[FRIAM] ruined my friday afternoon

[Steve Smith]

On 4/30/21 4:36 PM, uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ wrote:
> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/30/colorado-police-loveland-officers-resign
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmtxTWTTdC4
>
> We met a guy the other day who countered our assertion that jury duty is a civil duty with "You don't want me on your jury!" He claimed he would *always* take the law enforcement side because anyone who's had "contact with the system" is most likely a criminal. Both Renee' and I were disgusted by the assertion. We later found out he's a union rep for prison guards and is big in Washington lobbying for guards' rights to aggressively handle prisoners. I'd just gotten over my disgust with that arbitrary dude ... then see this today. [sigh]
>
> Fucking cops.

My partner from 2 lifetimes ago (90s) was the eldest of 4, with all
three youngers being brothers in various law-enforcement roles...  CO
Game&Fish, Loveland City Police and State Parks (in a location where he
was expected to maintain a firearm in his vehicle if not on his person
at all times).  

They were all plenty nice guys but two things disturbed me in the 10
years I knew them.

1) When they got together all they could talk about at some level was
the various "dirtbags" they had to cope/deal-with and corral.  Each one
with a different perspective of course, and while it generally didn't
offend me because I heard it as "locker room talk" of sorts...  none of
it was police-abuse class talk even for a snowflake like myself, but it
was instructive to realize where two of them derived their identity
(from their authority) and the third chimed in to obtain first-class
insider status with the other two.

2) The Game and Fish and Police bros loved their guns... guns of all
kinds... they fetishized them.   When the city police fellow visited
with his family (wife and 2 pre-teens) he didn't ask, he told us that he
was required to carry his personal firearm at all times but when he was
in our house he would put it (in it's mildly misdirecting/obscuring
fanny-pack) on top of our refrigerator.   We had 4 teens living in the
house who were all tall enough to reach that weapon.   HIs kids were
young enough that while they *might* have been able to slide a chair
over and get to it, I deferred to the implicit idea that he knew their
range of behaviour and the likelihood either would mishandle a *loaded*
handgun.   He may have known his nephew and niece well enough to know
that *they* would *never* do anything risky or untoward (and in fact I
believed that myself), but he really didn't know *ME* nor my teenage
daughters (who could well have been full of hidden angst or ??).    As
it was, if I *had* been acutely worried about any of this I would have
spoken up and insisted that he handle his (required to be within reach
at all times on/off duty, even far out of his jurisdiction) weapon
differently.   My preferred handling would have been for him to lock it
in his vehicle gun-safe while visiting us, but it was clearly his
security blanket/pacifier.

He was actually a *very* reasonable cop by my standards.   He was about
6 years into his career and had taken his first policing job in Federal
Heights district Denver *because* it was a high crime area and he
thought he could/should/would bring something important to the job
there.   This was before he had children.   He lasted a year before he
decided that he needed to move back (near) home to Loveland where it was
more "Andy of Mayberry" than "Training Day".   In fact, he cited the
main reason for that shift was that his fellow officers were too Derick
Chauvin-like and that as a rookie he had no ability/opportunity to
effect that... and that he was constantly in hot water with partners,
peers, and "management" for pushing back on the way he was being trained
to handle "civilians".    It was to his credit that he realized the best
thing he could do was to retreat to "Mayberry".   This in contrast to
the general attitude about anyone from a jaywalker to a petty drug user
who he could clearly *barely* stand to accept might just be "good folks".

I'm sure he's a senior officer (he'd be in his late 50s) in Loveland but
highly unlikely to be one to bitch-slap a demented senior into
submission.   But is he one of the peers to these scumdogs who should
have seen that coming?  I'm afraid he might be.   I haven't seen him in
25 years.   A lot can change.

>