Thanks for the great conversations of late.  It hit me yesterday:  Who am I to decide what I should write about.  So, if you have a question or an issue related to police work, cops, or anything evenly remotely related, simply place it as a comment to this post.  I will be honest and upfront, as always.  My plan is to make this a monthly post, so that you control direction of this blog.  Take care!

Elections really matter to cops, because we know that in the end it is money that drives our profession.  When that money is government money, you start to pay attention. 

Also interesting to me is that cops tend to have quite conservative values (I am pretty conservative, and usually the liberal in the room at Roll Call), yet we are union employees.  So who on earth are we to support?  The ones that sound good to me on policy are usually against union benefits (which I need).  And the opposite is also true:  pro-union usually equals anti-gun, anti-death penalty, etc.  Sigh.

This survey called me a “Populist-Leaning Conservative.”  Same to you, dude…

Let me know your results!

To that end, I strongly urge you all to check out www.truecopstories.com.  It is quite a simple concept, it seems.  They just put up stories by cops.  That’s it.  The site is not fancy, but I kinda like that.  It is just cops telling what happened last night, last month, or last year on a memorable shift.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Now, because of his compelling motivations, there is a bit of support coming his way in the form of “critics” who think the deportation action was too harsh.

Too harsh?

Sorry folks, but cops can’t be liars.  Think about this.  There is a real issue here not in Ayala wanting to work (I am confident he is a good person with pure motives), but in his falsifying a government application to get the job. 

It seems like we have watchdogs drooling at the feet of anyone wearing a badge these days.  I wonder if the concerned liberals — sorry — citizens would be so upset if this officer’s name was Muhammad?

Just a thought…

However as a Canadian officer correctly points out, the alternative is often the use of a firearm — deadly force to be sure. Taser’s own website (admittedly a for-profit company) indicates numbers that are so drastically in favor of TASER deployment, that argument is difficult.

If you don’t trust the company that makes them, how about the departments that use them. In almost all major police departments, the TASER is considered “intermediate” force. That means it can be used when someone is fighting, charging, threatening to injure or kill, or displaying a non-deadly weapon at the police. With the TASER, that individual is immediately and effectively incapacitated. I was “TASERED” in the police academy. It hurt. But one minute later I was fine. The same could not be said of a steel baton to the knee (guaranteed lifetime injury), a bite by a police dog (arrgh), or a gunshot (duh!).

Watch the video here, and ask yourself the single, key, and only question about TASERS: Would I rather get hit with this, or one of the alternatives. The dog in the background of this video is ready to take care of business. I think the suspect himself explains the benefits of the TASER better than I ever could. That should settle the argument.

Sometimes police work is ugly. That is the suspects’ fault, not the cops’. Remember my favorite quote:

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

Sleep well.

“The world sleeps peacefully at night because of good men willing to do violence on their behalf”

As many of my readers know, there is a strong link between America’s military and our police forces.  A significant percentage of the officers that patrol the nation’s streets also wear another uniform.  Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard or reserve, we owe them all a debt of gratitude.

Most Americans will never serve in either capacity.  That is just fine with these “double” heroes; their calling is as much personal as anything.  Over and over again, I have said “goodbye” to officers as they shipped out to a new war zone.  This time the fighting is thousands of miles away, and more dangerous than we could imagine.  Yet our police officers continue to park their patrol cars and pick up the Humvee keys.

I just want to say “THANK YOU,” from a greatful nation and a fellow cop.  Be safe out there.

Every so often during my tenure as a detective, I would sit on the witness stand and describe for the jury what the suspect had done. As I heard the words come out of my mouth I would think to myself, “thank god they are still dumb, or we might not catch anyone!”

Their blogs are outstanding!  Cop Blogs fall into one of two categories.  A few are “official,” such as this LAPD blog and this one by the Chicago Police.  The rest are “unofficial.”  That is usually a nice way of saying that they exist to bitch and moan about their jobs.  Believe me, if police officers didn’t have something to complain about, we would complain about that. 

The problem in this country has been that police management is often so overbearing that the author knows their career is in danger if they speak up (this New York cop lost his job.)  Hence my efforts to remain anonymous.

Anyhow, I found this outstanding British blog.  It gets thousands of hits, and it is easy to see why.  The British service is a bit different than ours, however to some degree cops are cops.  I spoke to a few civilians who agreed that the key to a police blog is that it should open the window to a world the reader doesn’t completely understand.  Many people are interested or fascinated with police work, but few ever get to hear the real deal.  I commend inspector gadget for making this possible for his British public.

I hope as the Philosophical Cop develops, I can offer you the type of access that the Inspector’s readers enjoy.

Without judging the specific tactics, I think my point is well made in the video below.  That drunk should have listened. 

Until today.  My partner’s weekend just happened to coincide with the “real” one, so we both jaunted off to work early Monday morning.  I made it there just fine.  My partner, on the other hand…

No one hurt, by the way; just an ego slap.  Have a good week.