Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Idaho rancher killed by deputies over a wounded bull.

I vote for the people who hire them. I entrust the authority to others. I also pay for them through my taxes. I participate in every election.

I also should add that I voted with my feet when I lived in a place that had bad police and the community preferred to have bad police than to pay to hire good ones.

"There before the grace of God go I".

Citizens shouldn't have to uproot their family, change schools and leave old friends just to get away from bullying and harassment by douche bags in uniform. Citizens aren't involved in the hiring of cops nor are citizens asked to be involved. When citizen groups form, out of necessity because of rampant abuse, to oversee various aspects of law enforcement it's always met with strict defiance and obfuscation by the police and their union. Ignoring or running from the problem isn't a solution, in fact I'd posit that it encourages other departments to do what they want since any oversight comes from within. That's why our quality of cops has gone down significantly in the last 2 decades. What's interesting is how divided the campfire is right down the middle. Cops almost without exception excuse or diminish bad or illegal activity done by the police while everyone else is appalled at the same crime. The killing of a man that was not a suspect or even participant until his help was requested and the initial comments by the campfire cop crowd are illustrative of the divide and symptomatic of the problem nationwide.

Cheyenne,

Just like me, so the answer is "No".

I call that a resounding "yes."

Police are a reflection of the community. They are what the majority of the community wants. It doesn't come to light until something bad happens. Did the sheriff of this Idaho county pass over a Harvard law grad applicant to hire a poacher or did he pick the least worst alternative to having a slot go vacant? Most people in the community want the cheapest services they can get for the same reason they shop at Walmart instead of paying more at a mom and pop store. Nobody cares until something bad happens or the wrench they bought at Walmart breaks.

Uh...no. Police are a reflection of the government. The same tyrranical and corrupt government that everyone here b!tches about. Police are it's 'enforcers'. As pointed out here before, there are very damn few situations that are made 'better' as a result of the police entering into them.

Good comments Ace.

You need to ask the State and Federal Government that question.

Not just cops either...after 911, the NYC Departments had some real internal issues when the surviving cops reported ATM's hacked apart by fire personnel.

While I can see a better argument at the national level, it falls apart at the lowest rung of government, i.e., the local/county level, even more so in places with tiny populations. The government at the local level is totally the fault of the locals, because it is elected by a majority of the people who bother to show up to vote and is intended to affect only the geographical location of the voters. A person on the wrong end of that has a choice to either accept it, try to change it by getting involved, or find an alternative location. Griping about it is a waste of time and brain cells although some people may find comfort in it.

Cheyenne, I agree that in theory cops are a reflection of society but in reality they are not. They individually exist in society but are separate in the collective sense. They have privileges not extended to all and there is an unwritten code that suspects the cop only when every other explanation, no matter how outlandish, is exhausted. Even in the face of almost insurmountable evidence the cop is presumed innocent. If anyone of us had DV accusations or threatened bloodshed or had several pounds of high explosives illegally in our possession we'd be locked up long ago but when the perp is a cop every excuse and fabricated possibility is used to prevent his arrest. This case is a classic example. Not only has the POS cop not been arrested for what he's done and continues to do, the reporter that made the alert public was arrested!!! And the cops wonder why the public doesn't trust them.....crooked, corrupt bastards!!!

Most cops run with other cops. They often have very few close friends that aren't cops and I know many cops that said they had no non-cop friends. The cops choose to sequester themselves and by doing so remove themselves from normal society and no longer reflect society, rather they are a reflection of "the cop culture". Looking at the pictures and social media of those 2 douche bags show they fancied themselves the very personification of a cop. The cop culture fosters and fuels the us against the world attitude and they do themselves a disservice by doing so.imho

Perhaps you should qualify that statement with "around here" or "the schitty department I used to work for". Otherwise , it's incorrect on its face.

How so George? Are you suggesting that citizen input is a common practice in all cop hirings?

Not most that I know.....

It's impossible to continue an "us vs them" without both sides assuming said stance FWIW. I see plenty right "here", much less in the "real world ".

Cops do have privilege. With it comes responsibility. Didn't you say you tried it for a little while?

There is no 'all' cop hiring. Methods of hiring are variable between bordering Towns, let alone Counties or States. That's always been my point.

I'll use my Department's last promotional process as an example, though. Not a single "cop" on it. Three community members on the panel.......one was a retired cop, though, if that matters.

Your citizens are part of the hiring process? If so that's great but it's so far from the norm it's not even funny. I've been googling it and I found 1 department so far that has any citizen input. Most departments of any size eschew citizen input.

lol

Unless you're 'dead' because you were murdered by one of these 'local' cops...!