Are They Feeling Safe Yet?

It's nice to have lots and lots of cops.

Professional, polite, athletic, well-groomed, well-trained and disciplined - egad - we're a pleasure to have around.
*/sarcasm*

From the UK Guardian:

Oakley, Michigan, is not a hotbed of crime. But if that should change, it seems well placed to cope, because the village is believed to have a police force numbering almost 150 people, or one officer for every two residents.

One, Robert James Ritchie, does not live in Oakley. A Detroit-area native better known as the rapper Kid Rock, he applied to join the village’s small army of reserve police officers, according to an attorney, along with many prominent Michigan professionals and businesspeople and a football player for the Miami Dolphins.

“A small blip on the map, the little village of Oakley, with less than 300 residents, has got dozens and dozens of no-show secret police officers,” said Philip Ellison, a lawyer who is representing the family who own Oakley’s tavern in lawsuits attempting to force transparency from village leaders about the scheme.

HALT! Or I'll bling you!

Ellison said the singer was one of the names on a document released to him which he is not allowed to make public in full.

“None of the reservists, with the exception of one, live within an hour and a half of the village of Oakley,” said Ellison. He and others say the police force is in effect running a “pay to play” scheme with parallels to the controversy in Tulsa, Oklahoma that erupted after a wealthy white 73-year-old reserve deputy with close links to the sheriff shot dead a black man during a botched sting operation after apparently mistaking his gun for his Taser.

This mindset is alien to me. This village participates in some kind of egotistical, role playing, masturbatory exercise. Wearing a badge and gun is no way to get your jollies.

After 24 years as a cop I couldn't wait to get out. I was sick of the petty politics (external and internal) and the number of mindless Satan's minions that clog our courts and prisons. Add to that the lawsuit happy attorneys desperate to second guess every decision you make and the liberal media hoping, praying that you screw up. And even if you did the right thing, they're more than happy to scream to the heavens that you didn't.

Having said that, it is a honorable profession that needs honorable people. Pinning a badge to your chest does not make you honorable. That happens prior to taking the oath and should be a primary concern when selecting potential recruits. Matters of sex and race, political affiliation, ethnic background - none of it should enter into the equation.

IMHO, the first recorded crime was homicide, not prostitution: we are the oldest profession.