LEO Gets Three Weeks Off For Killing Man on Accident

[Brian]

Originally Posted by Keith

I find it frustrating that any LEO discussion turns into "all cops are animals".

I think that's one reason why there is a growing riff when a civil discussion cannot take place because everyone makes such generalized statements about LEO.

Personally I've had a ton of positive LEO experiences. I just find it somewhat worrisome to have LEO kill people on accident and suffer nothing more then a couple weeks off. Seems like a bad message.

Yeah, I agree. There certainly are some really bad examples of LEOs abusing their positions, but it certainly still seems the majority are putting their lives on the line for not a lot of pay to try to maintain law and order.

One problem I see is that LEOs who patrol an area do it in a car rather than walking around. When they used to literally walk a beat, they got to know the people and the people got to know them. Friendships and trust developed. Now, they're in cars, don't often get to meet people and develop important bonds, and the natural reaction (at least by some LEOs I know) is to form an "us-versus-them" mentality. That's not healthy, and it happens both for cops and for law-abiding civilians.

[havasu]

In the town I worked in, we would have 4 patrolmen and a Watch Commander (Sgt) working the night shift. Our town had a population of 50,000 persons. If you do the math, each officer was basically responsible for 12,500 persons. There was just not enough minutes in an hour to pat little kids on the head, and meet with the owner of the general store and BS for an hour. You were forced to run from call to call, putting out fires the best you could, before moving on to another call.

[Brian]

Originally Posted by havasu

In the town I worked in, we would have 4 patrolmen and a Watch Commander (Sgt) working the night shift. Our town had a population of 50,000 persons. If you do the math, each officer was basically responsible for 12,500 persons. There was just not enough minutes in an hour to pat little kids on the head, and meet with the owner of the general store and BS for an hour. You were forced to run from call to call, putting out fires the best you could, before moving on to another call.

Exactly right. You've just highlighted a problem. Now, I'm not sure if increasing the size of the police force is the right thing to do or not. Without question, the general lack of moral fiber in the general populace (not all people, but too many) has these guys running their butts off dealing with problems. What do you think a solution might be?

[BCboy]

Originally Posted by havasu

Beat and pillage?

If you search news stories, you will see how corrupt the police in BC are.
From shooting Ian Bush, to the poor polish guy at the vancouver airport, to just recently kicking a guy repeatedly in the face in kelowna for no reason, to the cops that had a drug grow op of their own near upper fraser.
I lived 4 houses from a cop, he was married, but had ongoing affairs with other women, and was convicted finally of making hookers do him so they would not get arrested for prostitution.
He also shot up road signs that I know of, and was just mean to everyone.
He bragged about his job being great, because he could beat people up for fun because he had a badge.
An ex-friend is a cop, he got so rude and horrible, he lost all of his once good friends.
I actually wanted to be a cop when I was young.
I signed up, but once done the training, only was a member for 12 weeks and quit. I then chose to go a different carreer route, as it was not a job of serve and protect the citizens.
We were taught to lie, conceal, be a brotherhood and stick together no matter what.
To always assume everyone is guilty, and if they can later prove themselves innocent fine.
What I saw disgusted me, and your screwed if you rat out the really bad other members.
Basically its a license to break the law, and be a jerk.
I went in wearing rose colored glasses, and what I saw was such corruption, I cannot ever respect the way its done ever again, unless they do a complete overhaul of the system.

[havasu]

Again, there are bad apples everywhere. If you took it upon yourself to send this message to the police department, things might get corrected. If you also sent a carbon copy to your local newspaper, I can assure you they would make sure this is investigated completely.

What this has done is not only tarnished your views of your local police, but it tarnishs every law abiding cop around the world who work very hard to make sure we take care or your problems, were never abusive, and proud of the occupation we signed up for!

[blucher]

Originally Posted by Motorcharge

My bigger concern here is these retarded military style raids on people's homes when they're suspected of petty offenses, especially the night raids. LEO's being cut major slack for big time screw ups and ending people's lives certainly doesn't help either.

I have no record, no felonies but if someone was breaking down my door by accident I'd have a few felonies were I to survive a 4AM raid by a swat team.

The Portland cops seem to regard tasers as ways to minimize cleaning bills. They have a terrible record for shooting people a 50's cop with a billy club could have handled. An old man with a knife in his hand facing 12 police men does not require bullets.
Some homeless nut pissed in public and died on the sidewalk from crushed ribs as a crowd of cops watched. I can't say enough good things about the cops I've known in my life but those clowns in Portland are a smear against the good ones.