Re: My turn to rant
First off, before I get started, let me let you know first off, I know both ends of this scale. I introduced one of my best Dancing partners, a beautiful tallented lady, to a guy I graduated High School with. Even though I am not Catholic, she insisted that I was her son's Godparent. She was killed by a neighboring town officer, which Ran a red light. He said he was chasin a speeder, with lights on, no siren. A Witness stated she didn't see any lights. The witness was directly behind my Dancin Partner, which had just pulled up to the light, which had just turned green for them. Obviously, she didn't see the Patrol Car. I know exactly how fast the officer was going, his speeometer was stuck at 85 MPH at the scene of the crash. The Officer was at fault, running the Red light, even if his Emergancy Equipment was going. Am I ticked off, your absolutly right, it is a senseless loss of life.
BUT, <br /><br />Some of those so called Law Abiding Citizens, bring these problems on themselves. First off, I'm a Shift Sergeant, w/16 years of experience in Law Enforcement, and I'd have to work OT out the wazoo to make 40K a year. Before anyone gets to ranting, I knew that going in, but, when you consider trying to get qualified people to do this job, for that pay, then make them pass the Academy, be bonded and Post certified, and Plant a target a mile wide on his back for any money hungry person that knows a lawyer to sue him for the most outright rediculas things I've ever seen in my lifetime, even to the point of being put in Jail, serving time, for simply doing his job, right down to the letter of the law as he was taught, without these upright upstanding law abiding citizens becoming enraged and coming to his defense at a mockery of justice. Finally, over time, you simply get the best qualified Officers that you can from the list you have to choose from. Down here, a City Worker leaning on a shovel all day, supposed to be digging ditches, makes almost the same pay as an officer that has to go through all this schooling, post certification, and get told to go out and serve the public and catch those criminals, and you had better not make one mistake, or we'll crusify you. <br /><br />Now, lights and Sirens, Give me a break, they just as soon take them off the cars nowdays. You have a passel of uneducated drivers out there, with NO FLIPING idea what to do, when an Authorized Emergancy Vehicle approaches. Your supposed to pull to the RIGHT, to the shoulder, and give them the roadway. Most folks don't even know it is ILLEGAL to pass an EMERGANCY VEHICLE that has someone pulled to the shoulder, in the right lane of a 2 lane divided Highway. Some even holler insults at the officer if he has part of his vehicle in the right lane, trying to protect the safety of the person he already has pulled over. <br /> You pull up behind someone in the left lane with lights and siren, and some want to go into the Median
<br /> <br />Give me a break,,,,and you wonder why we don't want to run lights and siren most of the time? Most of the time, it hinders your getting to a call, most confused drivers panic, because they don't know the law themselves and have no idea to pull to the right. I've pulled to intersections, blaring sirens and lights only to have people pull every which a way, blocking the lanes, shoulder and Median, with no way through the intersection. Oh, and before someone says, you should stop and give them a ticket. YEA RIGHT, just stop in the middle of going to a shooting in progress, or a mangled mess of bent metal and bleeding bodies, to stop and write a bimbo a ticket for not knowing how to drive. <br /><br />Now the Coffee shop run. I've taken so many complaints about Officers speeding and running red lights to get to the Donut shop, or a POW WOW- war swapping story session, that most of them once investigated turned out that the citizen sqwaking never even bothered to notice that there was a handcuffed criminal in the back of the first car that the officers were leaning up against, while one officer was filling in the other on what happened. He's got one, and the other is still at large. Or, how many times they were getting together to come up with a plan of action on how to enter and handle a Civil situation, that they really shouldn't have to be involved in, but have to, because an Elected Official that can make their job miserable says they have to handle. Or how many times, they get word that someone high on the Wanted list has been spotted at someone's house, and they are quickly getting together to devise a plan of action to take them into custody, without anyone HARBORING A FUGITIVE getting hurt either. They are the first to sue. <br /><br />I've even had to pull the Law book out and show a practicing Lawyer, that these minor traffic laws DO NOT APPLY TO AN OFFICER IN THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS DUTIES. All because an officer was patroling about 5 MPH (jogging speed) with no headlights on, and not stopping at stop signs, to keep his brake lights from giving away his position, trying to apprehend a Burglary suspect. Now if you don't believe that they don't apply, let me ask you this: You pull up to a RED LIGHT, and an Officer Flags you to proceed through it. Do you go as directed, which the law says that the Officer is a higher level of traffic enforcement than the traffic control device (the red light) or do you sit there in a confused state and wonder what you should do? You'd be surprised at those that will just sit there bottling up traffic waiting for that broken red light to turn green. <br /><br />Or when an Officer flags you to Detour, there is a crash up ahead with hazzardous materials, and each and every driver expects the Officer to have surup and honey pouring out of his mouth and give them directions around the Detour. What ever happened to having a Map? Nowdays, get a GPS. <br /><br />Now for those State Troopers, God Bless them. I know some of them around here, that have worked 3 Parishes (Counties for you other states) by themselves. Working one crash on the extreme corner of one parish, then have to race across two parishes to get to another crash on the extreme edge of the last one he has to cover. Then he has to go to court in all these jurisdictions, and how about getting two court dates (THAT HE MUST APPEAR FOR) from two different parishes at the same time, while two judges arguing on which one is the most important for him to appear in? Then when he's late for one of them, the judge want to make a example of him. And you wonder why they Speed? The problem is, that most of the Public is just Plain SPOILED. <br /><br />I'm the first to say, you catch someone "EVEN AN OFFICER" seriously messing up, punish them. I've caught my officers pushing the limits and I shut them down. If you keep tying officers hands, complaining about every single incident, pretty soon you'll have officers just riding around waving, collecting their checks, and not doing a dang thing, just out of self peservation. Then at least he'll be qualified to lean on a shovel and collect his check, right? It all pays the same.
