PK1
Gold Member
- Jun 26, 2015
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I agree, in general, with your opinion.Being a police officer is not only a noble vocation, but it is one that can provide pretty good compensation, depending on the municipality for which one works. It is not uncommon for young cops to move once or twice in order to get the best combination of working conditions and compensation. In my area (Western PA), many cops earn more than 100k in total.
Most big city police departments also have systematic ways of getting overtime compensation and/or side gigs to make extra money. Ultimately, cops can retire early enough to have quite fulfilling careers after police work, all while collecting a pension.
No honest person gets rich being a police officer, but all in all, for one's entire working life, the compensation is at least as good as most college grads can expect.
The word "hero" is over-used and mis-used constantly in our culture - it is sometimes nauseating. But the word actually refers to someone who risks or gives their life for the benefit of others. Police, firefighters, and soldiers are REAL heroes, because they constantly are willing to place their own lives and safety in jeopardy to benefit total strangers.
To tell a kid that there is something "wrong" with being a cop (rather than out of concern for his safety) is perverse in the extreme. Shame on any father who does such a thing.
However, i can understand the extremist concerns that Glasnost expressed, depending on the region's police culture, policies, and training.
Ideally, being a voluntary member of a military unit or police force is a noble reflection of the safety profession ... if the member's motivation is not mostly for salary & power narcissism, especially without sensitivity to cultural concerns.
In many regions, police officers don't get sufficient training in dealing with impoverished subcultures & mentally unstable persons ... unfortunate citizens that they should also be protecting. Also, police chiefs need to do a better job in filtering out asshole wannabe cops with violent tendencies.