Originally posted by Blown&Injected
Greg, we make it down to the Outer Banks several times per year to fishing off shore. If it is convenient, I am sure my buddy (and me too) would be glad to meet you and have you join us.
Is this the same buddy who's a cop? (and while I'm asking, where does he work?)
Thanks for the invite. At this point in my life, I find myself with very little free time - of my own that is. The complete disclosure may be revealed at a later time, but for BW purposes I'm going to say that I'm putting in (probably) more than average effort into my marriage. Basically, my wife gets stressed a lot (she's going through med school) so I'm figuring if I take care of
HER now, she'll take care of
ME later!
And a little insight into Baltimore PD IMHO. If/when a dept is working primarily with low income/high crime areas, it mainly deals with dysfunctional nothing-to-live-for people who might try to kill you at any second, and possibly couple that with associating socially only with your co-workers when off duty, and that kind of person develops a "cops vs everyone else" mentality. The department accepts it because they want to limit their officers getting killed, and it might even be safer for those particular officers to be able to arrest at the first hint of non-cooperation before the situation deteriorates into a fight. In addition, this kind of dept would appeal to a person with a personality that would enjoy the power trip that can come with such a work philosophy. Like I think was mentioned elsewhere, probably 80-90% of cops will be cool and do their job professionally, etc, but those 10-20% who get their power trip are out looking for anyone they can bother - or in addition, they might be trying to bring in a lot of drugs & arrests to compete for the next openings in the narcotics squads/investigations/undercover/etc divisions, and they will be stuck in "patrol" until then! So they might pull over you or me in our 80's regal hoping that they might stumble accross drugs/guns/both or someone with a warrant for arrest. Works for them, but would be an inconvience for you or me, right?
I deal with this a little with my wife who doesn't really like cops herself. (I guess she makes an exception for me?) I don't really worry too much about someone feeling inconvenienced because I think that's understandable, but if someone starts giving me a hard time, it's going to trigger a response from me to get ready to fight, because there's no way I can tell if I have someone who is just venting, or for whatever reason might take it further. And I think all the other cops that have posted will say the same thing, that in a few hours from now, I want to go home safe and sound from work, just like anyone else. I might have to "take someone to ground" to accomplish that, but that's one occupational risk that comes with the job. Of course, you've got the 10-20% of cops that I've mentioned that might actually be looking forward to doing this!
And 10-20% isn't necessarily universal to all departments - it could be 70-80% in Baltimore PD, while it's maybe 1-5% in nearby Columbia or Elicott City.
HTH
-Greg
