

I find the premise of this thread bizarre. If you can't kill people with impunity, what's the point?