I agree that you can not paint the picture with a wide brush and say that all cops are bad. But the problem is when a cop is bad, people may die or get seriously injured. If I am a bad teacher, a student doesn't learn grammar well. If the cop that pulls me over for a speeding violation is a bad cop, maybe I get night clubbed to death! Big difference, Wolf. And I think that it is this that gets people upset about bad cops.

However, I think a bigger problem is that generally the people that seem to be interested in becoming cops are on power trips. The job attracts these types of people, and these types of people are more likely to be corrupt or violent. I think to change the cops, we have to change the job. Power must be taken away from the police. If power is taken away from the police, there will be fewer people that are attracted to this job simply for the chance to feed their need for power.

I have met a few cops in my day. My observation is that most of them are not desirable for this type of job.

Alando,

I don't quite get the drift of what you're saying. A bad teacher can't cause the loss of a life? What if a teacher fails to identify the needs of a student, the student drops out of school, then decides there's no way they will make it in society, so they get a gun, and rob a store, shooting a clerk in the process. That's taking a life.

A bad doctor can cost a life, a bad attorney can cause a person to end up in prison, and murdered, because they failed to do their job, and a bad driver can kill others through their negligence when driving.

The problem is, we don't hear about that kind of error in judgement, we hear and see police officers at work. The rest doesn't sell copy, so why bother.

As far as cops getting in who are on ego trips, that's not really as much of an issue as you may think. There are batteries of psychological tests, and in most areas there are lie detector tests given before a person can even be considered for the job. That's far more than we seem to be doing when it comes to hiring people to drive school buses, where we're finding there are more predators of children being found amongst them every day.

If you look at the total number of encounters every day between police officers and the public, the number of incidents that happen isn't nearly as great as the public would imagine. The problem is, the only incidents that gain print are those that make the cop look bad, because our media sells hype, nothing else.

Has anyone considered the number of lives cops save every day? Has anyone considered how many cops die in the line of duty each year in the US?

Obviously not, since I didn't hear one word about it in all the derogatory comments about them.

I'm sorry. Hypocrisy is hypocrisy, and this witch hunt against all cops is just as bad as racism is, because it's done with the intent of picking out a small segment of Americans and denigrating them for a reason that nobody seems to want to, or can explain.

Now. If people can cite specific information that statistically shows that cops aren't doing their job, instead of inuendo through isolated incidents, please post the links because all of us would be interested in reading about it.

Wolf

Taken from the New York Times today

The original poster of "Who will help us" was pondering that very question.

Should we not rephrase the question to "Who will help us, when we the U.S., shot ourselves in the foot with the war in Iraq?"

George Bush invaded Iraq on the cheap and it going to be a costly mistake.

Bill

Hey Wolf nobody said all cops are bad, I specifically am asking that good cops (and there's plenty of them!) castigate these idiots for staining the reputation of all law enforcement. The problem that occurs so often is that whenever some obvious brutal incident like in NO takes place the law enforcement community reverts back to the "thin blue line" deny, deny, deny, reactionary verbiage, instead of just simply stating the truth, that these Knuckleheads in NO should be terminated and maybe get a job somewhere else! What's the problem?

They should be arrested and thrown in jail, not terminated!

Bill

Wolf,

I assume that you are no longer a cop, correct? Why? And for how long were you a cop?

True, other professions can cause harm, but I think none quite so directly and frequently as a police officer (though maybe doctors). Your rebuttal of my example of the teacher is a bit ridiculous, because it is not direct course of action. A police officer abusing his power by beating you to death with a club is very direct, wouldn't you say?! A teacher causing you to feel bad about yourself and then YOU go out and commit a crime, is of course not the same as a police officer on a power trip that abuses his power and beats someone to death or sodimizes them.

And these stories about police brutality are not sensationalized. You see the video tapes, you see the cops beating suspects - what is sensationalized about that?! It is caught on tape, right? And just imagine how many abuses at the hands of police are occuring that are NOT caught on tape. Probably hundreds for every one you see on tape. Kind of like roaches, right?! Haha...for every one you see, you can bet there are hundreds you don't see!

Regarding the battery of psychological tests - well, they ain't working! Haha, obviously! Because they are not weeding out the bad cops.

Alando,

You said;

Thank you for your summation. Roaches...

This discussion has ended. Your opinions mean absolutely nothing. You're a hypocrite.

Wolf

There we go again with the name calling...

Can't people just acts like adults?

There are other ways of getting your point across without belittling others; as far as I'm concerned this is an open forum and there are no right or wrong answers; only opinions.

Remember to step into someone else's shues before you start to judge them...

Wolf you seem awful thin-skinned for an ex-cop but I will take your non-answers to my questions to mean you realize when you have lost a debate. Haha... :p

I didn't think I'd oppose Bill from NY, but I believe I do on this point. If you see someone in trouble and you are in a position to help out surely you do so without needing an ulterior motive. For example countries from all over the world are helping Pakistan after their devsatating earthquake. They are doing this in no great expectation that Pakistan will ever return the favour (they may do in certain cases such as India or Afghanistan) but because there is a humanitarian need. I'm equally sure that people are not donating help because or despite of Pakistan's nuclear policy or Kashmir policy etc.
Equally the countries that did help after the Katrina hurricane probably did not take into account America's foreign policy in the Middle East (Spain helped - as described by Fernando - and Spain's govt is totally opposed to the US policy in the ME). There may be an element of mutual insurance (if we help in international disasters maybe others will help us if we suffer a calamity) but end of the day it's surely about charity? Or maybe I'm just too naive?