From: davidb@inmet.inmet (David Barton)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: An apology, sort of, and some new thoughts
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:29:21 GMT
Organization: Intermetrics, Inc.

In article <29e373f2-c4ftalk.guns@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
akcs.kennedy@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Edward A. Kennedy, Jr.) writes:

   But after I read his comments I had an idea of another way in which
   calling police "PIGS" hurts all of us.  It probably gets us poorer 
   police!

   That would happen in two manners.  First, if being a policeman or
   woman were considered a profession of shame, we would get poorer
   police(wo)men.  The good people would say, "Who needs this?" and 
   many of them would seek other professions.  That would leave the
   door open for those of lesser quality, the people who have ego 
   problems and only want to be policemen so that they can lord it 
   over others--the bullies.  The second way this would hurt us is
   that even the good police would feel angry at us in general and 
   many of them would do a poorer job because of it.  Many of them 
   would be less concerned about our rights because of it.  (This is
   aside from the frustration that many of us, including police, feel
   about the criminal having too many rights and the citizen having
   too little protection.)

   I do not think this is a hypothetical condition.  I think it has 
   already happened.

While I agree with a lot of what you say in this post (particularly
that which I have cut for space), I think you mix cause and effect.

Over the years, I have had several friends who were police officers in
various jurisdictions.  One was best man at my wedding, and I at his.
Without exception, all of these friends, who are fair and humane men,
and who joined the police department to fight crime, have resigned.
Their unhappiness is not caused by the citizens that they were trying
to serve; it was caused by political orders that they could not obey
in good conscience, and by priorities with which they did not agree.

They were required, by a quota system (in general, do not believe it
when the local police department says they do not have a quota system)
to write traffic violations that, in their judgement, did not
constitute a threat, for purposes of revenue collection.  Fairfax
County police often spend full days, with collections of five or more
officers, setting up roadblocks whose sole purose is catching expired
tags and county stickers.

They were required to enforce laws in which they did not believe; for
some of the officers, these included gun control laws.

Make no mistake, the average police officer is in a very bad position
these days.  He is required to enforce laws which greater than ten
percent of citizens violate regularly (felonies).  He is given
instructions that pit him against the majority of his fellow citizens.
He is often required to curtail the civil rights of fellow citizens.
He is given inadequate training (at least locally) concerning the use
of deadly force.

It is no wonder at all that tension between police and the public is
at an all time high.  As more police resign (and resignations are
rising at an alarming rate), the experience level of the officer on
the street lowers.  This only increases the problem.

As long as the political system continues to pass laws that the public
in general does not support, and continues to disobey, for reasons
that continue to be unclear to me, the police officer is going to be
in a very bad position.  To get public support, the police must serve
the safety and concerns of the public.  Given the present political
situation, this is next to impossible.

					Dave Barton
					dlb@hudson.wash.inmet.com