How did we become the enemy?

[jcioccke]

How did we become the enemy? I am truly burnt out with all of this BS. I am tired of my Brothers & Sisters being attacked, the have the Justice Department & News go after them when they were justified. It breaks my heart when I read people celebrating that one of our own dies, swept away in a flood. It truly pains my soul to see so many of my Brothers & Sisters attacked by people and have little to no respect or fear of retribution of attacking a Police Officer.

What keeps me up at night is wondering how many LEO deaths may have been prevented if an Officer failed to go with his/her instincts because they feared they may be over reacting or there was a fear of not being protected by their Department heads.

Why in this day and age people with no LE or Military training are dictating our equipment, vehicles we have at our Schools? What's worse is the spineless leaders who cave to the pressure. I'm sorry for this long post. I just need to vent, and see if I am alone in this. I'm starting to understand why so many LEO hang with LEO. Getting old hearing oponions from people that saw the news.

..rant done

[GoldBadge]

Simply put, we are vilified by liberals.

[CCCSD]

Yep. As long as Rappers, TV stars, and their ilk are allowed to spew their poison, the masses will believe it.

**** 'em. Sit in your patrol car and handle your calls by phone.

[Dinosaur32]

Not much else to add.......

[retired]

Yep. As long as Rappers, TV stars, and their ilk are allowed to spew their poison, the masses will believe it.

**** 'em. Sit in your patrol car and handle your calls by phone.

Should they not be allowed to exercise the 1st amendment?

[Chomp]

Should they not be allowed to exercise the 1st amendment?

Sure they should. On the flip side, police have no duty to protect. It wouldn't surprise me if some departments eventually move to a "Fire Station" model, just sitting at the station responding to calls for service, with zero proactivity.

Can't get sued if you're just taking reports.

[tj05]

"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Malcolm X

[GIOSTORMUSNRET]

Personnaly I believe we became villified by both the media who don't understand or have a clue about police and police tactics, as well as the general public. Besides police shows on TV (Law and Order) that present people with false beliefs about what police can and can't do, or how arrests are supposed to go, or at least how Hollywood thinks they should go, and youtube creating the youtube lawyer that listens to every spewing of people who have little to no law background give advice on laws and law enforcement. The general public are like sponges absorbing bad information from clueless "Sea lawyers". People with no training or knowledge of police tactics, use of force or basic law enforcement are now commentators on how police are supposed to do things. People are claiming things are unconstitutional without even researching the rulings or case law behind what they spew. Our only tool is to stay professional and keep our cool. Don't let them get under your skin. They want you to be that bad cop, the one that looses your temper and becomes their money ticket and you lose your credibility and job.

One thing I would like to say, be ready to cite supreme court rulings, Hiibel v Nevada, US v Sokolow and for DOD Police US v Apel. All very good US Supreme Court rulings in favor of police. Also know your state rulings and local DA opinion as well as state attorney general's opinion. Don't be affraid to do your job right.

[Guest]

I know how you are feeling. I have been pretty bummed lately with all the hate going on. It saddens me to think of all the sacrifices cops make for such ungrateful idiots.

Lately I have been afraid to do anything in fear of the media. I might do something 100% right but get screwed by the media and our racist DOJ.

[jcioccke]

It saddens me to think of all the sacrifices cops make for such ungrateful idiots.

Exactly!!!! How many parties I missed, School events, Weddings, etc. It is time for a vacation soon

[hemicop]

To me, the culprits in all this is the media, for obvious reasons stated. But we also have ourselves to blame. When hiring standards decline, training is cutback & FTOs don't demand peerformance from rookies who go on to become our supervisors we only have "THE SYSTEM" (ourselves) to blame. In a PC mad World where no one is willing to stand-up & say "Sorry rookie, you ain't cuttin' it, you're fired!" we only have orselves to blame. Couple that with the "ME!" generation attitude we ignored or in some cases as parents, encouraged, is it any wonder many now still look at LEOs as just an "annoyance" instead of something to be respected & proud of? To take it a step further, PDs have failed miserably in the PR arena. Think I'm kidding? Look how FDs are worshipped & young people strive to get onto their local FDs. You generally don't see that with LE.
We, front-line Officers, need to quit pointing fingers & bemoaning our lot in life & instead when asked or even challenged about our work, stand-up & confidentantly & proudly expalin what you do, why, & just how it's beneficial. If "we" make a mistake, own up to it,don't try to rationalize it or apoligize. Conversely, when we do "good" or are right it should be recognized & acknowledged.
Another site I visit is quite anti-cop but I refuse to let those immature, know-nothing loud-mouths be allowed to spew their BS while decent, dedicated LEOs get slammed with no support or rebuttal. "
We" need to grow a pair & start standing up for our chosen career....

[tj05]

The sad thing is the only thing that will turn this view around is a tragic event like 9/11 (where a large number of cops will die). Then people will praise cops for around a year then things will go back to normal.

[Che]

How did we become the enemy?

My #1 answer is the lack of "moral courage". A concept I learned in the Marines. If I chew out Jesus for an unsat uniform I need to do the same to Tom, Dick and Harriet. But if you watch 60 Minutes or 20/20 you will see who are whose enemies are. It is other officers, our peers and coworkers. Some departments seem to be just frat houses. Others are 'good ole boy' clubs.

Cops taking bribes, pimping on the side, drug dealer after hours, gun runner, etc, etc.

[IrishSheepdog54]

Everyone is mad at the government right now. We are a representative of the government, forced to enact the laws these *******s keep dreaming up. So therefore nobody likes us, including the ******* government types, because we arrest their voters all the time.


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[CruiserClass]

The media "sells a story" and that's a distinct difference from "tells the truth." Controversy sells. Now that we have MULTIPLE 24 hour news outlets in both traditional media and online, there has to be SOMETHING to talk about to fill all that air time. If they can create a controversy, they will. It keeps the same story in the news cycle for a long time.

Cop shoots bad guy = one time blip, still need 23.75 hours of "news" to talk about. If you can make it a racial issue or add some controversy in there, you can fill DAYS of your news cycle with it.

Locally, years ago they aired footage of me and another guy carrying a semi-conscious drunk down the stairs to the medics below. In the video you can clearly see neither of us have our hands above his mid chest, yet we "choked" him. Even when the video they had clearly showed that wasn't what happened, they ran it until something else knocked us out of the news cycle.

So what do people remember? The controversy. When we're wrong and get arrested, we're all bad cops. When we're right, the thin blue line of silence protected us and we're all bad cops.

That's why I never talk to the media. I'll give some info to the PIO if it'll help a case, but I refuse to give interviews. Those asshats can suck it.