Are the police our friends?

I work in a non traditional type of LE, I work as in a Park system where our rangers are sworn State Law Enforcement officers. I am at the district level so not in the field daily but in the past worked in Nat. Resources enforcement. There every time you go out dealing with a hunter they have a live weapon, so puts it all into perspective. LE are there to serve and protect and while a few bad apples are there, some people paint the whole profession based on those bad apples. To reiterate how dangerous it can be in any LE field here is an article just up an yahoo

http://news.yahoo.com/gunman-loose-national-park-fatal-shooting-000200462.html

A Park ranger with NPS gave their life in the line of duty today trying to stop somebody in a National Park with a high powered rifle out to do harm. They paid the ultimate price by using their vehicle to stop this person from running and ended up being shot. This lady was not only a Park ranger and an office, bu a wife and a mother of two. She died doing her job protecting the public. My heart goes out to her family and colleagues. As of now Mt Rainer Net. Park is closed while they look for the gunman, who ran off into the wood. Lets hope they are found soon.

MYFBWY
RM

The challenge we have is knowing the motive of another person. Motive to know what they have just done (criminal wise) and what they plan to do. Motive to know if they are going to kill us. As Jedi, we should always be aware of our surroundings, like when we get an uneasy feeling about a certain place or a person. If you are out on the streets you must possess and use this skill . Criminal activity deserves to be looked upon and treated as criminal activity.

A criminal is NOT going to have the same respect for you and therefore they need to be treated accordingly. It will get you killed if you let your guard down. I have learned that even the career criminal, when given a certain amount of respect; will give it back. I try to treat other as I want to be treated (Golden rule) but most of the times criminals are not interested in that. Giving respect to everyone will get you a long way, even if you are going to arrest someone for committing a crime.

About a million contacts are made by police every day, most of those contacts involve a great amount of respect and excellent customer service. I am aware of those contacts that do not have the element of respect, and those incidents are the exceptions to the rule.

It all depends on the situation or the officer involved. Except when its the RCMP...damn mounties.

Yes, you are right. If I were on a horse too I would be really edgy! LOL

As one of those minorities mentioned in the initial article my perspective is a bit different. I will readily agree that there are plenty of officers out there who go to work every day with the best intentions and sincerely wish to protect and serve. At the same time there was a period of time, years ago, when my ID said male while I had already been out publicly as trans and was no longer following, what was for me, the pretense of manhood. If I interacted with police in a capacity where ID was not requested I was treated with the same respect I showed them and everything was fine. However, if my ID came into play (my husband drives 90% of the time for a reason), the entire situation changed. It didn't matter who the officer was. I was treated with hostility and often times open anger. I was asked to step out of the car and frisked on multiple occasions. These are for things like forgetting a blinker or being 8 mph over the speed limit. One officer threatened to take me in for false identification.

In contrast, since my ID has been corrected, I haven't once been asked to get out of the car for these things. I don't know what it is about being trans that makes me a threat somehow. So, I suppose I'm kind of agreeing with the article. I'm open about being trans but mum's the word around police officers for me. There's too much aggression and, if you look in the news, outright violence against us by police with little to no provocation.

In case you didn't know, they found the guy who shot the Park Ranger...

http://news.opb.org//article/mount_rainier_manhunt_ends_with_gunmans_death_from_exposure/

People even get angry at law enforcement when they know they were doing the wrong thing. Its like they think its somehow ok to vent your frustration against them, for being caught!! Which doesnt help the fact they also have to deal with the real crazies out there. I hope they get some love at home because they probably dont get much from their 'clients'.

Police are Humans, they have good, and bad days, the are different as we are, there are some filters, like in other places, and sometimes, some bad shit bypass the filter

if you are not doing anything wrong, most commonly you don't have problems...

Friend?, a big word to be used so fast, no, they are there for you, maybe

If I'm walking at night ( I'll do it time to time) and the street is dark, I feel better if I saw a police car, not better, safer...

I don't know, I can not say friends, it's a service, and I take the good part, if no try to think, what this can be without cops....




MTFBWY

'Girly, you did it again.' Kendalina growled.

"...What?" Jack asked, attempting to sound innocent. Note that attempt means she failed.

'You weren't clear in favor of not offending anyone.' Kendalina snatched the microphone away, 'I'll spell it out and if anyone gets mad, you can blame me.'

Jack wanted to point out that this was about equivalent to blaming it on her imaginary friend (and Mister Vodka, but that was another story) except Kendalina obviously didn't care.

'Right -- Attention, all good members of the Jedi Temple! With all due respect to any police or armed forces members poking around, the dilemma at stake is thus: What stance do you take, as Jedi, when law enforcement are called in to enforce laws that are NOT moral or of justifiable origin? Examples include driving-while-black laws -- yes, Virginia, they still exist -- the cases of police using pepper spray on non-violent protestors during the Occupy protests, or in other cases that we find in history when police forces were used as silencing tactics, such as the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1963 or the suffragists of 1917.'

"Kendalina... I don't think that's fair..."

'Discussion time! Go!'

Sapadu wrote: 'Girly, you did it again.' Kendalina growled.

"...What?" Jack asked, attempting to sound innocent. Note that attempt means she failed.

'You weren't clear in favor of not offending anyone.' Kendalina snatched the microphone away, 'I'll spell it out and if anyone gets mad, you can blame me.'

Jack wanted to point out that this was about equivalent to blaming it on her imaginary friend (and Mister Vodka, but that was another story) except Kendalina obviously didn't care.

'Right -- Attention, all good members of the Jedi Temple! With all due respect to any police or armed forces members poking around, the dilemma at stake is thus: What stance do you take, as Jedi, when law enforcement are called in to enforce laws that are NOT moral or of justifiable origin? Examples include driving-while-black laws -- yes, Virginia, they still exist -- the cases of police using pepper spray on non-violent protestors during the Occupy protests, or in other cases that we find in history when police forces were used as silencing tactics, such as the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1963 or the suffragists of 1917.'

"Kendalina... I don't think that's fair..."

'Discussion time! Go!'

I saw the pepper spraying too, pissed me right the heck off. Your awsome by the way, I love it when people follow the occupy movement.