Cop Observation #2: People Are Basically Mean

philosophicalcop — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:35:57 +0000

As I mentioned in my prior posts, I will include, from time to time, my observations on the world - and the police world in particular. These opinions are not derived, I assure you, from scientific studies, nor are they the final results of much deep thought. They are just the stuff that gets shoved into a cop’s head after a decade or so.

Your Grandma Was Wrong

So your grandma told you people are basically good. Bull. In the last several patrol shifts, in neighborhoods that cross all socioeconomic barriers, the following have taken place:

1. A mother of three, living in a twin bed with all three kids, fighting violently with police who tried to arrest her. The kids were not hurt, thanks to the professionalism of our women and men in uniform. Well done, Mom.

2. A 90 year-old man with dementia left in his bed for weeks by his children. Bed sores, sickness, infection, etc. Thanks for raising me, dad.

3. A young man who wanted to join a gang. Nothing new here, except the gang didn’t want him. So they beat him into the ICU. He was fourteen or fifteen, at the oldest.

4. Finally, some common sense. These geniuses killed a cat and hung it from a tree on a public highway. Why? Tired of the cat messing up the house.

I once met a police psychologist who gave a good presentation on why cops are “different” than other people. His hypothesis was that all humans can take only so much “evil stuff” before it gets them in some way or the other. Cops, he said, get their dose for life in the first five years of their career. Not so far off, doc.

What do you think?

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Cop Observation #2: People Are Basically Mean