(courtesy twitter.com)

 

Law Enforcement Today Tweeted the image above. It seems the boys in blue are feeling a bit unappreciated. Combative even. The sentiment is more than a little reminiscent of the 60’s, when police brutality against civil rights and anti-war protesters earned cops the nickname “pigs.” While I haven’t heard that epithet in years, it may make a comeback if Connecticut State Troopers enforce the Constitution State’s post-Newtown gun control pogrom. And not for nothing. Are we, the general public, supposed to be reassured by an image of five military-style cops with their faces obscured by weapons [banned from civilian use] pointed in our genera direction? The caption assumes its either the cops or a crackhead when we’re in trouble. What about self-reliance? Armed self-reliance? Is it any wonder that some of us don’t like cops, generally speaking?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

150 COMMENTS

    • Indeed. Those guys certainly don’t LOOK like cops. Or at least, not what I picture when I think of the police.

      As to the caption, I wouldn’t call a crackhead. But at least, if a crackhead kicked my door and started shooting, I would be legally allowed to shoot back (don’t live in Indiana).

    • That was my first thought.

      The only reason I have to call law enforcement is because of stupid laws. These grifters have legislated themselves into a job. They were never actually necessary.

      I could have the whole “invading crackhead” issue over, done with and cleaned up inside of 30 minutes because I own guns, a pressure washer and a backhoe and am expert in using all of the above.

        • So if the crackhead gets lucky and then figures out how to run the backhoe and hose, it never happened?

        • jwm, what is your estimate of the rate of meth, dex, and adderall abuse among LEO’s? You do know that it’s a problem, right?

          Policing went from an ordinary to an extraordinary paying job in many states and cities over a period of fifty-one years. The legalization of their unions came first, then the heavy political activism of those unions. Then came the broke states and cities. The War on Drugs didn’t help. Police unions have done zilch to correct the impression that cannabis belongs in the same drug category as heroin. They’ve done the opposite for most of the last thirty years.

          My local PD is very well run, but then they can afford it. They only hire seasoned people who have an education. And they never ever show up in fatigues. Take a two mile walk to the city line and the entire equation and culture change. Our PD does not influence township elections. It makes all the difference in the world.

        • Given the large number of unsolved murders, rapes, disappearances, etc that law enforcement seems so sanguine about, yep, that’s pretty much the way it works. Criminals don’t call 911 and many of them get away with horrible crimes time and time again, with little effort from law enforcement to deal with them.

          Hence the need for self-reliance.

          But when a generally law-abiding taxpayer shows up the “professionals”… oh, that’s when the cops get real huffy and start spouting nonsense about “needing law enforcement to preserve rights” and other such specious twaddle. Living in rural areas has taught me how much of the “need” for law enforcement has been manufactured by lawmakers and law enforcement in a self-serving feedback loop.

    • Agreed.

      Think I don’t have friends, who wouldn’t mind taking a bullet (it is a two way street though so I have to take one too if it comes to it)?

    • What about the crackheads that also happen to be cops? We’ve seen enough cop videos on YouTube with abusive, ‘roid-enhanced, belligerence to actually make me want to select the crackheads in this binary choice.

      Whatever happened to Officer Friendly in a nice police uniform, rendering service in something other than an Imperial Stormtrooper manner?

    • Personally I grew up with Officer Joe Bolton as my best buddy. I regret the current generation of LEOs haven’t been taught the values he brought to millions of kids.

    • A reality is that a fair number of LEO’s are ‘crackheads,’ meaning meth, dex, and adderall addicts. Speed, generically, is a substance abused by those seeking more wakefulness and energy at work. Germany has experienced a dramatic rise in meth abuse and it is mainly by people trying to deal with work stress.

      If LEO’s were all drug tested on a given day, you’d get quite a few positives back for speed.

      • I wonder why they need more wakefulness and energy at work all i ever see them doing is sitting in our cars doing a bunch of nothing trying to act like it is dangerous work. It must be hard work milking the tax payer for everything you can get while using the bill of right as toilet paper, for you to bully around the people you are supposed to be serving. I am so sick of the police crying the blues if they don’t like it leave we will do fine without them

  5. I’m glad the LEO’s in my area arent like that. Most of the ones here are generally good guys that hate the gun(people) control movement.

  6. That picture is the absolutely perfect illustration of why so many people don’t trust cops.

    And the cops are so tone deaf that they just don’t get it.

  7. These tax collectors for the welfare state have an exagerrated sense of their own entertainment value. Does W still have that “Mission Accomplished” banner lying around somewhere? These guys could borrow it for their War on Drugs.

  8. That photo looks like a closely grouped bunch of back-lit targets to me.

    Epic tactical fail, and lousy PR – excepting to their own chior.

  9. Self reliance? All well and good if you’re physically and mentally capable of taking care of yourself. We can argue whether or not the police are militarised. But we cannot argue that we need cops. We do. There will always be those in our society that need the help of outsiders,

    We just had an active shooter what if post. How many POTG said they would unass the place or their guns were only for their protection? No, we need cops.

    I wonder how many of those I’ll save my own ass commenters are also anti cop?

    • Half the reason I would de-ass the place is because when the cops inevitably come to clean up the mess, and they see a dude slinking through a mall with a pistol out, there is a high probability that I would get ventilated.(understandably)

      I agree, I think we need police. Lord knows they deal with many situations that i wouldnt want to.

      I also think that the twisted spider web of laws and liability we live in mean that cops are NOT ALWAYS the good guys, even if they are ‘good guys’ and even if Youve done nothing wrong.

    • I’m not the slightest bit anti-cop. Moving away from an active shooter if he has a carbine and I have a pistol, with a starting range of more than fifty feet, is just sensible. The LEO’s will close on an active shooter who has a long gun only when holding a carbine or shotgun. At classroom or small-store distances of course CCW’s would respond with fire.

      People are very tired of PD’s and their unions being reluctant to fire bad actors. And they are extremely reluctant. I know it. You know it. And if you’d put up a poster like the one above forty years ago, you’d have received comments saying you’d mistakenly put up an army photo, not one of cops.

    • I agree with you. Personal security is a service which the market demands. I just think it can and should be provided through voluntary exchange and subsequent consumer accountability as opposed to the current model of forced funding and limited oversight.

    • Life in America before we had SWAT teams busting into the wrong houses, gunning down Fido and grandpa and getting away with it was pure hell.

      How did we ever survive as a civilization? It was anarchy, I tells ya!

      Or, you know, men used to not be little pansies and took care of problems in their communities. When you give that power up to a paranoid unaccountable class of Walter Mitty bully boys bad things are gonna happen.

      • Problem with that system(every system has flaws) is it gives more chances for the Leo Franks sort of justice. I would prefer not to be lynched because a bunch of folks decided I was guilty without too much investigation or evidence.

        We’re a first world nation. We need a system. The current system has flaws but it can be fixed.

        • You act like the authorities don’t engage in that either. It seems like every day there’s a case of someone getting exonerated after years in prison for something they didn’t do.

          Or killed in jail due to mistreatment. Or beat to death outside a movie theater for the crime of trying to keep your wife from clawing out your rebellious teenage daughter’s eyes.

          Check out The Innocence Project sometime.

          And I’d argue that things today are still just as corrupt as they’ve ever been. Cops are paid off by civil asset forfeiture and politicians, judges are appointed because they’ll toe the ideological line. All the graft and greed of the old days is still going on in different forms. Ain’t nothin’ new under the sun.

    • Sure, we will always likely need a service that provides safety to those who would not provide it to themselves, but if you think our only option is the status quo, then you aren’t thinking outside of the box. One example would be to have home security be an extension of your homeowners insurance policy. They have an interest in not having your stuff stolen because they don’t want to pay out. That probably works for life insurance too, and other things. In addition, the firm you are insured with actually cares about your stuff being stolen because, once again, they would prefer not to pay out to replace your stuff. If it is stolen they would work pretty hard to find it quickly while it is still in one piece. Public cops have no real incentive to protect you or your belongings. If they get stolen or you get killed, they don’t get punished for this in terms of a pay cut or job loss etc. Also a private firm would not enforce ridiculously stupid politically motivated laws that turn the law abiding into felons.

    • I live in a rural community where our fire department is volunteer. The taxpayers pay for equipment and training. The people volunteer. I’d be perfectly happy to see law enforcement go to the same model of service. It would reduce the idiotic militarization of law enforcement agencies and it would result in better service, if the volunteer fire departments here are an indication of how well it could be run.

      • That may be a good working model for a rural, low population state. Lived like that myself for a good part of my life.

        Unfortunately I don’t see it being workable in the urban large population centers that is much of America.

      • I would not want any volunteer police department. I’ve seen some real idiots who think they’re local big shots because they are one of the volunteer fire fighters. The last thing we need are the types who get some minimal level of training and then think they are “the man” because they’re one of the volunteer law enforcement.

        • And we’re not seeing any of that right now with highly paid and lushly compensated “professional” law enforcement, are we?

  10. The day most cops stopped wearing their uniform blues pretty much was the day most people stopped looking at them as “help.” I wonder why….

    • Certainly distrust has ratcheted up in recent years – on both sides of the uniform. Add to that the varying personalities of the personnel operating within the law enforcement agencies each of which through its leadership sets its own tone and character of community interaction.

      As ropingdown states below, there’s a wide diversity of types in law enforcement that cannot all be painted with the same broad brush, just as there is a wide diversity among the citizens cops encounter every day. However, the move to heavy reliance on organized military style quick response tactical doctrine by some agencies has been more divisive than helpful, particularly when LEOs with serious negative attitudes use that doctrine to further distance themselves from the general community they are supposed to be interacting with.

  11. “Cops” is not some fungible mass to like or dislike. Every department and agency earns its own reputation. The notion that any individual should view them all alike is propaganda, whether the goals is to encourage like or dislike. Departments vary so much in employee quality, leadership, and oversight that no department should have the cost or benefit of living on another department’s reputation. The “treat them all alike” is the rhetorical device of the unions on one hand and the haters on the other.

    • It is becoming exceptionally difficult NOT to be prejudiced on this subject when it is widely known that a certain percentage of “cops” (like those in the picture above) have a distinctly confrontational and “us vs. them” attitude, especially when the average non-LEO citizen has absolutely no way of knowing in advance which sort of officer will respond in his time of need.

      Like many other ethnic and social groups, this animosity will persist until the group itself purges the bad actors from their midst. Until that time a little healthy paranoia is the only rational response in the presence of law enforcement of any stripe.

    • I should lay my cards on the table: To the extent PD’s go bad I fault the politicians, including judges, town counselors, state boards, and such. Now if the political environment is such that, as in CA, the LEO and Prison Guard unions are permitted an active role in politics via political contributions and favoritism in service, I fault the voters and politicians: Voters should pay extra attention when the system becomes corrupt.

      Police Departments are actually insulated from the political process in many if not most jurisdictions “to avoid politically partisan law enforcement.” The goal has been heavily subverted by the election financial power of the police unions. My township has a good politician-police interface, because active citizens require it. This arrangement is difficult to achieve.

  12. Retired Military Police, 15 years Federal officer, now non-LE “Program Manager” desk jockey… average 15 min in day time and 35-45 at night before we see a uni in rural VT… I don’t call for help or a backup, I got a shooter for a wife. Oh, I call just as soon as I need to, but I’m calling for clean up.

  13. End the war on drugs and most folks wouldn’t have to deal with either cops or crackheads.

    Besides, cops are more dangerous than crackheads. At least I can shoot an attacking crackhead with very little worry of his crackhead buddies hunting me down.

  14. During the dictatorship in Brazil, a popular songwriter wrote a song where a man wakes up in the middle of the night to the sounds of people kicking in the door and running up the stairs.

    The chorus is “call the burglar, call the burglar!” because it was the police coming to haul him off to some unknown prison for who knows how long, even though he was just some ordinary citizen.

  15. I don’t have an issue with the police. I have an issue with the police state…

    You want to be a peace officer (think about that term and what it should mean “peace”), serve your community, I support you. You want to be a HSLD Operator, ready and willing to lay down the law and SWAT us lowly peasants for smallest offense, not only do I not support you, but I think your a plague on a free society.

    It’s all about the attitude and actions, just like with every other citizen.

  16. I’m a hell of a lot less likely to be beaten and murdered by a crackhead, ociffer…

    There is no reason to call the cops, they don’t defend the people, & they only make situations worse.

  17. I’d rather have spent my tax money used on their gear – for MY gear. And I’d be a more thrifty shopper. If the money don’t get taxed by force out of my wallet, then it would STAY in my wallet.

  18. The only time I expect to see cops dressed like this is when I DON’T call them, and they are raiding my house in the middle of the night. If I call the cops, I expect to see a uniformed officer rolling up in a patrol car and not a tank. Whoever designed this poster is an idiot. First of all, it should read “Don’t like cops?” And the officers should be in uniform without their guns drawn. Cops are not supposed to be fear inducing and intimidating to the law abiding citizen, yet this is the exact image this poster displays. Pure stupidity.

    • HA! You’re right, they’re missing a question mark. The statement is encouraging the reader to dislike police.

  19. +1 ropingdown

    Personally I think this post and many of the comments are a massive insult to the good men and women out there that put their lives on the line daily, are sorely underpaid, have to deal with all kinds of political BS and constraints they shouldn’t, and then have citizens like us criticize them with idiotic broad brush stereotypes. Posts like this that paint all cops militaristic nazis foaming at the mouth to bust down your door and take your weapons without giving credit to any of the good ones (like the pro-gun, constitution loving police officer that also runs one of the best local gun ranges in the country) makes me distrust TTAG as an objective source on important issues.

    If you want to remain a credible source of information, make proper distinctions and point out specific elements where liberty is being violated, name specific individuals who are doing these acts, and avoid broad brush stereotypes. We hate it when anti-gunners do it to us, stop doing it to others.

    • You should be taking issue with Law Enforcement Today. They are the publishers of this meme.

    • Ok, sure, not all cops are armed bullies. That’s worth knowing (and I think the vast majority of people here would agree with that) and acknowledging. But as you said, we can’t paint the whole country’s law enforcement with a broad brush. So, how do you know that the local cops AREN’T uniformed thugs? You don’t, and unfortunately, they’re common enough that all cops need to be viewed with skepticism and mistrust unless you know them personally. It also doesn’t help that they follow a different set of rules than we do (how often do you hear about cops being punished for killing the wrong person?), and the ones who abuse their power are not let go. So, yeah, I appreciate what law endorcement does, but I will continue to view them with distrust and will be extremely reluctant to call them.

    • Jim, if you don’t like reading about renegade cops, convince the cops to stop going off the reservation — but don’t kill the messenger.

      Can you point to a single “bad cop” story covered here that was a lie? No? Then wise up and put down the Koolaid.

    • Jim, this argument is tiresome in the extreme. Nobody is conscripted into the police force. They are all volunteers. If they don’t like the pay or the hours or the political BS there is no power holding them in that job or even in that particular police force. Like all of us they are perfectly free to pick up and move to another city or state and/or to quit their job and work somewhere else or take up a new occupation.

      But so long as they tolerate thugs and bullies and wannabe Storm Troopers in their midst they will have to face the fact that the average citizen will fear their arrival even more than criminals do.

    • “put their lives on the line daily”

      Kill that noise. That nonsense has been debunked countless times. Their job is on average far less dangerous than many others: pizza delivery driver, cab driver, convenience store clerk, motel front desk clerk, crab fishermen, etc.

      None of the people in those occupations get to call 5 cars full of backup, nor do they get to swagger around intimidating people, know that they can’t do anything back.

      • Neither do they get taxpayer-funded funerals, plush pensions and full-ride health care bennies, or the ability to carry guns where other citizens cannot.

        When one looks at the rate of on-the-job deaths of cops vs. fishermen, lumberjacks, farmers, ranchers, roofers, et al, cops have nothing to complain about. They have a pretty easy job by comparison, with outlandishly good pay and benefits for the risks they take.

  20. So, if a crackhead is breaking into my house at 2:30 AM, wanting to steal whatever to pawn it off for cash to buy more crack, the po-po are going to be there, to stop it? Uh, huh.

  21. The last 20 to 25 years I have observed a growing trend toward a “us vs them” mentality, its the police vs the public. Law abiding citizens are to be treated the same as gang bangers and felons. Some officers have lost that original mission of protecting and serving.

    • It’s the paranoia. Like the general public being smothered in panic-inducing cable news hysteria all day every day 24/7, cops are constantly told “ANYONE AND EVERYONE COULD KILL YOU DEAD IN A SECOND, ACT ACCORDINGLY!”

      Why do you think those targets with pregnant WASPy women and little children were a thing?

  23. Given that the one beneficial experience I’ve had with a cop at any level of government was when one tracked down the guy who hit my car and drove off (but had I been able to search the DMV DB for the partial plate I had, I could have done it in minutes), I’d have to say I’d prefer replacing all cops with crackheads. Crackheads are less authoritarian, less likely to overreact with violence, less nosy, and just all around better people.

    • I wrote about an alternative to law enforcement above, but you hit the nail in the head. The police have no real incentive to help you and especially quickly. Being public employees, it’s not like they can lose customers when they are the only gig in town.

  24. No, I don’t like drugged-up paramilitary organizations spreading terror in the night.

    I have no problem with cops.

  26. As a former LEO, I am not anti-cop. I tend to prefer the ones that took an oath, it meant something to them, and they intend to live up to that promise.

    Kinda like these guys: http://oathkeepers.org/oath/

    What we have now is trending away from Law Enforcement and toward “idea enforcement.” Too many ideologies are becoming law (or not, in some cases), and when the cops are not standing a line between legislative abuse and their citizen neighbors, THOSE are the cops to whom I feel a little “anti.”

    • You guys are the great ones. The sad part is that the very small number of thugs out there, and that includes some who are in command, are giving you a bad name. My hat goes off to you and those like you.

  28. If not for the caption, I would have guessed those guys were full-on military, not police.

    When did SWAT stop wearing black or dark blue?

  29. Pigs. Dirty little oinkers. Fuzz. The man. Po-Po. All are apt.

    Most are employed against the civilian population to bring in a revenue stream. This usually involves tickets for parking 5 minutes longer than the allowed time, traveling 40 in a 35 zone, stopping beyond the limit line, parking on a residential street against traffic, talking on a cell phone, smoking a cigar in your own car, etc. Remember when cops wore a tie and cap? And treated civilians respectfully and called them sir/ma’am? Now they are thugs with badges, with room temperature IQs and unions to allow them to mistreat the population they are sworn to serve.

  30. Here in Maine, the governor is looking to add more cops as part of the ongoing war on drugs. A few years ago, I would’ve been all for it. Now? Nope.

  31. I think a better photo would have gotten the point across more effectively. The point, of course, is that many of the people who talk the loudest about pigs and how ‘the man’ should stay out of their business are the ones to call first when their neighbor’s dog is barking too loud or they get mugged\burgled. Them and defense attorneys. There’s always big talk on the internet forums but somehow 911 still keeps getting called. This doesn’t apply to everyone, of course, including the increasingly well-armed citizens of detroit! It would be nice, though, if people could sign up for a service where they could opt-out of taxes for police but also would not receive their services (sorta like how some fire departments work- http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/07/9272989-firefighters-let-home-burn-over-75-fee-again). Then we’d see if people were really honest.

    • Back in the 80’s or 90’s or so, weren’t there a few communities that tried something like this? I recall reading about some areas going “private security” instead of police (not in addition to police) and as I recall, it did not work very well.

      One of the problems was that they found it was FAR more expensive to run a department than they thought it would be…or something. In any case, there were a lot of problems and the project(s) did not last more than a year or two.

      I could be remembering wrong, though. It was a while back and there was not a big deal made of it even at the time.

  33. Why do I think the people in that picture would have not only felt comfortable but they would have had a special feeling in their pants had they been at Kent State on May 4, 1970?

  34. Another view – and not to denigrate the efforts of open carry proponents because I agree with their sentiment, if not always their methods:

    The picture of the so called SWAT squad above made me think; our responses here to that photo are probably the same as the impact a group of open carriers, descending upon a local Starbucks or other place of business, would evoke among the general public, particularly those with hoplophobic tendencies, whenever open carriers with their guns (especially long guns) gather to make a pointed endeavor to exercise 2nd Amendment freedoms in busy public places.

    Excersising the ‘right’, but not winning any converts.

    • Well, except for one major difference. Open carry rally goers aren’t going there with the intention of killing anyone….

      • If you were to comprehend my point, you’d see I say nothing of intentions, only the *perception* of we *viewers* of the photo above, compared with the likely similar *perception* by the general public *viewers* of small impromptu open carry displays such as has occurred at some Starbucks shops.

    • Except open carriers like that are carrying for a specific nonviolent political reason and are going to get more than two weeks paid vacation if they screw up.

      Who would you be more afraid of: an NYPD SWAT team with all the federal, state, and local laws plus unions backing them up or Jim Bob in Texas with his group of middle class men and women with rifles slung over their shoulders and/or handguns on their hips?

      If Jim Bob shoots me on accident trying to kill someone haphazardly running in and out of traffic (which he probably wouldn’t do in the first place) he’s going to go to prison and I’m gonna sue him directly. Unless he’s a complete idiot he knows that.

      • In the scenario where ‘Jim Bob’ shoots you accidentally while trying to kill someone running in and out of traffic he *should* go to prison; he’s not being paid a generous salary for statutory immunity.

        /read between the lines/

        The rest of what you state – I agree. But like I said above, I speak to perceptions

      • Let’s try comparing apples to apples:
        Who would you be more afraid of: an NYPD SWAT team with all the federal, state, and local laws plus unions backing them up or Jim Bob in a Brooklyn Starbucks with his group of middle class men and women with rifles slung over their shoulders and/or handguns on their hips?
        That’s better…

    • The problem with your argument, Roscoe, is that people at Open Carry rallies keep their weapons slung, usually muzzle down, and from some pictures I’ve seen sometimes with bright orange “empty chamber” flags. They generally dress and act like normal people going about their normal activities.

      These guys are coming straight at you in a flying ‘V” formation, weapons drawn, safeties off, tactical flashlights on, in full body armor. I would rather come around a corner an stumble on a peaceful group of 200 Open Carry advocates than be confronted by these five aggressive individuals pretending to be peace officers while showing no official identification.

      • Actually, I think that’s “wedge” formation. “V” formation is when the mouth (top) of the V is facing you.

        /Friendlychuckle’causeIknowit’snotimportant

        /Arma3taughtmeeverythingIknowaboutformationssoflamemeifI’mwrong

  35. Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” was 50 years premature. Protect and serve is starting to look like invade and occupy. If law ENFORCEMENT wants some respect, live up to the laws you are trying to enforce.

    P.S. I’d rather rely on a crack head than that bunch. At least the CH will be satisfied with taking just my money and not killing my dog.

  37. I think you’d get better response time out of a crackhead. As a
    firefighter I’ve had many an occasion to need AND request a
    LE. Living in a rural part of Maine, I’ve seen response times
    measured in hours if not days. Many of the 1st responder depts
    in the area don’t even call LE anymore. They either take care
    of the matter themselves or call another fire dept for help.
    If I can’t even get cops to show up during an emergency what
    makes them think I (or anyone) anyone should call them at all.

  39. You know what I notice? There is a big differencebetween the boys in blue and the boys in brown (Sheriff that is, not desert fatigues) I am no fan of the boys in blue but have zero problems with the ones in brown. Maybe because their power flex hasnt invaded their thinkin space yet .

  40. I’d rather take my chances against a crackhead that get gunned down by LE…I’ll never call LE, until after the fact…

  41. I think the point that is being made is there are many people who insult cops, yet call the cops when some bodies pounding on the door at 330 in the morning.

    • The point being that you are much more likely to mount a successful defense in a DGU if there is a record you called 911 for help. Doesn’t mean you should wait for that help to arrive or not be VERY careful what you do or say once they arrive to investigate and make their report.

      • Absolutely. I’m on a phone so I try to keep my post short. If some bodies trying to force there way into my house then i will use lethal force. However there are people who wouldn’t and are injured or worse because the police weren’t there in time because they didn’t have a firearm for whatever reason.

          • jughead, the point is that there are people who think the po po will be there to help them when seconds count. These people are usually wrong and end up injured or worse

    • There’s a 50-50 chance the one pounding on the door is a befuddled, enraged cop at the wrong address.

      • There’s also a 50-50 chance it’s my neighbors autistic son. It could also be a victim fleeing their attacker. That’s why I would answer my door with my AR:) ya know just in case

    • Calling 911 when someone is breaking in is not to protect you from the intruder. They won’t arrive in time to do that. Calling 911 is to protect yourself from the cops.

  42. “Don’t Like Cops?”

    Wonder why? I’d rather deal with a crackhead than a trigger-happy, rights-crushing Gestapo. I see more up-armored thugs than actual uniformed officers nowadays. They are the problem. Strip them of all their military shit, put them back in uniforms & interacting with the community & the attitudes on both sides will change. As it is, cops deserve every bit of disdain that comes their way.

  43. There are differences between cops. Some are good people, motivated to help and are a tremendous benefit to their communities. They are your neighbors and friends. We are safer with them around. If a bad apple does somehow infiltrate the bunch, they are held responsible and disciplined, demoted or fired.

    The others are bullies, not very smart, mean and self absorbed who give a sh1t about nothing but their own power. When one of these officers does something wrong, the event is covered up, the “investigation” is a whitewash and the bad actor is praised as a hero and promoted.

    What makes the second group different from the first? Their union.

  44. At least when a crackhead shoots my dog, he can’t cover his ass by trumping up charges against me.

  45. When you tweet for the cops, they’re just minutes away… might take longer for the crack head to show up. Its why some CCW.

  47. Only Robert Farago could take a photo re-tweeted by a Law Enforcement social media account that was probably meant as a sarcastic smart ass response to anyone that doesn’t like LEO’s for whatever reason, and spin it into something about Police Militarization

    • The lesson in that is a repeat of Ralph’s “they don’t get it.” I understand the creators thought it was funny to suggest “call a crackhead.” The problem is that they didn’t understand just how unfunny it is to think we like the alternative, that we call 911 and by mistake they send us a militarized SWAT team.

    • So… take a look at this:
      http://www.thefreedictionary.com/militarization

      Study it. Understand it. Now look at the photo above one more time. Actual cops look like this. Go to google, type in: “boston police hunt”

      The images speak for themselves. The context of the photo is ridiculous. To think that cops would actually like us to choose between “break your door down, flash bang grenade action, vs crack-head” is ridiculous. You don’t get it – those cops that made the poster didn’t either.

      • If you are going to use the boston manhunt for tsarnev brothers as an example of “police militarization” then understand this. Boston PD was basically a cordon force, making sure no one got in or out. Federal agencies (ATF, FBI, ect) we’re the ones hunting the bombers. Frankly I’m sick and tired of the amount of animosity towards police. The fact is most of you don’t like cops based off expireriences years ago. Be a man, realize you had a bad cop experience and move on. There are good cops, there are bad cops. I understand disliking some cops holier than you attitude, I’m right there with you. But understand a lot of cops take the whole “protect and serve” concept to heart.
        As for police “militarization”, I agree in the sense that most cops don’t need the same kit carried by my brothers in A- Stan. However MP5s and AR 15s are nessescary in police work today. During prohibition, gangsters were rocking BARs and Thompsons. The police then began to use them so as to not be out gunned. It’s the same concept today. As for what they wear, uniforms need to be modernized, frankly I think it’s rediculous that most departments have their guys running around in dress slacks. They shouldn’t be wearing fatigues however as I see this as an insult to our men and women in the military. There are plenty of gear items that are from companies like Crye that are geared towards law enforcement.
        Sorry about the rant but it needed to be said. Stay safe everybody.

  48. …and if we had an old school beat cop in the neighborhood, the neighborhood would solidly support him. It works two ways.

  49. I think the intention of the photo is that they think the reaction of the average american will be

    “Wow, look at how awesomely prepared and bad-ass they look!”…… but a sane individual sees how menacing and confrontational they are. The only experience I have with local cops growing up was negative. One our our local deputies actually got caught smuggling weed at one point. He got 6 months paid leave while they “figured out a solution” The solution was giving him a job as a security guard at the local high school…… Another deputy was known to accept blowjobs from girls (including supposedly some HS girls) so they didn’t get tickets, he eventually lost his job. Only took 2 years. Not a fan of most cops.

    On the other hand I’ve been stopped by state troopers 3 times in my life, and all 3 actually let me off after I admitted I just wasn’t paying enough attention to my speed. Luck of the draw…….

  50. Well the problem, Mr. LEO, is that if I handle it myself I get charged with several crimes (regardless of whether any were actually committed), whereas not only are you given superior tools of self defense, paid for by my tax dollars, but you can accidentally shoot your co-workers or innocent civilians and get off scott free…

    So the reason I’m calling you is because you and the legislature won’t *let* me take care of it solo…

  51. You haven’t heard anyone call a cop a pig in years? What kind of police state accepting people do hang out with?

  52. Wait, I thought the courts declared cops don’t have a duty to protect the citizenry. They don’t look like cops, they look like a Marine or Army rifle squad.

  53. I honestly have no problem with cops training to be HSLD door-kickers. I have no problem with them carrying ARs. Throughout history police uniforms and technical have mirrored the military, and we shouldn’t get our feathers ruffled by the continuance of that trend.

    What I do have a problem with is the ever-developing militant attitude of police officers, and the fact that average Joe is almost always prohibited from bearing the arms and ammunition to which the police are increasing entitled. Andy of Mayberry can carried a revolver, and average Joe did too without any trouble. Nowadays if NYPD SWAT might carry full-auto MP5s in their cars, but if Joe does the same he’s going to get ventilated with extreme prejudice. This, to me, along the entitled holier-than-the-rest-of-you-peons attitude, is what the problem is.

    Police are not equal to the rest of us anymore, and no amount of the oath-keeping and honorable intentions change that. As long as there are exceptions in the law for police officers, judges who look the other way when the police slaughter the innocent and ruin their lives, an unequal access to arms, etc., the police are our enemy. Individual police officers are not our personal enemies — there are certainly some upstanding, oath-keeping police here on TTAG, and I’m very glad that people like them are in law enforcement — but “the police” in general as an entitled, immune, and all-powerful class of [often enough thuggish] citizens can be nothing but enemies of liberty and equality.

  54. I grew up skateboarding in the mid to late 80’s, all through college, and even into my early 30’s and during this time the police, those who my tax money went to provide for once pushed me so hard into a wall it busted my nose, asked me when I was going to stop playing with toys, dug through my vehicles more times than I can count all because I chose to go and skate in empty parking lots instead of drinking beer on friday and saturday nights.. You could make the argument that the parking lot had posted signs, that I was disrespectful or caused property damage but those issues were just not the case. During this same time I also shot every Sunday with my father and Paw Paw God rest his soul. I will never forget the evening they found some brass casings I had in my locked trunk that I planned to reload… That night and all the little subtle and overt ways they found to let me know they could bully me took me from someone that took police officers on a case by case basis into now I have zero respect for any of them and I honestly never believe their version of events.. This is a pretty sad situation, but even my Grandma remarked the other day about the shaved head heavy set police dressed in all black and that shes scared of them..This shift in normal law abiding citizens, to me at least, seems to be happening at faster speeds every year. In the future not far off it will be that most citizens will look back at the police force the exact same way they veiw the general public: me against you.

  55. The time of officer friendly with a six shooter walking a beat and knowing every single person within 5 square miles of wherever they are…are gone. People are not as polite, not as reasonable, more heavily armed, and less caring of the law plus for their fellow citizens.

    Too many people just don’t give a **** anymore. Committing crime has few consequences today.

  57. What can a cop do that i cannot do myself? Well, other than get everything wrong and kill children reaching for a stuffed toy? Or kill family pets, or kill neighbors, or respond to the wrong house and kill people just because they can?

    Never mind, I believe that I have answered my own question.

  58. Cops are one thing, paramilitary goons are another. Municipal standing armies should be abolished along with alcohol law enforcement “agencies” and “highway patrol” units. How many different law enforcement organizations does a municipality (one piece of dirt) need? Who does each one report to? Think about it.

  59. Hey POTG – your weekend humor here. I think we *might* all take ourselves a little seriously here at times, speaking only for myself, of course, we might remember the old saying

    “walk a mile in my mocassins” and forgive young guys
    when they make a typical young guy mistake- like that picture…
    do you remember when you were young, dumb, and full of ***
    (comment partially moderated- hey this is a family site!)

    ANYWAY- a non-LEO friend sent this, and I thought y’all POTG might like it.
    Caveat up front- I am not an LEO, either but I know a few of them,
    who I universally find to be good guys/gals, and generally pro 2A. YMMV.

    I have met one or two in my past life who were A$$holes, but that was probably because they were giving me a speeding ticket. (ask me about that time east of El Paso…)

    And since my wife often reminds me I can be an A$$hole, (“yes dear”)*
    I have to admit, I could be wrong.
    (I am not sure about the latter – there was that one time back in 2003 but oh well…)

    Any way, here you go:

    Southern cops have a way with words

    These are actual comments made by South Carolina Troopers that were taken off their car videos:
    1. “You know, stop lights don’t come any redder than the one you just went through.”
    2. “Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they’re new. They’ll stretch after you wear them a while.”
    3. “If you take your hands off the car, I’ll make your birth certificate a worthless document.” (My Favorite)
    4. “If you run, you’ll only go to jail tired.”
    5. “Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that’s the speed of the bullet that’ll be chasing you.” (LOVE IT)
    6. “You don’t know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?”
    7. “Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don’t think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I’m the shift supervisor?”
    8. “Warning! You want a warning? O.K, I’m warning you not to do that again or I’ll give you another ticket.”
    9. “The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was MickeMouse a cat or a dog?”
    10. “Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn dogs and step in monkey poop.”
    11. “Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven.”
    12. “In God we trust; all others we run through NCIC.”(National Crime Information Center )
    13. “Just how big were those ‘two beers’ you say you had?”
    14. “No sir, we don’t have quotas anymore. We used to, but now we’re allowed to write as many tickets as we can.”
    15. “I’m glad to hear that the Chief (of Police) is a personal friend of yours. So you know someone who can post your bail.”
    AND THE WINNER IS….
    16. “You didn’t think we give pretty women tickets? You’re right, we don’t. Sign here.”

Comments are closed.