Do the police need to "protect and serve"?

[PeeKnuckle]

 

Weigh in.

 

 

[PeeKnuckle]

[spawn622]

As the son of a retired 40 year police officer, I am tired of stories like these causing everyone to view all police officers as corrupt or not doing their jobs properly. My father was shot, by the wife, attempting to break up a domestic dispute. The husband was in custody, but the wife did not want her husband to be arrested. Luckily he was and is fine, but being an officer is one of the most thankless jobs on this planet and I will always respect my father and all his fellow officers

Yes, they should have helped this guy, no doubt. However, to answer the question here directly, 'protect and serve' doesn't mean protect and serve the people. It literally means to protect and serve the LAW. Again, these guys were wrong for not intervening and are bad cops, but all of them are not. The department covering things up is wrongs well, but I'll say it once more, all police are not corrupt.

[DUBL DUECE]

I thought it was common knowledge that police do not have to personally protect you, there was a supreme court decision back in the 70s I beleive that stated that. That is one of the main reasons I will always support conceal carry or open carry, it is your resposibility to defend yourself and when you give that up to someone else well it usually doesnt work out well. Really the police are there after a crime has been committed, I know its a cliche but when seconds count they are only minutes away, and in this case they were right there but still didnt do anything until after the crime had been committed. What you are seeing is the results of all these laws to make us "safe" all they create is an illsuion of safety nothing more.

 

Even if the guy who got attacked was packing he still proabably would have gotten stabbed, and people would argue well then what good does it do to carry? Well thats life you cant predict the future but you can be prepared, I would say he probably would have only got stabbed once and would have been able to stop the attack much quicker. When it comes down to it you can really only be responsible for yourself and your actions, I would ask in that same situation would you rather be armed or would you want to take on the guy with the knife with bare hands?

 

I would say stop giving up your resposibilities/freedom in the name of safety

[PeeKnuckle]

No one has said all cops are bad. That'd be a ridiculous thing to claim.

 

In my opinion this is a good story. It shows how things truly happen, and how the media and mayors office can sometimes spin things to make themselves look better.

 

I also have had family who were police officers. I still think many police are corrupt. Not all of them.

[spawn622]

Not you specifically PK, just making a generalized statement because I see more and more where the police are "the enemy" and it's frustrating as hell.

[ThermoNukePanda]

I'm just going to say that with power comes responsibility.   I know it's cliche, but just like a lot of superheroes and villians, police officers are human.  It's human nature that not all people are prepared or even able to handle power (or authority) bestowed upon them., with some ending up as heroes and others as villians.

 

I believe PK is pointing out that some cops (and judges, mayors, senators, presidents, etc) are ill equipped for such a position and this can lead to abuse on many levels.  We absolutely have a need for people to fill these positions however, but I feel the real issue at hand should be how the selection of these people is handled.

 

I'm sure your father was/is a fine man Spawn.  *thumbs up*

[PeeKnuckle]

The guy is a victim and a hero. The police and mayors office tried to leave him as just a victim, but he's not having any of it.

 

It just makes me think is all. I used to think our courts were a fair place where everyone was innocent until proven guilty. I haven't believed that since I was 18, when I was thrown in jail for something my two friends did, and I had nothing to do with. With that experience in mind, this story makes me wonder how many times police and mayors office across the country have done similar things.

 

You can't fight city hall.

[Dateranoth]

I can see both sides. The law is there to protect from lawsuits. A blanket law to cover the asses of cities and police officers. However, that doesn't mean that a different officer would have acted the same.  Those two could have used poor judgement or they could have been cowards. Who knows.  I don't think they guy that got attacked is owed anything. Other than credit for apprehending a murderer and an apology from the police department or officers on scene rather.