04-28-2021, 11:57 AM
sekker wrote:
[quote=Lemon Drop]
Policing is less dangerous as a job than many other types of work that pay far less.
This needs to be said over and over and over again. I have family that are successful police officers, after working security in the military. I support those that are good police officers, but I also find the comparison to military time absurd.
In nearly all municipalities in this country, the proper role for these successful professionals is that they are peace officers. The idea that they are 'occupational forces' to maintain some sort of unpopular laws is absurd.
We had a 23 year veteran of our police force 'retire' in my community because he did not get the Chief of Police job that recently came up. He is 45 years old. We are now stuck paying his pension for up to 50 more years, all because he had a hissy fit over being passed over for a promotion. Our city has a violent crime rate that is 1/2 the national average. Sorry, we have health care workers who took far more risks with their lives doing their jobs than the police in town, especially when you factor in COVID.
The argument I heard for supporting the 20 year retirement option was that 'policing is like serving in the military'. NO. 1000x NO.
Yes, we have too many soldier wannabes in our police forces, and too many Iraq and Afghanistan vets who didn't make the transition well. Not to mention way too much militarization of equipment and process.
You can draw a straight line from sept. 11 to our current set of problems, greatly exacerbated by Trump. The racism has always been there, the methods and what is tolerated, no.