Its a sad state of affairs. I don't want to be a cop, I don't know many who do. That line of work, sub 100k pay for putting yourself in high risk situations. Not my cup of tea.

Where I live in a deep rural area it's not condemned to take your wife out in the road and beat her to death. The stat is public, it's something like 95% of cases are domestic violence here. Social workers won't set foot here. They would have a knife in their stomach. RCMP have to go in first, every night, every day of every week. I feel horrible for them here.

And yet they're deemed the bad guys for intervening in family affairs. It's amazing.

Traffic violations don't happen here since there's no seatbelt requirement, no speed limits etc. So everything they deal with is typically violence, not a moments rest.

Nuts to that life. I salute them.

The old send in the social worker narrative does not work here. I would invite anyone to come see why. It's a joke, no social workers going into a home or around rampaging abusers. The violance is rampant, there's so many open positions because no one wants to deal with that shit so cops have to the best they can.

This post was edited by SBD on Sep 8 2020 03:30pm

when i was in school i did a ride along and a cop told me straight up dont go to academy unless you can stomach taking screaming kids from a parent and a battered wife siding with her husband while you drag him from the house. i did not go to academy. not something im interested in, and that was way before cops became public enemy #1.

Even if you go with a social worker approach, they need to be fully escorted by a cop. People are animals.

police used to be content doing a thankless job, but now that it's passed into worthy of scorn by people it will only get worse. the only people drawn to the job will be those with a hero complex or looking for control.

https://mobile.twitter.com/pdmcleod/status/1303410577306521601

peaceful protesters and bread seekers got their wish - an entire police department in rochester sees their command staff resigning

You cannot be perfect in situations that change rapidly. Can protocols and training be better? Yes. Can we have perfection? No. With the current scrutiny you have to be or expect the public to judge you, your family and anyone that you have friendly interactions with.

the criticism is on a sliding scale as well. in the 60s-90s it was all about cops hassling or even shooting completely innocent black men. then it was cops shooting and killing criminals they shouldn't, because they're not judge jury executioner. then it was shooting but not killing those same criminals. once that stops it will be tazing criminals, tackling criminals, and eventually talking to criminals.

cops need to do a lot of work to clean things up, but u give people and inch and they'll take a mile. like i said earlier, the ridiculousness of one side saying cops are too strict while the other says they're too lax is absurd.

This.

Cops are in positions which require quick decision making in very high stakes situations, they don't always make the right decision. Anyone that's been in a fight or confronted by a large animal in the woods like a bear or something understands the rush of emotion and how we instinctively react. No amount of training is going to bring that factor to a zero, it's simply counter instinct.

I actually tried becoming a cop about 5 years ago. Passed the physical but got turned down because i got in trouble when i was 18 with weed possession. I honestly think it was a godsend that i didn't get that job. The stress level is astounding and it doesn't match the level of compensation. It's not the same everywhere really but being a city cop is not worth it. Suburb cops probably have it easiest if we compare urban, suburban & country. Country could be really good or really bad depending on where you live.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Sep 8 2020 04:34pm

If you had grew up in the country and got caught with weed you would have just split your bag with the cop and he'd have sent you on your way.

Nope. It's primarily about protecting capital.