25 Reasons Why The Police Are Great.

What kind of a person would voluntarily sign up for a job that entails everything the police have to contend with?

1. The Police are great because they are always ready. They are ready to handle the mundane and trivial. They are ready to handle the ordinary and common. They are ready to handle the big jobs, the tough jobs, the dangerous jobs, and the heartbreaking jobs. Every day that they wake up to get ready to go to work, they never know which of those will come their way, but they have to be ready to face any and all of these at all times.

2. The Police are great because they are brave. No cowards can survive on the police force.

3. The Police are great because they are able to strike the perfect balance between being firm and polite, courteous and assertive, strong and gentle, professional and down-to-earth, regardless of who they are confronting or apprehending and what their behavior or attitude is.

7. The Police are great because they continue to do their job even when they don’t get credit for a job well done.

9. The Police are great because they are ready to go above and beyond the call of duty, and often do.

14. We have the luxury of choosing to ignore or run away from a problem. The police have no such luxury. Their responsibility is to confront the problem and solve it.

16. The Police are great because in their line of work they have to abide by the law and follow proper protocol and strive to do so even when the “legal restrictions” and “technicalities” get in the way of solving a problem as expeditiously as they would like to.

17. The Police don’t have the luxury of falling asleep on the job. They have to stay awake and alert even when they are dead tired.

19. They are willing to walk into a situation not knowing if they will walk out of it alive.

22. The Police are great because they are willing to risk their lives every day. They give real meaning to “put their lives on the line”.

25. All you have to do is imagine one single day in any city or town, anywhere, without them and what such a place might be like on that day. The police are great because by their very existence, we don’t have to live with the consequences of such imaginings.

To all those men and women on the police force, regardless of their age, position, rank, department, responsibility, or time on the job, you are appreciated.

Sex related crimes committed by Tennessee cop just recently... and this just from one state in less than one year!

http://www.wsmv.com/news/22789986/detail.html Shelbyville Police Officer Accused Of Inappropriate Child Contact

http://www.wbbjtv.com/NewsStories/100308SelmerOfficerInvestigaiton.html Selmer Tennessee Police Officer Under Investigation For Rape

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12065807 Tennessee State Trooper charged with Child Abuse and Lying to Police

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/feb/26/former-cop-denied-deal-will-do-time/ Memphis Police Officer sentenced to prison for raping prostitutes while on duty

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=12025568 ]Lafollette Tennessee Police Officer under investigation by TBI for Statutory Rape

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/02/19/24842.htm Hamblen County Sheriffs Dept sued by woman who was raped in 2009 by Deputy while he was on duty.

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=11978306 Inmate sues City of Nashville over forced sex case. Inmate was forced to have sex with DCSO Deputy twice. Deputy resigned, charged, found guilty of Having Sex With Inmates.

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-police-rape-allegation-story,0,7619815.story Memphis Police Officer accused of Raping Female High School Student under Investigation.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/feb/07/sex-abuse-allegations-plague-tn-juvenile-detention/Sex Abuse Allegations plague Tennessee Juvenile Justice Detention Centers, State Guards Accused of Sexually Abusing and Harassing Juveniles In Custody.

http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=9820141 ]Putnam County Deputy arrested in prostitution sting.

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=66750&catid=2 Former Scott County Constable pleads guilty to Aggravated Sexual Battery of a 4 year old child in 2008.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jan/20/third-ex-memphis-police-officer-pleads-guilty-forc/ Third Memphis Police Officer pleads guilty to Rape, Official Misconduct and Official Oppression

http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/82068717.html Grainger County Tenn Deputy charged with Statutory Rape

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jan/08/former-memphis-police-officer-gets-7-years-sex-pro/ Four Memphis Police Officers guilty of forcing prostitutes to have sex, Official oppression and Official Misconduct

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/hamilton-987708-sex-arrested.html Second Hamilton County Deputy arrested on sex charges involving two juvenile

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11780684 Memphis Police recruit charged with statutory rape after making sex tape with minor

http://www.moultrieobserver.com/local/local_story_076223341.html Nashville Metro Police Officer arrested in Georgia, charged with Solicitation of Sodomy

http://www.wsmv.com/news/19411761/detail.html Hohenwald Tennessee Police Officer indicted for raping a 15 year old girl

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jun/09/former-hamblen-deputy-guilty/ Hamblen County Deputy guilty of Forcing Female Inmates To have Sex, Sexual Assault of a 16 year old female and Lying

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=10952290 Tennessee State Trooper accused of fondling 18 year old males genitals while off duty

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=11371864 TBI Investigating Humboldt Tennessee Police Officer for Child Abuse

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_161704.asp Bridgeport Tennessee Assistant Police Chief sentenced to 125 months in Federal Prison for Child Porn

http://www.wate.com/global/story.asp?s=11771843 Campbell County deputy sheriff arrested on a 16 count sex charge indictment with one minor female under the age of 13

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_166080.asp Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officer Charged With 2 Counts Of Statutory Rape

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=117249&provider=gnews Lafollette Tennessee Police Officer arrested by TBI for Statutory Rape

http://www.clevelandbanner.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=71E3B9D0-19B9-E2E2-673A25E7B1C5D54F Two former Cleveland Police Officers face new charges of Aggravated Statutory Rape and Contributing To The Delinquency Of A Minor[

http://www.lebanondemocrat.com/former-chaplain-charged-with-three-counts-of-rape-cms-8014 Former WIlson County Sheriffs Chaplin charged with 3 counts of Rape Of A Child Less Than 13 Years Old

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/12/former-kpd-officers-arraigned/ 2 Knoxville Police Officers Arraigned on charges of Contributing To The Delinquency Of Minors. 2 gave 13 year old girls porn, alcohol and had them perform lap dances while partially nude.

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/facing-989422-new-officer.html Chattanooga Police Officer faces new charges of Statutory Rape, on top of existing Aggravated Statutory Rape and Tampering With Evidence charges.

http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/ex-metro-cop-indicted-child-sex-case Metro Nashville Police Officer indicted in Child Sex Case, victim younger than 13.

http://www.wsmv.com/news/22789986/detail.html Shelbyville Tennessee Police Officer under investigation by TBI, accused of Inappropriate Contact With A Child

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/apr/16/former-kpd-officer-indicted-sexual-exploitation-mi/ KPD officer indicted on sexual exploitation of minor charge

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/apr/29/former-memphis-police-officer-indicted-sexual-assa/ [Memphis police officer indicted in sexual assault

http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20100412/NEWS01/100412028/Former-Madison-County-constable-re-indicted-on-more-sex-charges Madison County constable re-indicted on more sex charges

I think police, like most other professions are on a bell curve with 10% being boy scouts or Dudley Do-rights that are the textbook example of the "good cop". Then you have 10% on the other end of the bell curve that are there for the power trip and are into domination, abuse and threats. The textbook "dirty cop". It been my experience that most police, the other 80%, are neither "boy scouts" or "Jack Booted Thugs" but just average joes that do whatever their superiors tell them to keep their job and collect a paycheck. Basically, typical government employees.

My problem with law enforcement, and the reason I could never be a cop, is the job essentially requires you to be mindless zombies that enforce laws regardless of the morality or constitutionality. I could not enforce a law I felt was immoral or unconstitutional. I realize that the job of a cop is to enforce laws, not to question them, but I absolutely could not and would not do that, and I'm not sure whether to impressed or scared of anybody that can.

A neighbor of mine is a Police Officer and we have gone round and round about this issue. His opinion is that he leaves his personal views at the door when he puts on the uniform. He enforces laws that he hates on a daily basis such as the draconian domestic violence laws. He says he doesn't like it and agrees with me that the laws are immoral, but end the end he shrugs and does his job. My opinion is if you truly believe in something you can't just "leave it at the door" when you go to work.

Some of these simply don't pass the smell test.

The Police are great because they do not use weapons for bad purposes.

Really? Is that why we have stories about cops going trigger happy on their tasers almost every week? And don't say that they are all the fault of the victim. The guy in this case got a $40,000 settlement from the state of Utah:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8LwQUz61HY

The Police are great because they continue to do their job even when they don’t get credit for a job well done.

Gotta dispute that one. Can you name a single other profession (excluding the military) that receives as much praise, public accolade, and even downright hero-worship as the police do? I'm not saying that some of the commendation isn't merited - it is. But we have entire charities dedicated to police and their families, we have parades for the police on various holidays, we have monuments to police on courthouse lawns, we shut down entire freeways for a fallen officer's funeral procession, we have an entire media-entertainment market of movies and tv shows about police in heroic roles, and our public officials constantly shower the police with compliments and budgets. To say they don't get credit for what they do is absurd!

Even when a police officer is not working, they are working.

Again, not true. Off duty police are just as fallible as the rest of the general public, and they often engage in behavior off duty that is less than stellar. Just do a google news search for off-duty cops who get arrested for DUI (or worse, who get pulled over for DUI and use their connections to get off the hook). It happens every single week.

They can’t afford to be lazy like we can.

There's a reason cops have a reputation for hanging out at Crispy Creme. But more specifically, police work isn't a particularly industrious profession in terms of hours put in over a lifetime. Most cops who start in their early 20's can retire by age 50 with full salaried pension. The rest of us have to work another decade or more of our lives.

When the Police make a mistake, they are held accountable.

Not really. Cops who break the law on the job are usually not subjected to the criminal justice system. They are evaluated by an in-house internal review department made up of other cops, where worst "penalties" are getting suspended or losing your job. That's a inherently a much lower standard of accountability than the general public, which gets convicted in a criminal court and sent to prison if they do something wrong.

The Police are great because they are willing to risk their lives every day. They give real meaning to “put their lives on the line”.

With all the nutcase drivers out there, technically so do I every time I get on the highway. With all the jihadi wackos out there, technically so do I every time I get on an airplane. The point is that policing is nowhere near as dangerous as it's usually made out to be. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' job fatality records, police fall well behind many ordinary professions. The most dangerous jobs are usually loggers and fishermen. But cop fatality rates are also well behind pilots, farmers, construction workers, and even garbage men.

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