After reading thru this thread, I'm a little flabbergasted to say the least....don't understand all of this hostility toward ANY LEO... especially most of the guys we have here on the campfire...
Well at least they have my respect, and not my condemnation..
I don't like to get pulled over any more than the next guy....
so I have a real novel approach to that solution... I do the darn speed limit...hated it at first, but got use to it after a while..
but I get out on the highway and set the cruise on 5 mph below the speed limit, and pretty much watch the world go by me...yet don't feel I get where I am going any slower.. and it sure is nice not having to worry about being on the look out for a cop cruiser...
and I'll say that about 80% of the time I have ever been pulled over in my life, I got away with a warning... and I admit to having a silver tongued 'secret weapon'.....I show the officer respect, consideration and obedience...yes sir, no sir...
The main problem isn't the LEOs, its the public and their attitudes... its now the ME generations...it wasn't the cops fault you got pulled over... or the cops fault, he had to stop and speak with you...
I assisted an Oregon State Trooper once on top of Mt Ashland, the highest point on I 5 on the west coast.. there was a 20 vehicle pile up, on an ice covered 200 yds of road, due to wind blowing snow across the freeway.... one trooper made it up....
before he got there, I ran over to a trucker and had him use his CB to get other truckers to block the highway, so no more vehicles were coming down...when the trooper got there, I told him I was a military trained Paramedic, and had just moved from MN, so I was equipped to be out in the cold... Californians were up there in flip flops shorts and t shirts, in the middle of winter, and out side their wreaked cars....
I assisted him and helped him contain the situation and provided first aid to those that needed it...
Then I wrote a letter to the Oregon State Police HQ, and let them know what a professional the Trooper was, and how he avoided the problem getting any worse...
What shocked me was the response from that letter... the first line of it was "thank you, we don't hardly ever see a letter like this...."
The public can certainly call or write to bitch, but not many feel inclined to praise the professionalism of LEOs....
yeah like everything, there is a certain percentage of officers that are AHoles.... but ya know, on the flip side of the coin, I think there is even a greater percentage of the general public that are AHoles...and the LEO have to deal with them and still maintain a professional demeanor...
I couldn't be an LEO, but I certainly respect the ones that have to put on the uniform daily and go out and do an unthankful job,, protecting an ungrateful public...
As long as both sides use the it's them, not me, then status quo will remain the rule. I do understand that status quo is what many actually want in the first place.
