A good idea and something a little unique: The photos are of a casing that has been polished and a section slotted near the rim. The gentleman who passed it on to me today, stated British troops collect spent casings of this size( no markings, appeared to be a .50 cal) and had their armorers polished the brass, cut the slot, and sell them for bottle openers. The proceeds go to their version of the Wounded Warrior Program. Nice touch, especially if the round had slotted a bad guy:)
Now that is a fine idea, right there. Particularly if the round had been used to cancel someone’s Christmas. Very nice!
Since we haven’t had any updates to this thread in a while, I thought I would share this with you all. It summed up things quite nicely.
Today I Stopped Caring
Today, I stopped caring about my fellow man. I stopped caring about my community, my neighbors, and those I serve.
I stopped caring today because a once noble profession has become despised, hated, distrusted, and mostly unwanted.
I stopped caring today because parents refuse to teach their kids right from wrong and blame us when they are caught breaking the law. I stopped caring today because parents tell their little kids to be good or “the police will take you away” embedding a fear from year-one. Moms hate us in their schools because we frighten them and remind them of the evil that lurks in the world. They would rather we stay unseen, but close by if needed, but readily available to “fix their kid”.
I stopped caring today because we work to keep our streets safe from mayhem in the form of reckless, drunk, high, or speeding drivers, only to be hated for it, yet hated even more because we didn’t catch the drunk before he killed someone they may know. Never less, we are just another tool used by government to “generate revenue”.
I stopped caring today because Liberals hate the police as we carry guns, scare kids, and take away their drugs. We always kill innocent people with unjust violence. We are called bullies for using a taser during a fight, but are condemned further for not first tasing the guy who pulls a gun on us. And if we do have to shoot, we are asked “why didn?t you just shoot the gun out of their hand” And when one of us is killed by the countless attacks that do happen (but are rarely reported in the mainstream media) the haters say, “Its just part of the job”.
I stopped caring today because Conservatives hate us as we are “the Government”. We try to take away their guns, freedoms, and liberty at every turn. We represent a “Police State” where “jackbooted-badge wearing thugs” randomly attack innocent people without cause or concern for constitutional rights. We are Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Rodney King all rolled into one lone police officer stopping to help change an old lady’s tire.
I stopped caring today as no one wants us around, but instantly demands answers, results, arrests, when a crime takes place. If a crime isn’t solved within the allocated 60 minutes it takes CSI on television, we are inept, incompetent, or covering something up. If we do “get lucky” it was just that, and everyone with a Facebook account can post wonderful comments of how they would solve the case and how we and not nearly as clever.
I stopped caring today because a video of a cop six states away, from a department that you never heard of, screws up and forgets his oath of honor, thus firing up an internet lynch-mob of cop haters because “we all do the same things” even though 99% of us work twice as hard not to end up in the news and to still be “the good guys”. We are “militarized” because we wear body armor and kevlar helmets when shots are fired or rocks thrown at us and carry scary looking rifles even though everyone knows that they are easier to shoot and are more accurate than a handgun or a shotgun.
I stopped caring today because the culture of today’s instantly connected youth is only there to take and never give back. To never accept responsibility for ones actions, but to blame everyone else instead of themselves. To ask “what is in it for me?” versus “what can I do for you?” To idolize gangsters, thugs, sexual promiscuous behavoir, and criminals over hard work, dedication, and achievement. To argue that getting stoned should be a right, yet getting a job or an education is a hassle. To steal versus earn. To hate versus help.
Yes, I stopped caring today.
But tomorrow, I will put my uniform back on,… and I will care again.
Lt. Daniel Furseth - DeForest Police (WI) February 7, 2014
Mapwrap,
Thank you for posting the above essay, well said and well written. Truth.
As a side note this morning: Because this person’s name should not be written in the same space as the excellent essay above: Fuck you, Chris Hayes of MSNBC. Fuck you. The next time some street scum is stomping your ass on some shit encrusted floor, dont call the “heavily militarized police”, “with their fingers on their assault weapons”, “ready to fire on innocent people”. No, dont call 911, just call Chris Matthews or Al Sharpton and let them save your worthless ass, highly trained warriors that they are…
mapwhap,
Thank you for posting that. I have no idea if it “rings true” since I am not, nor have I ever been, a sworn officer, but it was well written. Change a few words and I think several physicians I know could have penned the same.
I didn’t know King was a “conservative” cause, but I am way, way remiss in what I am supposed to get upset about RE police. My no bullshit reaction to the King incident was always to wonder how the other folks in the car never managed to get their rights violated by the cops. I think there might be lessons there. I also think the only way the Federal charges stuck was to carve out the last couple strikes as a seperate act was huge as well. Like I said. I suck at outrage.
One thing I point out frequently to friends when the police outrage de jour comes up is that there is not a ton of parity in law enforcement. Some departments seem to run on nepotism, suck, and fail and up the road there are a bunch of professionals on the side of angels and unless you are local they look the same. So, I try not to let any one incident color my opinions too harshly, or favorably for that matter. Much the same as officers have to find balance between not letting the percentage of violent shitbirds in the population make them treat every interaction as a felony stop and being on guard for “treeing a bad one”.
There are plenty of data points showing government over reach, violation of rights, and all manners of abuse in “law enforcement”. I simply hold that there are a shit ton more suggesting that overall LEO’s in this country do an unreasonably good job. I am pretty fond of using CATO’s numbers, doubling the number of “abuses” and then comparing that to total officers/contacts. When doing so it seems like the modern cop is doing a fantastic job on average.
There are fuck ups. Every population of humans has them, and badges don’t change that. The officers who willfully or negligently fuck up should be hammered into the ground for it. Just like the doctors who fuck up. Or any other group payed to do a job. The thing that kills me is how misplaced the outrage always seems to be.
The NYPD had the detective who kept using the same “witness” for a bunch of felony cases. Instead there is a fucking lynch mob for officers involved in what looked like about as gentle a take down as you can get. I can see getting the pitchforks and torches out when a cop or cops get caught lying on reports or planting evidence, that pretty much subverts the whole justice/law enforcement paradigm. Instead the news cycle seems to paint officers defending themselves from violent injury/death during the course of protecting the public as a bad thing?
I am trying to rectify how “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” becomes a thing in response to an officer shooting someone who just fractured the officer’s orbital when there is less hugh and cry for The Evansville IP address raid, the “reasonable” ruling in the second wrong ID Dorner search shooting, the toddler flash bang in Georgia, the New Mexico cavity search (that one is just as bad if not worse for hospital staff/physicians by the way), ect.
I really don’t get it and I have to keep repeating Heinlein’s razor when watching or reading news coverage so I don’t “Attribute to malice what could more easily be explained by stupidity”. Otherwise I would think someone is trying to make it so cops won’t defend themselves.
Regards,
Robert A
[quote]idaho wrote:
As a side note this morning: Because this person’s name should not be written in the same space as the excellent essay above: Fuck you, Chris Hayes of MSNBC. Fuck you. The next time some street scum is stomping your ass on some shit encrusted floor, dont call the “heavily militarized police”, “with their fingers on their assault weapons”, “ready to fire on innocent people”. No, dont call 911, just call Chris Matthews or Al Sharpton and let them save your worthless ass, highly trained warriors that they are… [/quote]
Did I miss something?
What the hell did Chris Hayes do? I am not defending anything, but I must have missed some sort of Op-Ed drek. I know MSNBC has been integral in creating the “Gentle Giant” narrative in Fergusson, but I don’t recognize Hayes in particular. Link?
Regards,
Robert A
[quote]Robert A wrote:
mapwhap,
Thank you for posting that. I have no idea if it “rings true” since I am not, nor have I ever been, a sworn officer, but it was well written. Change a few words and I think several physicians I know could have penned the same.
I didn’t know King was a “conservative” cause, but I am way, way remiss in what I am supposed to get upset about RE police. My no bullshit reaction to the King incident was always to wonder how the other folks in the car never managed to get their rights violated by the cops. I think there might be lessons there. I also think the only way the Federal charges stuck was to carve out the last couple strikes as a seperate act was huge as well. Like I said. I suck at outrage.
One thing I point out frequently to friends when the police outrage de jour comes up is that there is not a ton of parity in law enforcement. Some departments seem to run on nepotism, suck, and fail and up the road there are a bunch of professionals on the side of angels and unless you are local they look the same. So, I try not to let any one incident color my opinions too harshly, or favorably for that matter. Much the same as officers have to find balance between not letting the percentage of violent shitbirds in the population make them treat every interaction as a felony stop and being on guard for “treeing a bad one”.
There are plenty of data points showing government over reach, violation of rights, and all manners of abuse in “law enforcement”. I simply hold that there are a shit ton more suggesting that overall LEO’s in this country do an unreasonably good job. I am pretty fond of using CATO’s numbers, doubling the number of “abuses” and then comparing that to total officers/contacts. When doing so it seems like the modern cop is doing a fantastic job on average.
There are fuck ups. Every population of humans has them, and badges don’t change that. The officers who willfully or negligently fuck up should be hammered into the ground for it. Just like the doctors who fuck up. Or any other group payed to do a job. The thing that kills me is how misplaced the outrage always seems to be.
The NYPD had the detective who kept using the same “witness” for a bunch of felony cases. Instead there is a fucking lynch mob for officers involved in what looked like about as gentle a take down as you can get. I can see getting the pitchforks and torches out when a cop or cops get caught lying on reports or planting evidence, that pretty much subverts the whole justice/law enforcement paradigm. Instead the news cycle seems to paint officers defending themselves from violent injury/death during the course of protecting the public as a bad thing?
I am trying to rectify how “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” becomes a thing in response to an officer shooting someone who just fractured the officer’s orbital when there is less hugh and cry for The Evansville IP address raid, the “reasonable” ruling in the second wrong ID Dorner search shooting, the toddler flash bang in Georgia, the New Mexico cavity search (that one is just as bad if not worse for hospital staff/physicians by the way), ect.
I really don’t get it and I have to keep repeating Heinlein’s razor when watching or reading news coverage so I don’t “Attribute to malice what could more easily be explained by stupidity”. Otherwise I would think someone is trying to make it so cops won’t defend themselves.
Regards,
Robert A
[/quote]
Robert,
Excellent post, well written and most important : truth.
[quote]Robert A wrote:
[quote]idaho wrote:
As a side note this morning: Because this person’s name should not be written in the same space as the excellent essay above: Fuck you, Chris Hayes of MSNBC. Fuck you. The next time some street scum is stomping your ass on some shit encrusted floor, dont call the “heavily militarized police”, “with their fingers on their assault weapons”, “ready to fire on innocent people”. No, dont call 911, just call Chris Matthews or Al Sharpton and let them save your worthless ass, highly trained warriors that they are… [/quote]
Did I miss something?
What the hell did Chris Hayes do? I am not defending anything, but I must have missed some sort of Op-Ed drek. I know MSNBC has been integral in creating the “Gentle Giant” narrative in Fergusson, but I don’t recognize Hayes in particular. Link?
Regards,
Robert A[/quote]
I dont have a link, I was working out and AFN only has three channels here, so, you are forced to listen to whatever news is on. Hayes was giving his typical ultra liberal comments and then proceeded to give his opinion on the Ferguson police: “victim shot in the back”, “body left to lay in the street for 4 hours”, “who watches these officers?” “how many other departnments are out there abusing the people” " I was in Ferguson, I saw what they were like"…and on and on.
I dont wear ear phones or listen to music working out, how in the hell would you hear a rocket or mortor coming in? But, it that SOB is ever on, I am going to stick something in my ears from now on. Just a rant:))
[quote]idaho wrote:
[quote]Robert A wrote:
[quote]idaho wrote:
As a side note this morning: Because this person’s name should not be written in the same space as the excellent essay above: Fuck you, Chris Hayes of MSNBC. Fuck you. The next time some street scum is stomping your ass on some shit encrusted floor, dont call the “heavily militarized police”, “with their fingers on their assault weapons”, “ready to fire on innocent people”. No, dont call 911, just call Chris Matthews or Al Sharpton and let them save your worthless ass, highly trained warriors that they are… [/quote]
Did I miss something?
What the hell did Chris Hayes do? I am not defending anything, but I must have missed some sort of Op-Ed drek. I know MSNBC has been integral in creating the “Gentle Giant” narrative in Fergusson, but I don’t recognize Hayes in particular. Link?
Regards,
Robert A[/quote]
I dont have a link, I was working out and AFN only has three channels here, so, you are forced to listen to whatever news is on. Hayes was giving his typical ultra liberal comments and then proceeded to give his opinion on the Ferguson police: “victim shot in the back”, “body left to lay in the street for 4 hours”, “who watches these officers?” “how many other departnments are out there abusing the people” " I was in Ferguson, I saw what they were like"…and on and on.
I dont wear ear phones or listen to music working out, how in the hell would you hear a rocket or mortor coming in? But, it that SOB is ever on, I am going to stick something in my ears from now on. Just a rant:)) [/quote]
First thought. Fuck him.
The Brown family’s attorney contracted their own ME who found zero GSW’s in Browns back. I linked to that story earlier in this thread. It was news, hell Hayes may have covered it already.
To still be making such statements can either be evidence of intentional misrepresentation, i.e. lying, or proof of such extremely low cognition that Mr. Hayes shouldn’t be allowed to sign his own documents.
Also, his cries about “militarization” betray a massive ignorance of the history of police forces in general and the arming and equiping of such forces in this country in particular. I damn near weep when I see photos/footage of the police forces “clearing out” their arms rooms and sending BAR’s, Thompsons, M-1’s, ect. to destruction.
Perhaps we should thank Mr. Hayes? If he is trying to frame the anti-cop narrative it should be easy to crush/dismantle.
Regards,
Robert A
[quote]idaho wrote:
Robert,
Excellent post, well written and most important : truth.
[/quote]
Just calling it like I see it.
I would like to clarify that even in my examples of actual “bad” I think any just allocation of blame would end up on police administrators, DA’s, and judges way more than the individual officers who get hung out when bad outcomes become “incidents”.
Regards,
Robert A
Let’s take a break from Hayes. I was over on flight line yesterday and was allowed to take some photos. I dont know if there are any aircraft hobbyists lurking here, but, these are for you. I am not into aircraft much but it amazes me these things are actually able to get into the air, especially loaded down with MRAP’s, loaders, etc.
[quote]idaho wrote:
Let’s take a break from Hayes. I was over on flight line yesterday and was allowed to take some photos. I dont know if there are any aircraft hobbyists lurking here, but, these are for you. I am not into aircraft much but it amazes me these things are actually able to get into the air, especially loaded down with MRAP’s, loaders, etc.[/quote]
Seconded. I have a rudimentary understanding of the science that allows these behemoths to fly, but when I actually see it it always seems more like some arcane dark magic to me.
On another note, I’ve got the final background interview/polygraph for the police agency I’m currently applying to coming up at the end of this month. Not sure if this falls under the category of “Bad Ideas”, but I suppose it’s possible…
Assuming I’m successful, that leaves physch/medical clearance, the background investigation on their end and a fitness test. Fitness test is not a problem (I’ve posted competitive times in very similar tests on numerous occasions). My background is pretty boring. Medical is no problem and psych… well…
Next stage would be off to training for six full months away from home. At 35 years old I’ll be leaving a 10+ year career that I enjoy, a disabled spouse (she’s being great about it) and 5 yr old daughter at home. Short term family and financial strain for sure, but it’s all doable.
I figured I’d sooner share this over there as opposed to with the F-da-po-lice crowd over in GAL. Should be one hell of an adventure and I’m as excited as hell (with brief intervals of sheer terror hahaha)…
Any thoughts or advice, especially from those who have BTDT, would be more than welcome. I’ve been involved in policing for 4 years now in a volunteer capacity, so I don’t think I have many illusions of the Hollywood vs reality variety, but beyond that I remind myself daily that I know precisely sweet FA.
Thanks and, as always, be safe.
I know none of us really like to advertise too much what city we work in, but out of curiosity Batman, what state are you going to work in? If it’s Texas, I can certainly give you some words of wisdom on how things work here.
[quote]mapwhap wrote:
I know none of us really like to advertise too much what city we work in, but out of curiosity Batman, what state are you going to work in? If it’s Texas, I can certainly give you some words of wisdom on how things work here.[/quote]
Hey mapwhap. I’m actually in the Great White North. I know, I know, things are all very clean and polite up here, but we still need police. Go figure.
Canada, eh? If that’s the case, I can’t speak to how academies or the job goes up there. I would think most problems and disputes up there can be solved over a Molson and a nice plate of Kraft dinner, no?
[quote]mapwhap wrote:
Canada, eh? If that’s the case, I can’t speak to how academies or the job goes up there. I would think most problems and disputes up there can be solved over a Molson and a nice plate of Kraft dinner, no?[/quote]
Well, I’m more of a microbrew and pulled pork poutine type of guy, but the principle still applies.