3 Comments

1. On August 29, 2009 at 5:56 am, Dave B says:

   I’ve been a cop since 1976 and I am appalled, embarrassed, and moved to protect my brothers and sisters in law enforcement who might fall victim to being lumped into a category of a miniscule portion of law enforcement officers that would view this video and not be shocked and feel violated in some way. Most of us are well trained, honest, courageous, protect citizen’s rights every day and would never have handled this situation the way this officer did. We are not thugs of government, will not participate in some type of government “takeover”, would never willingly submit to being reduced to “Venezuelan-like” militia to suppress our citizens. You might find an idiot here and there but don’t judge the rest of us by this action. If the government had dillusions that it could use us in any way as to violate our own commitments to protect our citizens and their rights… they have totally miscalculated and underestimated the professionals that do the job every day. I understand how a citizen might raise the issue or suspect that we (law enforcement) will somehow be part of a government takeover… because I was confronted with the possibility myself. I can ASSURE our citizens… it ain’t gonna happen. We’re too good, too honest, too trained, too patriotic, and too professional to ever let that happen. Race or any other category you can come up with means sh.t to us. We could care less, because we rely on each other to stay alive, experience things that we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemies… but we do it together. We respect each other, care for each other, and despise situations when one of us makes the others look bad. Soldiers are the same. We’re the best and the brightest with an occasional exception that embarasses us and makes us cringe, especially when we see a citizen’s rights being violated under color of law. The next time you look at a police officer or any law enforcement officer I would ask that you view him or her in a different way. Look at him or her as a “protector” and not an “oppressor”. We may not be carrying signs at town meetings, a lot of us are prohibited from political activity, many of us can’t even “moonlight” for fear we will be corrupted. We may be standing at an intersection directing traffic even though we’d prefer to be chasing some bad guy somewhere, taking a report on some crime that has been committed in our jurisdiction, or doing paperwork we dread. Most of us don’t oppose law abiding citizens wearing guns, we are comforted by it… once we have determined that we’re safe. Most of us HATE being regulators that have to write a citation to some poor bastard driving to work whose trying to make a living for his family. We may be parked at an intersection monitoring traffic because we’re doing something the people of our jurisdiction have asked us to do… but we know our duties, and we would never be reduced to government thugs that take away the rights of those people that are our friends and citizens we are sworn to protect. It ain’t gonna happen. The officer in this particular video is not representative of most of us. I looked at the video, as I’m sure other cops did, and saw no less than ten mistakes in what the officer did, how he exposed himself physically to an aggressive action, noticed which hand he used to remove the sign,the stance he took, the body language he portrayed, what he said, how he reacted to a citizen’s questions, how he raised the level of apprehension to a field contact and law abiding citizen as opposed to reducing it, how he restricted his field of vision when confronting a possible adversary, failed to maintain a safe distance and balance, and so on. He’s an untrained, unprofessional, and incompetent police officer. What is obvious to those of us in the profession might not be evident to those that are not. TRUST ME. He’s not representative of most police officers, especially minority police officers that work so hard to overcome the prejudices and must deal with bigots every day and this officer just made their situations more complicated. Please don’t judge us by this incident. I’m hoping this particular officer just had a bad day… but I suspect that is not the case and I am very concerned about it… as are most of us.
2. On August 29, 2009 at 7:47 pm, Charlie Snouffer says:

   Is this guy Faifax County? He should be fired and deported if he can’t even pass a citizenship test.
3. On August 29, 2009 at 10:00 pm, Malcolm Tent says:

   To the LEO above: Trust me, this guy is viewed as singly stupid. I wouldn’t for a minute think that he’s representative of ANY department. Well, maybe the ACORN department, but not the FPD.

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