Springboard #6

[trustfund_agent]

"People gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep they don't care. They just don't care." - Martin, High NoonI've seen High Noon, actually. Great movie. But that's not really the point of this

Comments

[sergeant_cassel]

I think this is also a side effect from the fact that the police department is one of the easiest professions to get into these days.

Sad, ego-puncturing, and true, though I like to think that I'm old enough that I missed that E-ticket.

[trustfund_agent]

I have a lot of local friends who complain about how most of the public they're assigned to serve and protect think they're the dumbest people on the planet. It's not fun for them, or the rest of us for that matter.

[sergeant_cassel]

The sad thing is that it's not exactly unwarranted. The LAPD in particular has that reputation. There was another department who beat up one of their own undercover officers. They've lowered the standards a lot in an attempt to take quantity over quality, but that's where administration comes into play.

[trustfund_agent]

They may not be the brightest profilers and psychologists in the world, but I've worked with some guys from LAPD. They're hearts are in the right places, and that's what matters for me.

[detmeganwheeler]

I would disagree that the P.D. is "easy" to get into -- more than entering the academy, you have to graduate from it, for one thing. In addition, there are psych tests and medical evals. I also wonder where you get your generalizations from -- the "people" who you refer to who all think cops are "too stupid to do anything else", for instance. I mean, take the NYPD -- the most recent polls show that the general NYC public is pretty highly satisfied with the NYPD. So satisfied in fact that Commissioner Kelly is seen as a possibility to replace Bloomberg as mayor when his term is up.

In my experience as a cop, from foot patrol to the Major Case squad -- blaming the cops for what went wrong -- while perhaps an easy first reaction, doesn't turn out to be the norm for most people, in the long-term.

OOC: Yee. Wheeler got mad...way madder than I thought she would. Sorries.

[trustfund_agent]

Look, I said entering. I didn't say anything about sticking around. My point was that you don't need to be a rocket scientist to be a cop -- there are plenty of people out there of sound mind and decent health. It's really not that hard to find.

Also -- I haven't done a lot of work in New York, and I'm from there -- I will give you that New York loves their cops more than most. But a lot of the time when I've been working in LA and DC -- they aren't so fond of the boys and girls in blue. Especially in the more ethnically centric areas. And they do a lot of cop blaming -- so maybe that's just my personal experience, and personal experiences with friends coming through.

[It's okay. Angie's used to it, actually -- which is kinda sad.]