Posted on 05/25/2003 5:45:32 PM PDT by Arpege92
I know alot of people have no room in their heart for Police Officer's and in a strange way, I understand that sometimes but before anyone makes a final judgement on all police officer's, please allow me to tell you my side of this debate.
I have been married to a police officer for twelve years....some good and some bad. He has seen some of the most tragic and de-humanizing sides of people and he has seen the best as well. He is the kind of police officer to stop at the house of a lonely elderly man who just lost his wife. He is the kind of police officer who will take the time to fix the mailbox for a family who can't afford to get it fixed for themselves....of course, he does this on his own time and with his own money.
He is the kind of police officer who cried at the drowning of a two year old little girl. This happened while I was pregnant with our son and to this day, he refuses to get a swimming pool. He is the kind of police officer who will drive a man to a hospital where his wife is fighting for her life and it doesn't matter how long it takes or how long he has to wait.
He is an excellent father to his son, he is an excellent husband to me and there isn't anything he wouldn't do for his entire family. His father is disabled and whenever he needs my hero, he is there.
My husband has been called just about every bad word you could think of......his patience has been put to the test.....and yet, he has this quality about him of never letting his anger get the best of him. His ability to stay in control in some of the worst circumstances is mind blowing and the respect he has of his junior officers is well known.
Am I biased? You damn right I am....police officer's don't get good quality press time. In fact, the only time cops get press time is when something has gone wrong. The press isn't interested in the truth about police officers....it's better stories for them! Al Sharpton and his cronies are the first to appear in front of a camera when a black person is killed at the hands of police officers and they aren't interested in the whole truth. It doesn't matter to them! Look at Tawana Brawley, this happened in my own back yard and the lives he ruined are just casualties in his quest for top black leader!
So, when you accuse all cops of being looters, murderers and whatever else you can come up with, please have the common courtesy of knowing all of the facts before you make final judgements. That is my hero you are talking about!!!
No.
Is that possible?
I don't know where you live, but where I live, the police don't go around attacking other communities and repealing attacks from other cities. So no, the police are not organized in a military fashion, other than some of the titles.
LOL. I'd quit along with just about every other cop that doesn't drive a desk. Considering that some mope threatened a friend of mine the other day with a lawsuit for "stealing her dignity" by having the temerity to arrest her for shoplifting it would be the only prudent thing to do.
I'd love to see who you could get to do the job under those circumstances. Maybe some parolees could pass the background check. You might want to try hiring some "welfare to work" folks as detectives.
Which would serve his anti-police agenda. Why do you think he makes such outlandish suggestions?
You're missing out on a lot aside from the fact that the NYPD has been losing officers for a number of years. What about all the other duties involved in big city policing? The guys that do background checks on prospective officers don't make arrests and neither do the ones involved in aviation. The harbor unit? Mounted does some great work in crowd control (just ask the anti-war idiots) but they don't often gallop off after burglars. Would you like the bomb squad to chase car thieves or study biological warfare and dirty bombs? We have between 1000-2000 officers every day involved in the War on Terrorism, from investigations to fixed posts in front of high value targets. Don't forget about the staff of the police academy (who serve as field training officers when there is no class in session), the driver training unit and the Manhattan traffic task force. I can't even begin to tell you what a drain useless calls to 911 are on our resources. Do you have any idea how many THOUSANDS of unfounded or deliberately false calls there are every year? How many faulty burglar alarms? How many fender benders that need an accident report?
I have a lot of faith in our detectives, and they do generally get their man when it counts. But what exactly are you going to do when some guy gets robbed on a quiet street and the perp bolts into the subway a minute later and your only description is "a black man with dark clothes"? Theres just not much to go on and if the suspect makes it to the subway, or into a large crowd, he's gone. This isn't Clue and it isn't Colonel Mustard in the living room with the candlestick.
nonsoldier: somebody who is an ordinary citizen rather than a member of the armed forces
This term infers that the police are outside civilian law like a soldier. I assure you that they are not because they too are civilians. A better term would be "tax payer". From my earlier post I think this has come about because former or current soldiers (Reserve and National Guard) make up a large part of our CIVILIAN police force. I believe it is because of these people that the definition has started to change. Soldiers are trained to neutralize "targets". The human aspect is taken out during training. This is so a soldier will not hesitate to kill.
Peace officers on the other hand are more than soldiers or at least they should be...they are like a moral compass for any town. Sometimes they have to act like parents, counselors, teachers, mechanics, roadmaps, and salesman. They represent the city they are protecting, so they are expected to be everything to all people...especially outsiders of any town they serve. Then again, sometimes they must act like soldiers.
I don't envy the position they are put in everyday. What "soldier" would want to stand out in a brightly marked car with bright lights in the middle of the night without cover. I could never do it. It takes a better man than most to subject themselves to that sort of stress. Arpege92, God bless you and your family for what you have sacrificed for the sake of others.
I guess its up to you. I can't find anything to really "prove" it and if you want to believe the commisssioner's office you're entitled to. Anecdotally, the numbers are dropping like crazy. Just try to get a day off in some precincts and you'd know. -------------------------- April 25, 2003 ‘Doomsday’ for Public Safety By Mark Daly Police and fire union leaders reacted with dismay April 15 after Mayor Bloomberg outlined a doomsday plan of budget cuts that would shrink the Police Department to 1991 levels and threaten the closing of 40 firehouses.
The Mayor’s proposal to cancel a July police class and allow the NYPD’s unprecedented attrition to continue is “sheer lunacy,” said Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch.
‘A Sinking Ship’
Uniformed Firefighters’ Association President Stephen J. Cassidy said cutting the Fire Department’s $1.1 billion budget by another $47 million would leave the agency “a completely sinking ship.”
Mr. Bloomberg said his contingency plan of $1 billion in budget cuts will become a reality if state lawmakers balk at granting the city a commuter tax. His executive budget proposal for the 2003-04 fiscal year slices $600 million from city agencies and requires layoffs in the Sanitation and Correction Departments.
While they have been spared layoffs, the PBA and UFA leaders said their agencies would be hard-hit by attrition and other cutbacks.
The NYPD is already losing 235 members a month – “about what it takes to staff a precinct,” Mr. Lynch said.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly acknowledged that if he can’t send 1,300 recruits to the Police Academy this summer, his department will likely drop to 32,000 officers by June 2004.
The NYPD was last at that level in 1991, when the city recorded nearly 2,300 homicides. Early that year, City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone Sr. and Mayor David N. Dinkins persuaded the state to approve an income tax surcharge to pay for the “Safe Streets/Safe City” hiring plan that eventually boosted the department to 40,000 officers. An accelerating of attrition rate in the last three years has reduced the department to its present level of about 36,000.
The doomsday budget would compromise the city’s ability to fight crime, said City Council Member Peter F. Vallone Jr. the former Speaker’s son.
“Those are Albany’s cuts,” said Mr. Vallone, who repeated his call for the city to secede from the state. “If this is the way they treat us, I can’t think of one reason we need them.”
The Mayor’s worst-case scenario of 10,400 city workers layoffs will add to the impact of the attrition at the NYPD, predicted Lieutenants’ Benevolent Association President Tony Garvey. The firefighters’ union is still fighting cuts in this year’s budget, including the closing of eight companies and a reduction in staffing at engine companies.
The city has informed the union that it will remove the fifth firefighter from 53 engine companies on May 2, said Mr. Cassidy. The move will leave nearly all of the city’s 319 engine companies with four firefighters.
Firefighter Vacancies
The FDNY is operating with 700 firefighter vacancies, and the effort to plug the holes in each shift has driven overtime spending upward. The department expects to hire 250 firefighters next month, but it will also be redistributing the closed companies’ crews to fill other vacancies.
The $47 million cut to the FDNY in the Mayor’s contingency plan is listed as a further reduction in overtime spending. The amount is equal to the annual operation cost of 40 fire companies.
City officials suggested it would be easier for the department to simply close that many fire stations than to attempt half-measures, such as closing firehouses at night, which present greater logistical challenges.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said there are “no plans as yet” to close dozens of firehouses, since FDNY officials are still analyzing proposals for cuts. “I’m not prepared to talk about the contingency plan and what we would do, but it would be devastating to the department,” he said.
To Mr. Cassidy, the proposed cut was so severe it seemed unreal. “It’s an attempt to put pressure on the Governor and Albany,” he said.
The UFA is still seeking to avert the disbanding of the eight fire companies targeted in the current budget. Due to community notification requirements, the earliest the companies could be closed is May 23.
“Just because the Mayor’s said it’s a done deal doesn’t make it so,” said Mr. Cassidy, who pointed out that City Council Members in affected neighborhoods are strongly opposed to the closings.
One Council Member, James E. Davis, announced he will be leading a protest march across the Brooklyn Bridge on April 27 to protest the closing of Engine Co. 209 in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
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