02-03-2022, 01:14 PM
(02-03-2022, 08:05 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: I have my problems with our current systems, but I have never been one to say the job isn't a dangerous one. I know you know this, but I just have to reiterate it. I also have to point out that anyone that would say that and then look at this incident would have to reexamine their position.
You need look no further then one of the posters in this thread. Compared law enforcement to "actual dangerous" jobs like logging.
Quote:Bridgewater is a town of about 6000. Not tiny, but certainly not the 50,000 of my city. Side note, we have a town down the road with a population of 15. Anyway, Bridgewater has a small Christian college from a peace church, a retirement home and community that is also connected to the peace church, and homes that belong to the people that work at these places as well as some other families here and there. It's a quiet community. The college, one of 1500 students, is not somewhere a retired town police chief would be expecting to face this situation, let alone be killed.
I say this because I have said before in conversations where we were on the same side that you never know how situations will play out. Traffic stops can be killers. And even a college cop gig in a small, religious, farming community can be, too.
This is what is constantly, and consistently ignored by anti-law enforcement types. Literally every situation you find yourself in while executing your job function has the potential to turn violent, even deadly. It's always that one time you let your guard down that something pops off, so you quickly learn to never let your guard down. This puts an enormous strain on your psyche, and is also why almost all of us have high blood pressure to some degree, despite being physically fit. It's constant stress and the events of the last few years, and the constant public castigation amps that up exponentially. Additionally, any job satisfaction you once had had been utterly destroyed. I can't tell you how many cases we get involve the same cast of criminals, committing crime after crime and not being charged or being undercharged. You can literally arrest someone for burglary and have them walk before you finish your paperwork.
Even better, now that all these new laws, and pro-crime DA's are causing everything to go to shit law enforcement gets blamed again because we're "refusing to do our jobs." It's literally a catch 22, do your job and risk being raked over the coals, at best, if things go badly, or be more careful how you do your job and get blamed for being scared or outright refusing to work. I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "That's what you signed up for, deal with it" or some variation of that. Hell, one of the posters in this thread has made this "point." But guess what, this isn't what anyone signed up for, at all.
