SavannahMann
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- Nov 16, 2016
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The Washington Post has an article, perhaps it’s an Op Ed, written by two former Servicemembers that discusses what happened when four cops did not rush into the school.
The problem in their opinion is the type of training, and mental preparation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-to-run-toward-danger/?utm_term=.70d388b3a0d0
The problem isn’t with mental preparation, the problem is the material you start with. A fine block of Marble can be shaped into a beautiful statue. Granite can be shaped and worked with intelligent and experienced hands to form a work of art. The same artist if given something far softer, like sandstone, might make something pleasing, but hardly the work of beauty that would come from better material, and that same artist would be powerless to shape dried mud into anything but a pile of debris and detritus. It might make good soil to plant a garden in, but it certainly would not be a work of art.
It is material, and the artist, in combination, that creates something worthwhile. Pottery artists work in the finest clay they can get, not the junk you find slopping up the draining ditch.
This is the first flaw in the thinking of these two experts. They assume that the materials are equal. They are not. Far too many cops are in the line of work because they were picked on as kids in school, and they are out for revenge. These are the ones we see on the internet, and the news, using excessive force, beating some unresisting individual, or in the case of the idiot I posted about the other day, punching a handcuffed guy in the back of the patrol car.
These are the slime that lie at every chance. Unlike the cops of lore and legend, they did not join to be sheepdogs, to protect the flock. They joined to bully the sheep. They may be courageous, when someone is ahead of them, or alongside of them, but alone, they are cowards at heart. No amount of work from any artist could turn that pile of turds into a statue worthy of the term art. These are the idiots who started using gangster rap phrases to the people they interact with. “Don’t disrespect me Mother Fucker.”
These slime are not respected, except by fools who worship the badge, and the idiots who think that it’s us versus them. And the cops are us, and the public is them. In the case of the school shooting, the Resource Deputy had thirty years of experience. The authors think that he froze because of insufficient preparation, insufficient training, and failure to mentally prepare himself.
I was in the 82nd. Airborne. I was surprised to find out that our platoons were actually ten percent overstrength. That is to say we had extra people, to bring us to 110% of authorized strength. I wondered why, and was told flatly that it was all about the mission. Statistically speaking, at least ten percent of us would be injured, wounded, or killed during the jump. If we started out overstrength jumping out of the plane, we would land at strength at a minimum.
Paratroopers understand they are mortal, but also believe that they are invulnerable. Someone may be hurt, but it won’t be me is the common mentality of the paratroopers. People who were afraid dropped out of Jump School before they got to the Division. People who were not made of granite and iron were weeded out by their own fears. And the paratroopers were not alone. All of the special units were similarly blessed. The bad apples rarely made it through, and when they did, they found that we did not tolerate liars or shirkers. They moved on, and left us.
The police close ranks and protect the bad apples, exposing and dealing with them only when they absolutely have to, when there is no more choice, and no opportunity to sweep it under the rug.
The Police in Ferguson had a long history of criminal behavior, even going so far as to charge a man for destructing of public property for bleeding on their uniforms. They had beaten him to a pulp, only days later finding out that he was not the baddie they were looking for, and blamed him for bleeding. These are not courageous defenders of anything except privilege. And Ferguson is hardly unique.
We hire the people with the worst motivation to become cops. We hire the ones who have an axe to grind, who are cop groupies, and who want that respect for putting on the badge. God Help you if you don’t give them the appropriate deference, because they will want revenge, and if they think they can get away with it, they’ll do it, and lie, and have fellow cops close ranks to protect the liar.
The idea that the cops must be held to the highest standards is not insanity, and it may well cause some short term vacancies, but in the end, we would all be better served. And our children might just be alive.
The problem in their opinion is the type of training, and mental preparation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-to-run-toward-danger/?utm_term=.70d388b3a0d0
The problem isn’t with mental preparation, the problem is the material you start with. A fine block of Marble can be shaped into a beautiful statue. Granite can be shaped and worked with intelligent and experienced hands to form a work of art. The same artist if given something far softer, like sandstone, might make something pleasing, but hardly the work of beauty that would come from better material, and that same artist would be powerless to shape dried mud into anything but a pile of debris and detritus. It might make good soil to plant a garden in, but it certainly would not be a work of art.
It is material, and the artist, in combination, that creates something worthwhile. Pottery artists work in the finest clay they can get, not the junk you find slopping up the draining ditch.
This is the first flaw in the thinking of these two experts. They assume that the materials are equal. They are not. Far too many cops are in the line of work because they were picked on as kids in school, and they are out for revenge. These are the ones we see on the internet, and the news, using excessive force, beating some unresisting individual, or in the case of the idiot I posted about the other day, punching a handcuffed guy in the back of the patrol car.
These are the slime that lie at every chance. Unlike the cops of lore and legend, they did not join to be sheepdogs, to protect the flock. They joined to bully the sheep. They may be courageous, when someone is ahead of them, or alongside of them, but alone, they are cowards at heart. No amount of work from any artist could turn that pile of turds into a statue worthy of the term art. These are the idiots who started using gangster rap phrases to the people they interact with. “Don’t disrespect me Mother Fucker.”
These slime are not respected, except by fools who worship the badge, and the idiots who think that it’s us versus them. And the cops are us, and the public is them. In the case of the school shooting, the Resource Deputy had thirty years of experience. The authors think that he froze because of insufficient preparation, insufficient training, and failure to mentally prepare himself.
I was in the 82nd. Airborne. I was surprised to find out that our platoons were actually ten percent overstrength. That is to say we had extra people, to bring us to 110% of authorized strength. I wondered why, and was told flatly that it was all about the mission. Statistically speaking, at least ten percent of us would be injured, wounded, or killed during the jump. If we started out overstrength jumping out of the plane, we would land at strength at a minimum.
Paratroopers understand they are mortal, but also believe that they are invulnerable. Someone may be hurt, but it won’t be me is the common mentality of the paratroopers. People who were afraid dropped out of Jump School before they got to the Division. People who were not made of granite and iron were weeded out by their own fears. And the paratroopers were not alone. All of the special units were similarly blessed. The bad apples rarely made it through, and when they did, they found that we did not tolerate liars or shirkers. They moved on, and left us.
The police close ranks and protect the bad apples, exposing and dealing with them only when they absolutely have to, when there is no more choice, and no opportunity to sweep it under the rug.
The Police in Ferguson had a long history of criminal behavior, even going so far as to charge a man for destructing of public property for bleeding on their uniforms. They had beaten him to a pulp, only days later finding out that he was not the baddie they were looking for, and blamed him for bleeding. These are not courageous defenders of anything except privilege. And Ferguson is hardly unique.
We hire the people with the worst motivation to become cops. We hire the ones who have an axe to grind, who are cop groupies, and who want that respect for putting on the badge. God Help you if you don’t give them the appropriate deference, because they will want revenge, and if they think they can get away with it, they’ll do it, and lie, and have fellow cops close ranks to protect the liar.
The idea that the cops must be held to the highest standards is not insanity, and it may well cause some short term vacancies, but in the end, we would all be better served. And our children might just be alive.
