I've reached the top, I think.

[Bret4207]

I don't attend our Cristmas parties at work as I don't have anymore use for sloppy, drunken cops than I do sloppy, druken citizens. So I missed the show a couple weeks ago. But I have heard that the kids now describe me as "A mean old man". I'm not sure if I should celibrate or be unhappy. I can remember thinking the same thing about the old guys when I first came on. I think a celibratory new peice of reloading gear or mould is appropriate.

[9.3X62AL]

Same sitch here, Bret. At the time I left, there were kids in the detective bureau that were in diapers when I started my career. I bent over backwards to try to help them out along the way, remembering what arrogant jerks some (not all) of the old codgers were when I was a new kid. Some of those new kids were pretty damn sharp, too.

Lord knows most of the sergeants won't help them out--the 3-stripers are too busy trying to find or make up disciplinary issues for the good ones. How supervisors can provide disincentives for productive people while ignoring the laziness and incompetence of lame-asses always amazed me.

[versifier]

"...ignoring the laziness and incompetence of lame-asses always amazed me."
Not to insult the majority of honest, dedicated, and underpaid LEO's, (my nephew is one, and a decorated vet to boot) but cops are human beings like anyone else, and it is my experience that in the real world, when egregious practices and behaviors are consistantly overlooked, it's usually because some money is changing hands. I grew up in Boston and have been around the block a few times. Now I live in a small town where there are several crack houses that have been operating openly for more than five years. Everyone in town knows about them and who the dealers are. The guys on the local & state PDs are all polite, clean cut looking boys, but it doesn't take a bloodhound to smell a rat. There has to be a reason why they're being allowed to continue in operation. My contact in Concord informs me that there is no ongoing investigation and advises me that asking too many questions could be decidedly unhealthy for me and my family. Hmmmm. I was born at night - but it wasn't last night!
I'd like to believe problems like this aren't endemic and that now that you've reached the top, maybe in your necks of the woods things are a little better.
Happy Holidays.

[KCSO]

Out here in the country our Christams party is a prime rib feed that I throw for the whole department and spouses. No alcohol and everyone has a good time and the prisoners get the leftovers. As to being old, I felt that when a rookie told me that my gun was older than he was!

[Bret4207]

"...ignoring the laziness and incompetence of lame-asses always amazed me."
Not to insult the majority of honest, dedicated, and underpaid LEO's, (my nephew is one, and a decorated vet to boot) but cops are human beings like anyone else, and it is my experience that in the real world, when egregious practices and behaviors are consistantly overlooked, it's usually because some money is changing hands. I grew up in Boston and have been around the block a few times. Now I live in a small town where there are several crack houses that have been operating openly for more than five years. Everyone in town knows about them and who the dealers are. The guys on the local & state PDs are all polite, clean cut looking boys, but it doesn't take a bloodhound to smell a rat. There has to be a reason why they're being allowed to continue in operation. My contact in Concord informs me that there is no ongoing investigation and advises me that asking too many questions could be decidedly unhealthy for me and my family. Hmmmm. I was born at night - but it wasn't last night!
I'd like to believe problems like this aren't endemic and that now that you've reached the top, maybe in your necks of the woods things are a little better.
Happy Holidays.


I was going to reply to this post, but it takes 2 fools to argue. 1 is enough.

[45 2.1]

I was going to reply to this post, but it takes 2 fools to argue. 1 is enough.

Tpr. Bret-
Whether you realize it or not, this type of thing goes on in alot of areas. The local police where I live have the same reputation as what versifier is talking about. Not everything is the same as where you live, not by a long shot.

[Bret4207]

Al- I found that after leaving the "road" to specialize in CMV's I lost a certain amount of, I don't know, status I guess with the young guys. They don't see me shagging complaints so I'm not really a cop to them. I also found that I didn't want to get invloved with the young kids anymore. They only stay here 6 or 9 months and then they leave for Buffalo or down state where they're from. The last 2 I really took to was 3 or 4 years ago and it darn near broke my heart when they left. They were like my kids and I'll probably never see them again. I also found I had no patience with the newbies. Most have never done anything other than go to college and maybe hold a part-time job. Not many are prior service at all, much less USMC, so they don't understand senority or rank stucture to say nothing of military courtesy or discipline. Boy, they've seen every episode of Cops though! And gear! Holy jeeze, they got night vision gogles, extra body armor, super bright flashlights, Asp type batons (we aren't issued them yet), 4 or 5 pair of handcuffs, gear bags, etc, etc. It looks like a Galls showroom in the locker room at shift change. It's beyond me where they get the $$ to spend on this crap, but boy, spend it they do. I bought a Mag Lite 18 years ago and thats about it. They sure love that gear.

As for helping them out I try when I can. As I said, I'm not working with them so I'm not up on the latest fad in law enforcement the young un's are into. I tend to be a bit too blunt for them too. I think they expect to be treated with kid gloves. So if you call a spade a spade they don't take it well. Our Sgts are mostly pretty good, but ther is no "command presence" or "leadership skills" taught to the Sgts. Some have it, some don't. They idea of leading by example is not practiced. Too bad.

I guess I fall into the "cranky old codger" catagory.

[Bret4207]

45 2.1- I know there's problems out there. I also know there's a lot of difference between knowing whats going on and whos doing what and having enough of a case to make an arrest and shut them down. We've got local dealers we've been trying to get for over 10 years. They're smart, have good lawyers and know how to cover ther ir tracks. Unfourtunately the same laws that protect the rest of us from illegal searches, etc work for them too. And you really don't want to make a bad arrest on a big dealer. It just makes things worse and emboldens them. You try to make a good case and cross the tee's and dot the eye's and hope the DA doesn't screw it up or some Judge throw everything out on a very minor technicality. It happens to the best cases out there. As for crooked cops, yup, I know they exist. I'm just not going to argue the whole thing. I hate them with a passion. I also know baiting when I see it. There's also the matter of folks thinking everything is just like a TV show and it can all be handled in 1/2 hour. Try cop work for a few years and you'll see why it wears you out. My county Judge and the new DA have both publicly stated drugs are not a problem here. The Judge also said a cop has to expect to get beat up every now and then. He's already thrown out several big seizures of drugs and the new DA thinks education is the answer to the non-existant problem. After a few years of fighting them and the druggies and the press that crucifies you over everything you just stop caring. If you win you win, if you lose you lose. You try not to get run over in the road or shot or to mess things up too bad and just try to make it home everyday. You wait for the chance to catch the bad guy during one of his stupid moments and hope it all works out for the best. I'm not saying pity us, I'm saying it's a lot more complex than just kicking in the door and shutting the bad guy down. Those days are long gone. You figure out how to fix it and I'll back you 100%.

KCSO- You got cops to go to an event with no booze? I guess the icicles are forming in hell this very moment!

[45nut]

I don't attend our Cristmas parties at work as I don't have anymore use for sloppy, drunken cops than I do sloppy, druken citizens. So I missed the show a couple weeks ago. But I have heard that the kids now describe me as "A mean old man". I'm not sure if I should celibrate or be unhappy. I can remember thinking the same thing about the old guys when I first came on. I think a celibratory new peice of reloading gear or mould is appropriate.
I would be honored to meet up with you someday.
As for the "mean old man" moniker,,well so be it. It's earned. Honorably.
I have little respect for the do-nothings,make issues out of thin air corporate nit-wits that wander round looking for a reason to find flaws in how I get my job done.
My co-workers may not find me too "happy" either,but damn it I get what done that needs getting done. Thinking three steps ahead seems to put me in a un-welcome group and I am OK with it. Call me a grumpy old bastid anytime,but don't call me lazy or expect me to work harder to cover the slackers of the world.
mini-rant over.

[Bret4207]

Hey, If I could think 3 steps ahead I'd be runnin' the place!

[45 2.1]

45 2.1- You figure out how to fix it and I'll back you 100%.

Bret-
I wasn't baiting you, this is one of the times the written word is insufficient in expressing just what was meant. While you are a police officer, I have quite a few friends that are/were police officers in lower and higher places than you've been, including the Federal system. There stories are amazing. As far as knowing how to fix the problem, that has been known about forever. Enough people have to want to fix the problem, then have the fortitude to do it. If you can show me those people, I would be very thankfull. Unfortunately, I think this nation has declined to a point that the "people" want safety, which they can't get, at any price including their free thought and liberty. Good Luck finding those folks.

[45nut]

Yeah,,,but ,,,I am way to grumpy ,not "pretty" enough to be respected in this corporate world,and don't want to be the one saying "yessir" to every nin-compoop that walks calls or crawls through the door. Respect is not given freely by me anymore,and it is lost only through repeated actions that infer that I am nothing more than a warm body to use up. I better shut up now...

[Bret4207]

45 2.1- I wasn't refering to you baiting me. I know what you mean about apathy. Folks are too far removed from the issue and it becomes someone elses problem and if it isn't fixed 2 minutes ago the system has failed so they give up and complain about it. I really thought after 9/11 everything would change and people would start giving a crap about the way things are going. Jumptrap and I had quite a rumble over the whole thing on the old Shooters board. He was right. He said in 6 months everything would be back to dog eat dog/wheres mines?/take,take,take and he was right. People don't care until something affects them first hand and then they want someone else to solve the problem for them as a general rule. The "press" tells them what to think and the marketers tell them what they want and it all spirals down the toilet. Wow, what a bright outlook.

Truth be told I don't think the people want "safety". They just don't want to be bothered thinking about anything beyond the moment, much less preparing for the future, safe or otherwise.

[Blackwater]

Tpr. Bret, when you said, "Truth be told I don't think the people want "safety". They just don't want to be bothered thinking about anything beyond the moment, much less preparing for the future, safe or otherwise," you said a BIG mouthful!

I grew up back in a day and at a time, and among a group of people who said what they thought, meant what they said, and actually THOUGHT about things that went on. They would NOT put up with what's commonly put up with today. It was simply unthinkable, much less undoable.

People just seem, generally at least, to be addicted to whining, and as long as they can do that, they actually "think" they're really DOING SOMETHING about the "problem."

Solving a lot of problems in life ain't easy, it ain't pretty, and it ain't done by "speaking to them," giving them money, creating "programs" for them, or by just "minding my own business." SOME problems are the RESULT of public apathy, which guys like YOU come by through the PUBLIC's own initiation of same.

When I got my CJ degree, all I wanted in the whole world was to become a State Trooper. It was the closest thing I knew of to being a "cowboy." You just rode herd over cars instead of cattle. Gerogia was under court order then, though, to hire ONLY blacks until some sort of quota established by the omniscient courts and politicos was reached. I think the politicos and courts used a decibel meter to decide when the haranguing got low enough to determine when to start hiring a white guy every now and then? Probably wasn't that way, but it sure did SEEM so.

I wound up in Probation, and then Parole, and they both stunk to high heaven. Probation was only a collection agency, and if you did anything beyond that, it was out of the necessities felt from within, and NOT for any recognition or appreciation. In fact, most folks on both side of the bench found it a bit curious, but other than that, it was ignored.

One very good looking, long legged and voluptuous as well as smart gal that I knew in one of the orgs got frustrated, and told me that she was going to start "screwing her way up." I thought she was joking, but it wasn't long before she DID move up! I nver SAW anything .... well, not too much anyway, but .... draw your own conclusions. I know I have. This ain't a single instance of same, either! "State MERIT????" Yeah! Riiigggghhhhhttttt!

I finally wound up handing the head of the Parole Board, a constitutional officer of my state, a letter of resignation stating clearly why I was quitting, or at least touching the high points. He looked up at me and asked "Is any of this negotiable?" I told him no, and that furthermore, they were all SOB's and could kiss old hairy. I guess I kinda' burned that bridge, but .... it surely wasn't a GREAT loss!

You guys who CAN put up with the sheer stupidity that seems to pervade the whole legal system these days, as well as the "average citizens," surely have my respect! You sure as heck don't do what you do for the appreciation, recognition or accolades you receive! Not by a DANG sight! You do it for what's inside you, and for that, let me give you guys at least one man's personal thanks. Civilization, if what we have now can be called that, would dissipate like water vapor in the wind if it weren't for you guys. You're one of the last threads holding this nation together, IMO.

Most people, including a lot of cops, would say I'm wrong, or just flat crazy, but .... I'm not. Most people simply don't want to see what they don't want to face, so they simply don't or won't. They invent new names for the same old things, seemingly believing calling something by a different name makes it different somehow. Of course, it doesn't change what it is at all, but the sheeple don't seem to care .... yet! It'll come, though. If history, and every facet of it involving human behavior and of cause & effect, indicates anything at all, it's that there are CONSEQUENCES for inaction just as much as for action, and maybe oftentimes even GREATER consequences for irresponsibly sitting idle and letting Evil overcome Good.

A time is coming when there WILL be serious consequences for our snooty assumption that just because we're #1, it'll ALWAYS be like that. People here have never known hunger, really, except for brief durations as with those who stayed behind to face the storms recently, never really thinking what 100+ mph winds could actually DO.

"Curiouser and curiouser," as Alice said in Wonderland. Everyone seems to instinctively KNOW that date's coming, and yet .... they just keep doing the same old things, and espouse inanities as though they made good sense.

My parents' generation proved what we CAN do when we WANT to, and will simply commit ourselves to it. Yeah, it's difficult and costly, and it's ugly and dangerous .... but it WORKED, and this nation has the inestimable privilege of throwing it all away ONLY due to those folks' having paid the price to get us this far down the line, and lose it all, or most of it maybe, through our simple, wanton neglect and hubris. And it's a damnable shame, but .... well, you know.

Thanks. You guys do an awesome job, and you do it because of what's in your guts and breasts. Your rewards lie in other realms than here on earth, and God bless you for your grit.