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A lot of my “super cop” buddies from LA Sheriff left the Sheriff for the 3-letter fed agencies (FBI, DEA, USSS, etc) or smaller & more selective agencies in LA County and OC County after Ferguson.
There was a prowler in my yard. The police arrived before I finished talking to the dispatcher on the phone. The bad guy had fled, but his partner caught him down the street.. And afterwards an officer told me he will sit in his car outside my house for a while. The officers were courteous, sympathetic and made me feel safe.
In my first few weeks as an LEO decades ago, I arrested a guy who had spent the entire morning and days leading up to his arrest assaulting women and taking their handbags. I became aware of him when I saw him running across a shopping mall parking lot hiding something under his jacket. I hadn't received a complaint, but it looked suspicious. I turned my patrol vehicle in order to intercept his trajectory. At that point he was several hundred feet away. When he observed that I had taken notice of him, he reversed direction and disappeared into a group of parked cars. As I approached the cars, someone sitting in one of the cars gestured that he was hiding under a minivan. I called for assistance and while waiting, received a call of a strong-armed robbery in the area. My guy matched the description perfectly. When we extracted him from under the minivan, he had the purse that had been stolen in the robbery in his possession. The victim was astounded that he was apprehended within a few minutes of the crime being committed. The suspect was searched and we found a dozen plus credit cards/driver's licenses that had been recently stolen in similar robberies that morning and in the days before this incident. When he was booked, he had an arrest record going back years for dozens and dozens of crimes.
Back then, that was called being pro-active. Today, it would be called harassment. There's no way of knowing how long his crime spree would have continued or if it would have escalated to the point where he seriously hurt someone. This incident never made the news, yet similar things happen all over the country hundreds of times per day. People like bobspez and his family/friends may very well have been victimized by folks like the guy I arrested if not for pro-active police officers across the country working hard to keep criminals off the streets before they hurt someone. But, bobspez and his/her ilk choose to interpret the lack of crime as pure coincidence, unwilling to acknowledge the thousands of LEOs across the country who keep them safe. We're headed towards an environment wherein the police are simply reactionary report takers. And people like phma will puzzle over why there is so much more crime. Ask the people of west Baltimore what happens when the police stand down and simply respond after the fact, which is what happened in the aftermath of the Freddie Gray unrest a few years back. It was ugly and the impacted neighborhoods were begging for a return to pre-unrest policing levels. The very same people who previously complained that the police were too heavy handed.
A lot of my “super cop” buddies from LA Sheriff left the Sheriff for the 3-letter fed agencies (FBI, DEA, USSS, etc) or smaller & more selective agencies in LA County and OC County after Ferguson.
Yep, BP and Fire too. Plenty of places they can escape too. My ex was a bike cope and she retired early and went to Montana.
Yep, BP and Fire too. Plenty of places they can escape too. My ex was a bike cope and she retired early and went to Montana.
I left LASD for FAM (aka TSA with guns) but that was rough on my family, so I jumped over to CBP. Best decision ever.
You have to be crazy to be a street cop in a blue/progressive city or county in 2021. You will end up hurt or killed or throw under the bus for not being perfect every time.
Nice fiction Bob - I look forward to more of your stories! I don't really think you were a friend of those great guys and pals you supposedly knew - but a hypocrite.
Another false assumption. I've socialized with all sorts of people, had dinner with them, walked and talked with them, had them over to my house as guests. Cops, Mafiosi, judges, garbage men, drug dealers, priests, a typical Brooklyn, NY circle of acquaintances. I didn't judge them personally. I treated people with respect, even those I testified against or had arrested at work.
Two of my pals were homicide detectives. One, I lived on the same block with and have known for almost 50 years. He used to show me all his grisly crime scene polaroids and talk about his cases. He even got my son (who was an NYC fireman) a get out of jail free card by making a phone call to the precinct when my son got arrested.
The other one was a co-worker and great guy, a former homicide lieutenant. He told me something I never forgot. "You can lose everything, Bobby, but never lose your nerve". On the job I had to do a surveillance in a Brooklyn ghetto neighborhood and I was worried. I was never armed and I was alone. Another ex-cop who was head of security, looked at me and said "What are you, a man or a mouse?" I went out and did the surveillance on my own and was happy I did.
You know all of Hitler's secretaries and maids thought he was the greatest boss in the world. They still did for the rest of their lives. There's a difference between how people treat their friends and how they treat others. I'm not a hypocrite at all. I just see reality for what it is. Maybe you could try it sometime.
I've known many police officers in my lifetime - a few like my uncle were bad cops but the majority including friends, family and those that came when we needed them were wonderful and I'm thankful for the job they do.
Mind you all - the anti-police people here aren't the ones putting their life on the line everyday. 10 to 1 they have desk jobs, work banker hours and are in comfortable area with little crime. So they are just here playing armchair quarterback after listening to the liberal news stations and have no stake in the game.
Agree. The anti-police movement is CPUSA inspired and led, this is the commie revolution coming home to roost. Brown shirts updated.
And folks on both side tend to not know what they speak of. I flipped Hannity on briefly (I don't watch, can only take him in small doses) one night and he and two other suits were yakking about reforming the police. Oh, BTW, in case you didn't know it, Hannity has studied/practiced martial arts 8 1/2 years and he's done this and that and he is one bad ass dood, count on it.
I'd have loved to call in and asked the three of them, "So, boys, how many ride-alongs have you done? How many citizens police academies have you attended? How many cops do you know personally?" But all I got was a busy signal. Drat!
IMO anyone who sits on any committee (uh oh, there's that word again) brainstorming police reform needs to ridealong at least 10 times, needs to visit a booking room, needs to get familiar with the subject they're holding forth on from their royal perches. It helps to know what you're talking about.
Agree. The anti-police movement is CPUSA inspired and led, this is the commie revolution coming home to roost. Brown shirts updated.
And folks on both side tend to not know what they speak of. I flipped Hannity on briefly (I don't watch, can only take him in small doses) one night and he and two other suits were yakking about reforming the police. Oh, BTW, in case you didn't know it, Hannity has studied/practiced martial arts 8 1/2 years and he's done this and that and he is one bad ass dood, count on it.
I'd have loved to call in and asked the three of them, "So, boys, how many ride-alongs have you done? How many citizens police academies have you attended? How many cops do you know personally?" But all I got was a busy signal. Drat!
IMO anyone who sits on any committee (uh oh, there's that word again) brainstorming police reform needs to ridealong at least 10 times, needs to visit a booking room, needs to get familiar with the subject they're holding forth on from their royal perches. It helps to know what you're talking about.
We had ride alongs and sneak alongs that really got an eye opener.
I'm nearly 75 years old and have never been helped by the police in my life and have never known any friend, relative or acquaintance who has. Protect and serve is a huge joke. How about write tickets, fill out paperwork, make arrests whether justified or not, hold themselves above the law, and pile up that overtime pay. Mick Jagger said it best in Sympathy for the Devil more than 50 years ago.. "Every cop is a criminal"... If they don't start that way, then by omission or commission, they end up that way. They don't prevent crime, they either ignore it or report on it after the fact. Once in a while they arrest the culprit. Maybe in Maybury the odd policeman does some good, but that's not the reality of big city policing in places like LA or NYC. There's a whole mythology about the police serving the public that gets perpetuated by dozens of TV shows. Guess what? It's fiction.
As far as the essay by the "good cop" posted by the OP, I can think of several adjectives, deluded, arrogant, self important. Now he can retire with a great pension. Hope he doesn't hurt his arm patting himself on the back.
Please explain the bolded. Are you saying that there were times in your life when you needed help and a police officer was there and refused to help you? Is that what also happened to "any [of your] friend, relative or acquaintance"?
You seem very bitter regarding law enforcement. Yes, there are those in that population who don't seem to want to do their jobs. I lived in a city where the majority of the PD took that attitude. OTOH, I have lived places where they have been very helpful. In one instance, I wrote to the department head to commend an officer for going above and beyond.
Always keep this in mind --- Everyday LEs go to work, they go knowing that they may never make it back home.
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