Corrupt Cops

[Cruzr Joe]

There are about 1.3 million law enforcement officers in the US. Of these about 250,000 are employed by the Federal government. No work force that large, anywhere in the world, can exist without a few "bad apples." Similarly, out of 1.3 million people you will find some truly outstanding individuals.

Most large law enforcement agencies work very hard to eliminate the bad ones--before they even get started. For example, the Los Angeles Police Department has very strict recruitment practices. They hire only 1/4% of the original applicants. Of those 50% bust out of the academy. To be an LAPD officer you must attend the LAPD academy. So if Los Angeles needs 100 new officers, it must get (100/.0025)/.5)=80,000 accepted applications. For an application to be accepted you must be physically fit and pass a psychological test. Further physical and psychological assessment comes later--what is mentioned here is only the testing to get an application accepted for consideration.

LAPD has 10,000 police officers. Out of 10,000 employees you are going to have a few go bad, and a few become stars. The LAPD academy lasts almost six months, and 50% of the recruits do not have the combination of mental skills to make it through. After that there is an additional 18 month probationary period where the rookie can be fired for any reason at all.

interestingly the bad cops, making bad decisions, and using bad judgement, get most of the press coverage. Why? Because sensationalism sells papers. A story about someone who is entrusted by the citizenry to be good, just, and strong, is sensational when that person does some wicked thing. The stories about the lives police save, just in the day-to-day activities, and the good they do seldom get reported.

I am guilty of feeding that media monster, like everyone else. I would rather read about some rogue cop getting caught at something wicked, than read a story about an officer who took down a man who has both a gun and a psychotic break, or a story about how an officer prevented an elderly widow from investing her retirement savings into some "Nigerian" scheme.

If you think being an officer is easy, or that most cops are corrupt, then you should get involved either as a professional law enforcement officer, or as a volunteer. That is the only way you can improve things. After all, throwing spit wads on a motor cycle forum won't do any good...

Good Post

Cruzr Joe

 

[Bob Denman]

"All Police are to be viewed with suspicion" :hun:, rather harsh statement towards the people that you look to for the protection of you and your family.


Cruzr Joe (Retired Law Enforcement and Father of two current Law Enforcement Officers)

:agree: If your butt was in some SERIOUS trouble; who do you want showing up to save you? :dontknow:

 

[Dan_Ashley]

:agree: If your butt was in some SERIOUS trouble; who do you want showing up to save you? :dontknow:

I want Beyoncé to save me.

 

[Bob Denman]

But only if it includes mouth to mouth resusitation; right?

 

[Dan_Ashley]

But only if it includes mouth to mouth resusitation; right?

:bowdown:ANY type of suscitation would be good. It doesn't HAVE to be REsusciatation. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Suscitation

 

[Dan_Ashley]

This is the part that gets me upset as above.
What is the right uniform/outfit to wear as 10 LEOS encouter 40 rioters throwing buring gas bottles ??? or the full auto weapons brought across the border ilegally ??

Iron Man suits.
If those are unavailable C130 gunships.
If those are not available, tanks.

Certainly not leotards with dinner jackets.

one night in Watts my partner and I started getting pelted by the rear sprockets from 10 speed bicycles. The parts had been burglarized from a nearby bicycle shop. It was about 1:30 AM! In the city park. We put on our helmets and crashed the police car into a fire hydrant near the middle of the park. The water shot 20' or so into the air, and came down hard on the gang members. They ran in all directions. The officers responding to the help call merely picked up any male on the street who was soaking wet.

nobody got hurt. The dept of water had to turn off the main and replace the hydrant. The shop had to repair the bumper on the police car.

result: 18 felony convictions; Watts was a little safer for the people who lived there.

 

[dndfindley]

"All Police are to be viewed with suspicion" :hun:, rather harsh statement towards the people that you look to for the protection of you and your family.


Cruzr Joe (Retired Law Enforcement and Father of two current Law Enforcement Officers)

I don't look to law enforcement for the protection of either myself or my family. That is MY responsibility. The police have no obligation to protect anyone - they are there to enforce the law...and pick up the pieces AFTER a crime.

 

[Dan_Ashley]

I don't look to law enforcement for the protection of either myself or my family. That is MY responsibility. The police have no obligation to protect anyone - they are there to enforce the law...and pick up the pieces AFTER a crime.

time for you to move to Idaho and join a militia?

 

[Gray Ghost]

There are a lot of places in the US where law enforcement is not readily available. My home is over thirty miles away from the nearest law enforcement. If a deputy happens to be in my area when I call in a problem I might get some help while the situation is ongoing. Other than that it is up to me and my neighbors to do whatever we can.

 

[Bob Denman]

one night in Watts my partner and I started getting pelted by the rear sprockets from 10 speed bicycles. The parts had been burglarized from a nearby bicycle shop. It was about 1:30 AM! In the city park. We put on our helmets and crashed the police car into a fire hydrant near the middle of the park. The water shot 20' or so into the air, and came down hard on the gang members. They ran in all directions. The officers responding to the help call merely picked up any male on the street who was soaking wet.

nobody got hurt. The dept of water had to turn off the main and replace the hydrant. The shop had to repair the bumper on the police car.

result: 18 felony convictions; Watts was a little safer for the people who lived there.

...And a few miscreants got a bath, that they probably needed! :clap: :2thumbs:

 

[crazyspyder]

respect

All I can say is that I will respect LEO no matter what mood they are on! many times I have been pulled over and gotten some really cranky ones, rude, and obnoxious....but If I show courtesy and respect first with a smile everything
changes from there on out- I try and have the mentality of NOT being a bad - ass jackass ! that also makes their day knowing they dont have to deal with some one with a bad- ass attitude. I don't believe ALL cops are bad.
We have bad and good in everything in life....learn to survive and outlive the outcome! peace :yes:

 

[Bob Denman]

CuznJohn Posted this is "Off-'Topic"

But it really should be viewed in here!
(In spite of a bit of harsh language... )

 

[robmorg]

There are about 1.3 million law enforcement officers in the US. Of these about 250,000 are employed by the Federal government. No work force that large, anywhere in the world, can exist without a few "bad apples." Similarly, out of 1.3 million people you will find some truly outstanding individuals.

Most large law enforcement agencies work very hard to eliminate the bad ones--before they even get started. For example, the Los Angeles Police Department has very strict recruitment practices. They hire only 1/4% of the original applicants. Of those 50% bust out of the academy. To be an LAPD officer you must attend the LAPD academy. So if Los Angeles needs 100 new officers, it must get (100/.0025)/.5)=80,000 accepted applications. For an application to be accepted you must be physically fit and pass a psychological test. Further physical and psychological assessment comes later--what is mentioned here is only the testing to get an application accepted for consideration.

LAPD has 10,000 police officers. Out of 10,000 employees you are going to have a few go bad, and a few become stars. The LAPD academy lasts almost six months, and 50% of the recruits do not have the combination of mental skills to make it through. After that there is an additional 18 month probationary period where the rookie can be fired for any reason at all.

interestingly the bad cops, making bad decisions, and using bad judgement, get most of the press coverage. Why? Because sensationalism sells papers. A story about someone who is entrusted by the citizenry to be good, just, and strong, is sensational when that person does some wicked thing. The stories about the lives police save, just in the day-to-day activities, and the good they do seldom get reported.

I am guilty of feeding that media monster, like everyone else. I would rather read about some rogue cop getting caught at something wicked, than read a story about an officer who took down a man who has both a gun and a psychotic break, or a story about how an officer prevented an elderly widow from investing her retirement savings into some "Nigerian" scheme.

If you think being an officer is easy, or that most cops are corrupt, then you should get involved either as a professional law enforcement officer, or as a volunteer. That is the only way you can improve things. After all, throwing spit wads on a motor cycle forum won't do any good...

I don't usually requote the post this large, but this one deserves to be said again, because it gets to the root of this entire issue.

Thank you, Dan.

 

[robmorg]

You give yourself away when you call the Cato Institute "radical." Give me a freaking break. Some of the posts here are naïve and to some extent I understand that. You are not naïve, but your leanings are very evident.

Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment.

 

[Bob Denman]

So if I'm the naive one; should I be insulted? :shocked:

 

[robmorg]

:bowdown:ANY type of suscitation would be good. It doesn't HAVE to be REsusciatation. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Suscitation

:roflblack: That post made my day. :2thumbs:

 

[Can-Am Poogs]

Interesting post

As a police officer for the last 25 years with 3 or maybe 4 years to go before I pack it in, I am both disgusted and understanding of the POV expressed in this post.

The disgusted part is in that I have been doing this job the right way for the last 25 years with out any intention of ever doing it wrong, and it is troubling to think some may view me with distrust and think I may be corrupt without even really knowing anything about me, and the type of work I have done in that time. The generalizations are some what offensive. I've been shot at, been in a lot of fights 1 on 1 and even been out numbered few times, been is a couple of crashes chasing down bad guys, in burning building trying to get people out. I have taken down more violent and armed suspects than you could begin to dream of. I have showed more compassion then you would ever know having to deliver the news nobody wants to hear about their son's, daughter's, father's, mother's, brother's, sister's untimely and tragic deaths. I have had those moments where I have had to get on the radio and scream for back-up. I have more moments than you could imagine where I thought I may not make it home to my wife and my kids, or get to see the people I care about again. I have been banged up, scraped up, cut, poked by needles, and had broken bones. I have been hospitalized and laid up at home not able to do the simplest of things. Oddly enough none of these things happened because I had a crystal ball and knew where to be at the exact time I was needed. Somebody called and needed our help. We don't get to pick and choose, we have to go.

I have received commendations. I have received discipline, because lets face it you can't be 100 percent on the ball 100% of the time and mistakes happen, and sometimes some one just needs to be told to ^&%$ off, whether it be a bad guy, complainant, coworker, or boss. I sure hope that doesn't make me one of those bad cops we are talking about here.

How is it I am understanding? I was over at another cops house for supper last week and we were sitting around the table with our wives talking after the meal. This guy and I were in the same training troop 25 years ago, he met his wife at my wedding. The conversation started around a fellow troop mate of ours in another part of the country that was recently sentenced to 5 years in jail for trafficking cocaine. As we talked, I figured that I could account for knowing one police officer that had been fired for every year I had been on the job. Wow, that's a lot. And for every sort of crime or abuse of authority or breach of trust imaginable. And that is just the way it is ladies and gentleman, welcome to life? In every profession in this entire world, there are people that suck at it, are bad at it, and never should have done it. Every career or menial job has people that shouldn't be doing it, regardless of what provisions are in place to ensure they are not there. And do you know why? Because the pool of people used to fill any job in this world come from us. Yes ladies and gentleman, you may not know or believe this but " bad people are among us". Shhhhhh....don't tell anyone.....we don't want the people reading this to tell anyone else that may not already know this or are discovering it for the first time. So we got to keep it a secret. Promise? Oooopppss, humor and sarcasm interjected. There are bad doctors, dentists, lawyers, nurses, etc etc etc, there are even bad motorcycle mechanics, and Spyder dealers. This is the world we live in.

FYI, I have been that drug intradiction cop on the highway at a time in my career. I have taken lots of cash, X, cannibus, cocaine, heroin, etc of the road and I don't got one guilty feeling about. Oddly enough I have never been told of a time when I seized cash that I believed to be the proceeds of crime, that the person has ever asked for it back....hmmmm...I wonder why. If your 5 senses tell you something isn't right, then something isn't right.

My experience is of course the Canadian experience, but I have been on the other side of the badge in your country, and OMG is it an uncomfortable feeling. More so because I am not a citizen and my rights basically don't exist. I have been detained, made to strip down to my gotch, had my cell phone searched, computer searched, my truck ripped apart, all while being surrounded by more than a few officers, who were looking for cash and guns. An hour later being told I was free to go, without so much as a thank-you. When my phone rang I all but got jumped when I attempted to answer it. I just wrote it off to being part of the american experience, but I know and understand why they did it, and what the triggers were that caused it to happen.

I could go on for hours talking about arbitrary vehicle stops and reasonable suspicion...

I know someone made a comment about not liking being presumed guilty. I guess you should ask yourself why you feel that way. I realize some people just do feel that way even with nothing to hide. But that is just you and not really about the cop. It also conditioning. When we get stopped we expect to be told what we did wrong or what the allegation is. So the experience of being stopped by the police has people on the defensive immediately because we are all conditioned that way. Lets face it you are not going to be stopped to talk about the weather, or which flavor of Jolly Rancher is your favorite or because they want to make a friend. The odds are they have plenty of friends already.

Anyway, we are not all bad, but I understand why we get a bad wrap. Lets not forget you guys aren't all good either (not you guys here on this site, generally speaking). And lets not forget that cops are not born in a cop hatchery, we are not taken away from our mothers at birth and groomed to be cops, we are not aliens from another planet, we come from you guys and gals. Little cops to be walk among us, they don't and we don't know who they are going to be yet. Pretty spooky aye, I know it gives me the creeps? Bad cops are just as bad a reflection on you as they are on the rest of their occupation. So quit poking yourself in the eye.

Cheers, love you all and God bless, this is my day off and that means I am parent and domestic servant. Love chatting with you guys and gals here.

 

[Dan_Ashley]

....t I have been doing this job the right way for the last 25 years...

Thank you, Sir. Thank you for helping make it safe for me to walk my dog at night, attend a baseball game, park my car at a movie theater, and saving me from being killed by a drunk driver. Thank you, Sir.

It takes an above average person to be a cop. Every day your sense of judgment is tested; Every moment your mental acuity is under fire; every week your physical fitness is demanded; ALWAYS your motives are questioned. Yet you prevail to keep us safe from the bad people out there. You even try to keep the bad people safe from themselves.

And what do you get out of it? A salary? The kind of person who makes a good cop would be successful at anything they attempt. So, a salary and a pension is not what you get out of it. You could make more in car sales if you put your mind to it. A thankful community? Sometimes. Usually they just ignore you. A sense of justice? When a child rapist gets off, or a DUI killer goes free? No.

Yet, your sense of honor, and your commitment to improvement of your community sustains you.

I salute you.

Thank you,
Dan

 

[wyliec]

Can-Am Poogs,

Once again, there are some members here that make too much sense. Thank you.

Also, thanks for calling out bad doctors and nurses, and not physical therapists.:joke:

 

[Cruzr Joe]

I don't look to law enforcement for the protection of either myself or my family. That is MY responsibility. The police have no obligation to protect anyone - they are there to enforce the law...and pick up the pieces AFTER a crime.

life would not be easy with no Law Enforcement protection.

Cruzr Joe