[Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
hey, you can get on me about it if you want. not a cop, but have worked in a law enforcement capacity. while not the exact same thing, do you think boarding a foreign vessel off the coast of mexico you are hoping to protect the suspect's rights? no, you are making sure you come back in one piece and alive. when you go into a situation, any situation in that environment (even with innocent fishermen) you are on edge, it's human nature.
i live in an area now (seattle) where people in general jump to take the side of the so called victim in the case. anything to make the suspect the good guy and the cops the bad. of course media does not help the issue. there have been a couple shootings recently and the cops have been painted as the bad guys right at the start. protestors march and rally against the power. on the other side, a man was naked in the street and was resisting arrest. even though the cops may have feared for their life, they could not justify shooting the man because he was unarmed and naked. kind of a humorous situation, but it ended with the man taking a cops gun and shooting him with his own gun. he then walked up to the fallen officer and proceeded to finish him off. were there any protests or marches for the dead cop? no, because they are somehow seen as sub-human or undeserving.
people consistently try to push the envelope (the law). when they get slapped for stepping outside the confines of the law, all of a sudden, the law enforcement is the bad guy, and they are the victim.
we have become a society of victims, monday morning quarterbacks, and prejudging people. we judge situations without having any connection at all, nor any knowledge of all the surrounding issues. we look at a situation after the fact and make claims about what should have been done, instead of putting ourselves in the same situation. who's to say what happened before the tape started rolling? who's to say how long it took to get the kid in cuffs? fact is, if you have never stood on that side of the fence, you can't accurately assess the situation. but many people refuse to believe that. they jump to conclusions and make assumptions. unfortunately, our law enforcement has to pay.
are there bad people in those positions? yes. cops are human, just like you and me. they make mistakes, they get frustrated, they get scared. but, just like we don't immediately assume the new people we meet are criminals or evil, we shouldn't do the same for our law enforcement. don't let a few bad apples ruin the whole bushel.
if you ever have a run in with 'the law' and you project the image that you are fully willing to comply with whatever needs to be done, chances are, you'll be ok. if you go through the situation looking to test the officer's reactions, you might end up with more than you expceted.
i'm not claiming that what occured was correct. i am just trying to keep an open mind and not jump to conclusions. we owe it to each other to have an open mind and give each other the benefit of the doubt. some people are bad, but i would say the majority are good, imho.
posted by 152.121.3...
, Tue, 9 Jul 2002 09:37:50, Mon, 8 Jul 2002 21:21:08
, Mon, 8 Jul 2002 21:35:31, Tue, 9 Jul 2002 18:24:16
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
