Police Misbehavior Losing Support For Their Fellow Officers

Once again, Kurt Schlichter has an excellent piece on the issue of the police blindly following orders at Townhall.com entitled Dumb And Corrupt Cops Risk Losing Our Support.

A big chunk of society, mostly on the left, detests the police. It would be a really poor idea to convert the right to that point of view too. But that’s where these trends lead.

Here’s the thing – we normals respect our police not merely because they have badges and funny hats but because they take personal risks to protect us from those who would violate our rights. Usually, these violators are criminals. But the category of “People who violate our rights” also includes political hacks and bureaucratic petty fascists. And we reasonably expect to be protected from those creeps too.

“But we might get suspended or fired!” is the response.

Well, yeah. That’s correct. And that’s immaterial. We flat-out expect cops to run into gunfire to save lives, cowards like that Florida slug aside, just like we expect firemen to run into burning houses. If doing that stuff was easy and safe, they would not get respect and be honored. See, that’s the deal. They get pay and prestige, honor and respect, because they do things other people can’t or won’t for the good of the community. It’s like soldiers – the troops don’t get thanked for their service because their job is kick-back and safe.

The police have discretion in how they perform their duties. One of the things that affects that is the fact that they all take an oath to defend and protect both their State and the U. S. Constitutions. That means that whatever orders they may get must be in line with those two documents. Otherwise, the orders must not be obeyed.

Please go read Schlichter's article. His writing is typically snarky, but beneath that is a very serious issue. While most police officers do the right things most of the time, there are those that enjoy the role of petty tyrant. These need to be weeded out. Their role in society should be as servants of the people, not the peoples bosses. After all, what master who hires a servant then allows the servant to tell him what he may or may not do? For that matter, will a servant be allowed to be better armed than he or she is?