I used to carry a badge for a living, a loooooong time ago. I was a State of Florida Probation and Parole Officer working some of Miami's meanest streets. At the time, we were considered certified state LEOs but forbidden by department policy from being armed. However, since I was a recent US Army Infantry captain and I subsequently was given a caseload of creeps and perps most likely to attack a LEO I was given authorization to carry with a warning that if I had to shoot, make sure of my justification. LOL I carried a 1911 thereafter.
One of the things I have continually noticed since those days is the sick subculture of LEOs that has sprung up across the nation. It used to be manifested by so called choir practice as cops hung out after work in so called cops bars.... to while away the sparking nerves from a particularly violent or hair raising shift.
Now cops totally insulate themselves from civilians and that word is usually uttered dripping with disdain. This comes from the surge of legal actions that cops see as money grubbing vindictiveness on the part of society. But it is also a result of being brainwashed by the public school curriculum's across the country and this is what is so frightening to me.
It is a byproduct of liberal antigun rhetoric that the school systems have flushed into our youth for the last thirty years! That idea that guns are inherently and intrinsically evil and therefore only the cops or the military should possess them! That sense of entitlement is what created an atmosphere that brought about the Katrina gun grab. Lemme relate to you a little story from right after I left the department but my name was still in the system. I had just gotten one of the initial Florida ccw permits back in 1987.
I got stopped at a roadblock where I think they were checking for insurance and trying to sniff out DUI's. My turn came and I informed the officer standing next to my car that was I was in possession of a concealed firearms permit and lawfully armed. This was a young stud. Black gloves in the south Florida heat. Suddenly I'm staring down the muzzle of a drawn GLOCK and that 9mm hole looked about the size of a 12 bore as it nearly nudged my temple. What really worried me was the fact that his hand was so visibly shaking his knuckles were white and his finger was on the trigger of that Glock M17. I assumed my best instructors voice tone (I was then and still am an NRA certified firearms Instructor) and tried to calmly talk him down, but he was screaming at me too loudly to hear my voice or the voice of his much older partner who was screaming at him to quit being an idiot and re-holster! This guy made me get out of my car, put my hands on my head and walk backward until I could feel the muzzle pressed firmly against my spine. Then he drew my weapon from it's holster concealed behind my right hip and proceeded to hand me off to his partner while he repeatedly ran the serial number on my gun, over and over. His partner was pleading with me not to sue and cursing his young charge for being a macho idiot.
When the guy came back he was looking a bit embarrassed since my name and personal data had rung a bell with the Dept of Corrections as being a recent employee. Then he launches into this harangue about why did I feel the need to carry a gun since I no longer wore a badge? I looked him up and down as he handed me back my piece (cleared and locked) and my mags with directions to load up when I was blocks away. I finally said that there were those folks for whom an explanation is not needed and those for whom an explanation is simply not possible. He looked confused but his partner got it. As I pulled away he was telling the kid that HE was the sole reason for taking early retirement. Of course I didn't sue them, it never even entered my mind and being a first year law student at the time, I also knew I had no standing. No case. Still I thought about writing the Chief of Police but figured he'd probably get a pat on the back. Such is the depth of the institutional illness. It is also progressing as the experiences post Hurricane Katrina seem to suggest.
Thanks for the post.
The problem I see is the homogenization of Police Training.
When Bill Clinton said he would put 100,000 new police officers on the street he was not kidding. But people also did not understand what he meant.
Federal funding for various weapons and tactics courses has resulted in a situation where it is perfectly plausible for California State Troopers to mug a little old lady in her home in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina for possession of a curio pistol in full view of television crews at the behest of the New Orleans Mayor.
You would have had a hard time finding someone at any level of government to pull that kind of crap as recently as the 60's.
"Houston, we have a problem."
Best regards,