The level of discourse had always been contentious in our department, but on 12/20/2008 it reached a level of depravity that shames us all.
I have long warned that politics played a major role in our department, everything from how many TASERs we have, to the color of our patrol vehicles depends on how well we sell ourselves to the citizens. Even the type of legal representation we have as officers depends on how well someone was able to convince you to join their group. We all know legal defense is critical in this job, especially in current times where a suspect’s whim is tomorrow’s IA complaint. And we have always enjoyed a level of confidentiality in our Internal Affairs department; after all, it is called “internal” affairs, and not external laundry airing. This level of confidence is essential to having complete and thorough investigations to either exonerate our fellow officers, or dole out the punishment they deserve. Never has the politics between the two labor groups crossed the line of violating that confidence until now.
By now you may know that three of our officers in Mesa had their dirty laundry aired out in the East Valley Tribune, all in the name of damning the Mesa Police Association. The IA complaints, like most of them, warrant investigation and if wrongdoing is found, then it must be corrected. But to invoke a “leak” of admonished information from IA for personal gain is not only unethical, is near illegal. And finally, to take that information and sell it to media to benefit your labor organization goes beyond unethical; it is unspeakable and shameful to your badge and the oath of office we all took.
I ask all of you to stop the arguing for a moment and think about what just happened. It should scare the hell out of you that a fellow officer felt it necessary to do this. When will it stop? Are you next? Am I next? Have you done something to the FOP that would warrant your IA file in the open media? Who knows? The officers that stand accused in these cases might have made bad choices, but do those choices warrant a public shaming all in the name of benefiting one labor group?
No matter what group you belong to, you must admit that this is low. Now is the time to take a stand against this and bring civility back to the debate.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Unethical Police
The level of discourse had always been contentious in our department, but on 12/20/2008 it reached a level of depravity that shames us all.
I have long warned that politics played a major role in our department, everything from how many TASERs we have, to the color of our patrol vehicles depends on how well we sell ourselves to the citizens. Even the type of legal representation we have as officers depends on how well someone was able to convince you to join their group. We all know legal defense is critical in this job, especially in current times where a suspect’s whim is tomorrow’s IA complaint. And we have always enjoyed a level of confidentiality in our Internal Affairs department; after all, it is called “internal” affairs, and not external laundry airing. This level of confidence is essential to having complete and thorough investigations to either exonerate our fellow officers, or dole out the punishment they deserve. Never has the politics between the two labor groups crossed the line of violating that confidence until now.
By now you may know that three of our officers in Mesa had their dirty laundry aired out in the East Valley Tribune, all in the name of damning the Mesa Police Association. The IA complaints, like most of them, warrant investigation and if wrongdoing is found, then it must be corrected. But to invoke a “leak” of admonished information from IA for personal gain is not only unethical, is near illegal. And finally, to take that information and sell it to media to benefit your labor organization goes beyond unethical; it is unspeakable and shameful to your badge and the oath of office we all took.
I ask all of you to stop the arguing for a moment and think about what just happened. It should scare the hell out of you that a fellow officer felt it necessary to do this. When will it stop? Are you next? Am I next? Have you done something to the FOP that would warrant your IA file in the open media? Who knows? The officers that stand accused in these cases might have made bad choices, but do those choices warrant a public shaming all in the name of benefiting one labor group?
No matter what group you belong to, you must admit that this is low. Now is the time to take a stand against this and bring civility back to the debate.
I have long warned that politics played a major role in our department, everything from how many TASERs we have, to the color of our patrol vehicles depends on how well we sell ourselves to the citizens. Even the type of legal representation we have as officers depends on how well someone was able to convince you to join their group. We all know legal defense is critical in this job, especially in current times where a suspect’s whim is tomorrow’s IA complaint. And we have always enjoyed a level of confidentiality in our Internal Affairs department; after all, it is called “internal” affairs, and not external laundry airing. This level of confidence is essential to having complete and thorough investigations to either exonerate our fellow officers, or dole out the punishment they deserve. Never has the politics between the two labor groups crossed the line of violating that confidence until now.
By now you may know that three of our officers in Mesa had their dirty laundry aired out in the East Valley Tribune, all in the name of damning the Mesa Police Association. The IA complaints, like most of them, warrant investigation and if wrongdoing is found, then it must be corrected. But to invoke a “leak” of admonished information from IA for personal gain is not only unethical, is near illegal. And finally, to take that information and sell it to media to benefit your labor organization goes beyond unethical; it is unspeakable and shameful to your badge and the oath of office we all took.
I ask all of you to stop the arguing for a moment and think about what just happened. It should scare the hell out of you that a fellow officer felt it necessary to do this. When will it stop? Are you next? Am I next? Have you done something to the FOP that would warrant your IA file in the open media? Who knows? The officers that stand accused in these cases might have made bad choices, but do those choices warrant a public shaming all in the name of benefiting one labor group?
No matter what group you belong to, you must admit that this is low. Now is the time to take a stand against this and bring civility back to the debate.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Lazy cop or lazy American?
Last week I had the privilege of attending a union recruiting function at our police department, and it left me with a strange question, Are Americans lazy, even when it comes to their own future?
I know there has been a thousand articles written since the election about the American sense of entitlement which reared it ugly head in a very public way, but I really wanted to believe that Americans, as a whole, were not content to sit and wait for success to come to them. Apparently I held on to this faith despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.
A young officer was supposed to tell the class of new recruits why they should join his union over a another, and the vehicle chose to deliver his message was a personal story. He told the class that he “got into some trouble” over an excessive force complaint and needed union help. He expressed dismay at the situation, after all, in his words he “had beat up people all the time and never got in trouble for it…” He continued to say, “I needed help and couldn’t find it, or maybe help couldn’t find me.” He went on to tell of how he was forced to contact an old police sergeant who gave him advice on which lawyer to call, and how this may have saved his career. I was so bewildered with the few things I quoted above that I almost missed him reiterate this point, in these words, “lets just say help didn’t find me.”
This left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I asked my partner what he thought about it and he dismissed the whole thing as a young dumb cop spouting off. I on the other hand couldn’t shake the feeling this guy was the epitome of America right now. He stood there with simple arrogance and proclaimed that help simply did not find him. As if the help he needed was entitled to him because he existed and that was all. His phrase made me reflect on the millions of people who proclaimed in one voice on November 4th that help needed to come to them.
This ideal goes against everything I have ever been taught about being an American, let alone a police officer. Americans pull themselves up by the bootstraps and carry on. Even when times are hard, we use the goal of the American Dream to fuel our drive and we move forward. I know because I have been there. When my wife and I were married we had a broken car, very modest income, and one couch. We decided a long time ago that we were going to succeed without handouts or bailouts. Our journey is far from over, but we wake up everyday and press onward, never expecting anything to just “come our way”. That was the way I was raised, I knew of no other alternative than success at all costs.
And as far as being a cop is concerned, since when do we allow fate to dictate anything? I have seen people survive 8 bullet wounds to the body, I know people who were left for dead and came back to be stronger than ever. These people did not wait for help to come to them they literally pulled themselves up, sometimes with one arm, and survive.
And perhaps that is the answer to this plaguing question; there are still some of us out there. There are still people who wake up with nothing, and work all day to get to that somewhere someday. These people will rise to the top, or die trying, but will never be content to wait for “it” to come to them.
So maybe some Americans are lazy and have taken the easy road, but that’s all right. Because for every ten people who stand by waiting, there is one who is ready to take the reigns and move forward. And these are the true Americans.
I know there has been a thousand articles written since the election about the American sense of entitlement which reared it ugly head in a very public way, but I really wanted to believe that Americans, as a whole, were not content to sit and wait for success to come to them. Apparently I held on to this faith despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.
A young officer was supposed to tell the class of new recruits why they should join his union over a another, and the vehicle chose to deliver his message was a personal story. He told the class that he “got into some trouble” over an excessive force complaint and needed union help. He expressed dismay at the situation, after all, in his words he “had beat up people all the time and never got in trouble for it…” He continued to say, “I needed help and couldn’t find it, or maybe help couldn’t find me.” He went on to tell of how he was forced to contact an old police sergeant who gave him advice on which lawyer to call, and how this may have saved his career. I was so bewildered with the few things I quoted above that I almost missed him reiterate this point, in these words, “lets just say help didn’t find me.”
This left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I asked my partner what he thought about it and he dismissed the whole thing as a young dumb cop spouting off. I on the other hand couldn’t shake the feeling this guy was the epitome of America right now. He stood there with simple arrogance and proclaimed that help simply did not find him. As if the help he needed was entitled to him because he existed and that was all. His phrase made me reflect on the millions of people who proclaimed in one voice on November 4th that help needed to come to them.
This ideal goes against everything I have ever been taught about being an American, let alone a police officer. Americans pull themselves up by the bootstraps and carry on. Even when times are hard, we use the goal of the American Dream to fuel our drive and we move forward. I know because I have been there. When my wife and I were married we had a broken car, very modest income, and one couch. We decided a long time ago that we were going to succeed without handouts or bailouts. Our journey is far from over, but we wake up everyday and press onward, never expecting anything to just “come our way”. That was the way I was raised, I knew of no other alternative than success at all costs.
And as far as being a cop is concerned, since when do we allow fate to dictate anything? I have seen people survive 8 bullet wounds to the body, I know people who were left for dead and came back to be stronger than ever. These people did not wait for help to come to them they literally pulled themselves up, sometimes with one arm, and survive.
And perhaps that is the answer to this plaguing question; there are still some of us out there. There are still people who wake up with nothing, and work all day to get to that somewhere someday. These people will rise to the top, or die trying, but will never be content to wait for “it” to come to them.
So maybe some Americans are lazy and have taken the easy road, but that’s all right. Because for every ten people who stand by waiting, there is one who is ready to take the reigns and move forward. And these are the true Americans.
Monday, December 8, 2008
1104 E. Backwards Avenue
"I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment," Obama said at a news conference. "Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven't indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word." Barack Obama as quoted by Chicago Sun Times on 12/8/2008.
This quote from the President Elect made my wife and I always cry with laughter. Forget the fact that Obama was the most ludicrous legislator when it came to gun control, focus on this quote and juxtapose it with all of the recent examples showing he has more back pedaling power that John Effing Kerry.
Remember during the campaign how adamantly Obama went after the “big oil” companies for their windfall profits? I do, in fact I can tell you on which pages of his “Obama/Biden Manifesto for Change” he proposed taxing them, simply because of the profits. Now that he has formed the Office of the President Elect, he has done a 180 on the taxing and blamed the poor economy. His words, and I have to paraphrase them, were something to the effect that when gas prices were high, that was the time to tax the companies, now that the gas prices are low, we will let them have their profits. After all, what’s fair about taxing three billion as opposed to five billion?
Follow that flip flop with the reversal on the “reversal” of the Bush tax cuts, and the change of mind on Iraq, and you have a bicycle that successfully goes backwards, right over the road that was paved for it. But that’s a topic for another time.
If Barack Obama is so willing to run right back over the liberal base that elevated him to power, how willing do you think he will be to stomp on conservative gun owners? After all, we see how easy it is for him to go back on campaign promises. So when Obama says, “I think people can take me at my word”, I have to say, that’s the problem, we are.
This quote from the President Elect made my wife and I always cry with laughter. Forget the fact that Obama was the most ludicrous legislator when it came to gun control, focus on this quote and juxtapose it with all of the recent examples showing he has more back pedaling power that John Effing Kerry.
Remember during the campaign how adamantly Obama went after the “big oil” companies for their windfall profits? I do, in fact I can tell you on which pages of his “Obama/Biden Manifesto for Change” he proposed taxing them, simply because of the profits. Now that he has formed the Office of the President Elect, he has done a 180 on the taxing and blamed the poor economy. His words, and I have to paraphrase them, were something to the effect that when gas prices were high, that was the time to tax the companies, now that the gas prices are low, we will let them have their profits. After all, what’s fair about taxing three billion as opposed to five billion?
Follow that flip flop with the reversal on the “reversal” of the Bush tax cuts, and the change of mind on Iraq, and you have a bicycle that successfully goes backwards, right over the road that was paved for it. But that’s a topic for another time.
If Barack Obama is so willing to run right back over the liberal base that elevated him to power, how willing do you think he will be to stomp on conservative gun owners? After all, we see how easy it is for him to go back on campaign promises. So when Obama says, “I think people can take me at my word”, I have to say, that’s the problem, we are.
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