imported post
I really don't like the idea suicide-by-cop either. (somebody PLEASE think of a better term!)But it's not a new phenomena. I was watching the Starz Westerns channel just the other day. In one movie the bad guy forced the Marshall into one last shootout, that he knew he couldn't win, just so he could go out with guns blazing. I'm sure we've all seen dozens of movies like that. I wish someone would come up with a better name for it than suicide-by-cop. The real victim is the cop who was forced to pull the trigger. No matter what you think of policemen the one thing they don't relish is shooting people. Anyone who straps on a gun in the morning and thinks "Goody,this may be the day I get to shoot someone" is a nutjob. What anyone who straps on a gun in the morning should be thinking is, "what if this is the day I am forced to shoot someone."
Now fair is fair folks. And if I have to play Volar the Refereethen so be it.
You can go to the circus. You can ride the rides. Play the games. Eat the cotton candy. You can buy the circus t-shirt. You can then say, honestly say, been there-done that. Buteven though you stepped right into the elephant dung you still weren't IN the Circus.
Now Johnny Law didn't say that he'd been the one who pulled the trigger. You only have to be on scene either before, during or after to "have been there". And you do not have to be in a bad area to see an awfullot in a decade. Especially in recent decades. Personally I was never in a S-B-C encounter but I do know an officer who was. I was off that night. But I read all of the reports. I talked with him about it andsaw how it effected him. I talked to the other guys who were there too. Does this make me qualified to comment on the matter?I really don't know exactly how it feels. But I know enough to be thankful that I don't know more.
As for as Trigger Doc's comments of "Just too many 'been there done that' items", followed by"No, I do not want to share my experiences"? How many times have we heard about when you were "on the bench as a lower court judge"? (Remember there is a search feature) Yet I don't recall anyone calling your integrity into question. Even after we learned that your bench experience was in a different state with different laws. And you "only" did that for four years. But think about how much you DID see in those four years.I bet you saw so much that it's actually hard to remember it all, didn't you? Plus what you saw when you wore the badge. Now, like me, you're a dinosaur. But what we experienced back then is just as valid as what Johnny is experiencing today.
Yes, Johnny can be a little abrasive at times. It's a traithe shares with many of us here. It's comes with honesty. Honesty is seldom pretty. Plus, he's a copnot a novelist.He started on this forum by doing a little trolling. I think it was because he didn't quite understand what we were all about. And it took him some time to sort us all out. Now he could have just brushed us off and went on about his life. But he stayed around. He took some time to get to know and understand the various people and personalities here. And you must admit we have some characters here. He has since progressed to actually becoming a contributing member. I didn't like him at first either. Hell's Bells we still ain't busom buddies. But I do respect him. And his recent posts are much more signal and a lot less noise. And that's more than I can say for a lot of members.
We should all be thankful to have a working cop amongst our ranks. Trigger and me and a few others can only talk about the good ol' days. Look at the working LEO's on some of the other states on OCDO. At least we have one who tries to understand us. Don't we owe him the same consideration?
