Thoughts on Cops, III

Note: As before, this is in response to a response to a comment which inspired the original Thoughts on Cops. This post was slightly edited to remove identifying features, since I know the person who I am responding to.

My comments were not meant to denigrate officer safety, but to put it in context. In my (peacetime, pogue duty) time in the Marine Corps, mission accomplishment was priority one, and troop welfare (and, indeed, survival) was a secondary consideration.

We delegate substantial authority (and responsibility) to sworn law officers. We have, I think, on the whole gotten a pretty dang good bunch of sheepdogs. As I said, however, I don't like the trend lines.

I am no more opposed to officer safety than I was opposed to troop welfare during my (peacetime, pogue duty) time in the Corps. As I wanted then for me and mine, in terms of the best gear and the best training and the best tactics, I want, now, the best gear and the best training and the best tactics for sworn law officers.

Like you I oppose the "militarization of Hooterville PD." I'd much rather see Mayberry's PD, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't give Sheriff Andy a high cap Beretta and bullet proof vest.

My concern is simply that, in giving away our self-responsibility, we need guardians of the highest moral caliber. As a society, we submit to law enforcement. If a cop says "Stop," we stop. There have been times and places where the police didn't always use this authority properly. I'm not some America hating lefty, but I think it's our job to keep a jealous eye on anyone with authority over us.

I'll also point out that my post wasn't an attack on [the original poster] at all, or certainly I didn't regard it that way. I was going off on a tangent from Peel's seventh point. I'm afraid that today, that sense of unity is just . . . gone. Cops seems surprised when I wave at them. I hate that.

Maybe walking a beat simply isn't practical any more; but riding around in a car you're apart from the world around you, muffled in several tons of air conditioning and radio. Maybe Community Oriented Policing is really just a liberal scam, but the idea resonates with me.

As criminal offences multiply, as every department and every agency in every municipality gets "free government money" in the form of hand-me-down DOD ordnance, as unchecked illegal immigration fractures social cohesion and the economy goes in the tank under an orgy of spending and dollar devaluation, I wonder if it really can happen here.