This should be good.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026813013Puzzledtraveller (5,197 posts)
Would you become a cop?
I was one briefly in 2006. I spent six years as a corrections officer before being hired on LMPD. I was there about a year before a combination of personal issues and burnout saw me resigning and choosing a different career path. I used to think about going back to it, not long after my departure. Thinking about it today and my answer is hell no. What was I thinking then, what was I trying to prove. I am thankfully over it.
Sounds like you became a cop for all teh wrong reasons:
"what was I trying to prove"
Prove to who? Yourself? or did you just get off wearing the uniform and carrying a gun?
randys1 (6,827 posts)
1. With my attitude I wouldnt be hired. Too peaceful, too liberal. Relative tried to get hired after graduating the POST or whatever it is called. He never made it because in the personal interviews he was too polite, nice, and thought everybody deserved rights and that his job was to respect them. Couldnt get hired to save his life
Big Gay Randy just too nice to be a cop.
Exilednight (7,178 posts)
2. No. At least I would not until there is a cultural change in Government and just as much emphasis is placed on the "serve" part of "protect and serve". I feel as if most cops want to play Rambo and have dreams of grandeur to be the "guy who saves the day" and act out their die hard or Dirty Harry fetish.
Puzzledtraveller (5,197 posts)
8. I was motivated a lot by also wanting the approval of my father. He was military, so I did ROTC, went into the Air Force as a fire fighter. When I got out it was the same thing, always needing to put on a uniform in order to feel like I was doing right. I think years of that broke me down. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Yeah.... you were a cop for the wrong reasons.
TexasProgresive (6,281 posts)
17. My Dad (RIP) wasn't a cop but he served in the U.S. Army in WW II and Vietnam era. He skipped Korea. I was about the age as you when he strongly suggested that I never voluntarily join the Army- like he wouldn't speak to me again. I don't think he would've done that, but I didn't want to test it either.
Puzzledtraveller (5,197 posts)
23. Thank you for sharing that.
I was told by fellow corrections officers that I would never be hired, and if so I would never pass the academy. It was the culture in the corrections department, which was the jail for the city and is run by sworn officers just like the police that you had to be strong, assertive and imposing to get hired. I passed all the requirements, which is very in depth, physical fitness, psych tests, polygraph, interview by the chief and got hired on the first try. I think that's all I wanted to do, was prove them wrong. These were the types you did not want to have as police officers so they settled for the thing that was closest that they could get and that was the jail. In the academy it became evident that some of those types made it through and I knew I would routinely be at odds with them when working the same beat. I knew they would talk about me, not being aggressive, wanting to talk to long, and take to long to try and resolve problems without having to use force. The detectives were more like me, and had I stayed on I too would have wanted to become one.
a real touchy feely sort of guy. That's fine. The alst thing you want is to use force. However- there will be that time when you must and you need to be willing to overwelmingly take down the suspect. To do otherwise endangers yourself and other police- not to mention the suspect.
gollygee (17,583 posts)
7. No because I don't want to work with a bunch of racist jerks
and that seems to be a large part of who I'd be working with.
(I know - not all. I actually have two friends who are police officers.)
moondust (10,037 posts)
14. Not in the U.S. Or anyplace else with an out-of-control gun culture and millions of paranoid, unstable, aggressive gun owners. Glad you made it out.
too much stupid.
Blue_In_AK (43,188 posts)
15. No, I would not like to be a cop.
I was a correctional officer for a year, but found I was too empathetic for even that. Busting people is not my cup of tea.
That said, being a detective might be kind of fun.
jmowreader (30,277 posts)
18. I would be a terrible patrol officer but I'd take a job as an investigator
That's a liberal in a nutshell. Not wanting to do the hard work but wanting to do the 'cool' sounding job.
socialist_n_TN (10,685 posts)
24. No..........
Cops under capitalism have a specific function which is to protect "private property" and support the status quo by any means necessary. Their function is basically oppression and even if you go into the job with the best of motives, i.e., to help and protect people, these motives quickly become subsumed to the primary function of the job.
I couldn't do it.
Protect Private Property and Suppor the Status Quo, otherwise known as the citizens.
Yeah... I can see why a socialist wouldn't like that.
muntrv (9,623 posts)
27. No. Given the bigoted mentality of some police officers, I couldn't work with them.
Police work daily with the worst of society and see the worst day in and day out. Is it any wonder why we become jaded to humanity when all you see is them treating each other and themselves like shit?
But wait! Teh NADIN SPEAKS!!!!
nadinbrzezinski (138,108 posts)
30. I knew that at one point I actually considered it as a medic, it was fascinating to me the other side.
Of course, after a few times getting assaulted as a medic (in a country where assaults on EMS are treated as assaults on law enforcement) I decided that nope. no thank you.
These days I think though that law enforcement does need people from the full spectrum of society. I think the problems can be fixed, as long as police, and it has to be police, realizes there is a problem with internal culture.
I get it, the part of being a brotherhood and sisterhood, and watching for each other. In EMS those bonds are there too. But police needs to have a full review of the culture and the thin blue line.
I think it can be done, but it will be far from easy. I know, since I helped change the culture of at least one group of EMS, and I know the resistance to change is huge... especially in organizations such as police. she knows this shit. She wishes she didn't but she does!
The report on policing in the 21st century has a line in there about policy statements being eaten for breakfast by tradition, and that is the first step. Recognizing that cops will need to change, and leave behind a warrior culture and adopt a public servant one.
Idiot.
madville (2,671 posts)
32. Absolutely not
It's a toxic profession, the friends I have doing it now are trying to transfer to other positions or agencies where they don't deal as directly or as dangerously with the general public. One so far has gotten on with the Department of Agriculture as an enforcement agent and the other is now a Fish & Wildlife Officer.
They say it has gotten to where they don't trust their coworkers, their management or the citizens. The stress becomes overwhelming and all they can do is go into self preservation mode.
The point being they can't do their jobs because of all the PC bullshit.
