Only Ones
Never was a fan of the meme myself though I did understand the reasoning behind it.
But Ahab is apparently going to start a series highlighting the good done by police officers, obviously as a counter to David’s bit highlighting their less than stellar moments.
There’s a fine line with this one, folks. It’s very difficult to be critical of police action and not be assumed to be anti-police. For instance, the casual reader here or someone coming from a link to a post in which I point out shooting dogs or invalid warrants will assume I’m anti-police. I’m not. I like the police and think that the vast, vast majority are fine folks. Heck, my Dad has been an officer of the law (at the federal and local levels) since the early 1980s and only recently left. However, in some cities there is a thriving culture of corruption and, though it’s the minority, gives the police a bad name. If we’re critical of the bad and complimentary of the good, maybe we can get the vast majority to crack down on the few who give the rest a bad name.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:40 am
No problem straightarrow, and I wasn’t really irritated with you personally. There’s a slightly more in depth reply at my blog, in response to your comment there.
August 16th, 2008 at 5:41 am
On the Bible thing, Sulaco, I was writing about doing the right thing by somebody, even if you and he belong to antipathetical classes of people. With my animus against policemen, I’ve often pondered the situation of finding a crippled policeman in his car in a ditch. I hope I would do the right thing, which would be exerting myself to the utmost to save his life while cussing him out for being a stupid pig who cain’t drive right and has a single-vehicle accident.
Feelings aside, you know, there is right and there is wrong, and I hope I’ll have the gumption to do the former.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:10 am
“I have the solution. Police in the US will get the next month off. ALL of them at the same time….”
Here’s a better idea, Sulaco: How about, for one whole month, every police officer is subject to the same laws the “civilians” are, and face the same treatment when caught and the same penalties when punished.
(of course, that means that y’all will have to give up your “Don’t pull me over, I’m a cop/cop’s family and above the law” Thin Blue Line car stickers…)
Fair? I’d think so.
Surgeons and ER docs face far more on-the-job pressure than cops do, and THEY’RE held liable for their mistakes and misdeeds; I’ve never heard a doctor claim that a jury “just didn’t know what it was like” to do their job.