Gee, I wonder where kids might get that idea?
Of course, as this lawyer points out, "The law in Texas is that if you are over the age of 21, you can LEGALLY drink alcohol and drive all over town, as long as you are not intoxicated." And the probability of being arrested even if you are legally intoxicated is about one in 200. But just because the government misleads the public with threats of jail doesn't mean parents should follow suit, does it?*
* Ed note: Don't drive drunk, or lie to your kids.
obama, democrats, RINO's and cops are America's biggest problems.
ReplyDelete7:11, Dude been smoking too much ganja.
ReplyDelete7:11,
ReplyDeleteAs most cops are Republicans your remark is somewhat all encompassing...and ironic. :~)
I'm not sure most cops are Republicans, 9:33, historically the police unions all lean Democrat.
ReplyDeleteNot just the cops but the highway signs too. We pay to be threatened and constantly reminded how many of us are dead on Texas Highways.
ReplyDeleteAs a police officer for many years, I've had my share of parents attempt to scare their children. "If you don't be good that police officer will take you to jail". When this happens and I hear it, I say in the nicest voice, "Little One, I don't take children to jail, I take bad parents".
ReplyDeleteKids need to be very careful of interactions with cops these days. Cops seem to be out there only looking for the bad in people and seem to use their discretion to help rather than arrest less and less. A 16 year old girl who has overdosed on ecstasy is more likely to be arrested than merely helped. IMHO.
ReplyDelete@8:19 who wrote, "I take bad parents"
ReplyDeleteIf that were the case, the jails would be swamped.
Also, threatening to take kids' parents away from them isn't much better than the parents scaring the kids. Ask any young'un with a parent in jail if you don't believe it.
People shouldn't tell kids cops will take them to jail if the misbehave, but I wouldn't blame parents of young black boys for telling them the cops might shoot them.
ReplyDeleteEver since the bad old days of the 1960's-70's we on the right have been very pro-cop. But things are changing and everyone, right and left, need to take notice: our friendly neighborhood cops are now black-clad, tactical-equipment wearing bullies. That they still face bad guys and dangerous situations is obvious, but this willingness to face danger seems to have morphed into a seige-mentality, us-vs-them paradigm which leads to an arrest-everybody-lie-about-what-they-did practice.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately some of our brave "protect and serve" a cops have become a hit squad intent on bothering people who are just minding their own business.
Police departments need to take a critical inward look at what they are doing and how they are perceived.
Children should be afraid of police officers. We document child sex crimes committed by cops and this year is off to a banner start with child sex rings within three departments exposed along with several dozen officers convicted of molestation including five police chiefs and many other high ranking officers.
ReplyDeletePlease visit our page, share it with your friends and family, and most of all, warn all your children: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-to-survivors-of-child-sexual-assault-by-law-enforcement-officers/180584842010594
WTF
DeleteBefore this GFB Post gets out of hand, let it be known that just because a few comment in the negative about cops, we all know good and well that the majority of cops are not bad.
ReplyDeleteThe negative comments are a gimmie when you take into consideration that their are a shit-load of people that used to be kids or have kids and witnessed bad cops getting away with being bad due to the good cops being in on the blue wall of silence conspiracy, their supervisors & trainers at the academy advising them to look away, and the I.A. fake investigations that put bad cops back on the beat.
Bad Cops, Bad Cops, what you gonna do when they come for you?
Kids will hear other kids at school, in the park, in the ally or at camp tell of horror stories (some embellished some not) while some watch Cops Re-Loaded with adults and see those complying getting jumped on as the lay prone, squashed into the ground, roughed up, tased, etc... After seeing what following orders gets some, the lesson goes out to run like hell.
Good Cops, Good Cops what you gonna do when they don't help you?
Then with it being 2014 and the internet being cast from coast to coast, it's only a matter of time before kids learn about the nasty cops and the brutal cops that drown out the good cops. They can Tweet til their fingers fall off, but as long as we have police departments that allow for the bad cops to be bad and the good are told to look away, the community as a whole will never fully trust them alone with your kids, wife, dog, or life. It was a good try though.
Police Chief Brown, please tear down this blue wall.
ReplyDeleteWhen kids can't tell the dif between a cop gang and a street gang - Dallas, we have a problem and tweeting about it is insulting to kids.
If you really really wish to win over the trust kids have in cops, you have to dismantle the gang mentality and show the public that you mean business each and every time a rotten one starts to stink, not afterward.
Never ever trust a cop.
ReplyDeletePolice have chosen and made their own reputation. May they enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI looked in on the FaceBook page about peace officers charged with, accused of, and convicted of various forms of child abuse. Pretty gruesome stuff. The link is at 10:25 in the comments.
ReplyDeleteOne of the FaceBook entries which caught my eye was a claim that New Mexico requires more training and education for hairstylists than for peace officers. The article about that is, or should be, at http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-8067-beauty-and-the-beat-cop.html
Has anyone here the knowledge, or the time to do some research about, the relative training periods in Texas for peace officers, hairstylists, plumbers, electricians, acupuncturists, food handlers, etc?
I used to teach my kids the cops were their friends and to trust cops. Not anymore. Now I teach my kids their rights so if they encounter a cop, they will not fall victim to the possible/probable shenanigans of a cop trying to reach their quota or trying to make a name for themselves.
ReplyDeleteYoung people are also targets for law enforcement's fishing schemes when pulling over young people for minor traffic violations. 9 out of 10 times these stops result in searches without probable cause.
And 11:20 am, I wish that I "knew" that the majority of cops are not bad.
Police and Prosecutor showing their love in Electra Tx.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emmoJvpSGyw&feature
@Doran: The training requirements for peace officers can be found at the TCLEOSE (or TCLE?) website. The training varies from Basic, Intermediate, Advanced...you get the idea. The training standards cannot be elevated too high or the predominant rural communities would not be able to afford/send candidates to training. Therefore, the majority rural areas "dilute" the quality standard that large agencies often surpass (e.g. DPS, DPD, APD, etc.)
ReplyDeleteYou can find some licensing standards for other occupational careers at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. There are some other regulated occupations at various other state agencies. I know at one time, an individual could be bipolar and thus disqualified to be a commissioned security officer while being fully eligible to be a licensed peace officer. Whether this is true anymore is unknown.
I find it ironic but not really all that amusing that LEO tweet out this stupidity about parents not scaring their kids regarding
ReplyDelete"mister policeman" when it's the
brain dead POS power mad thug pinned to a badge that has NO
effing problem slapping handcuffs on an 8 year old school kid for conduct that was considered harmless and normal behavior 40 years ago. So in words of one syllable.....F**K THE COPS. They are the source of the problem far more often than the solution.
I don't know where you all live, but where I live I am quite happy telling the children who I have responsibility for to go to a policeman if they are in trouble. If the community you live in isn't like that, then you have some work to do. Sitting around griping on chat boards won't get the work done.
ReplyDeleteAnd re the anti-drunk driving PSAs: you've got to be kidding me. Everyone of drinking age knows that having one normal drink won't put you over .08. No one is being deceived here. Are the PSAs examples of rhetorical excess to advocate a particular point of view? Sure. But if you don't want to be exposed to rhetorical excesses, then you need to get off the grid and retire to the boonies of Alaska, because you have no place in the 21st century, or the 20th, or the 19th, or the 18th, or the .... (Please note the subtle use of rhetorical excess to make a point.) And the PSAs at least advocate behaviors that promote the health and safety of children, and old people, and mothers, and fathers, and the disabled, and stray dogs, and armadillos. (Rhetorical excess again. You get the idea.)
"Are the PSAs examples of rhetorical excess to advocate a particular point of view? Sure."
ReplyDeleteCouldn't the same be said of parents who tell their children the police will take them to jail if they misbehave? If you endorse "use of rhetorical excess to make a point," why is one okay but not the other?
Where I live, it's a 50/50 judgment call whether calling the police when there's trouble is a good idea. Sometimes they help, sometimes they're more likely to arrest the complainant and their involvement make things worse.
the psa's are nothing more than marketing tools to take more taxpayer money and convert that money into police salarys, jail salarys, court salarys, prosecutor salarys, etc... notice - the police are not supposed to be your friends. the system is intentionally designed to be adversarial, and the cops are supposed to be the enemy, not your buddy. the jail staff are not supposed to be your friend, but your enemy. same with the prosecutor. the defense counsel is supposed to be on your side. and the judges are supposed to be neutral. yet today, all these folks "collaborate". collaboration of all these folks is the enemy. criminals no longer are subject to swift certain punishment - just system gamesmanship. the time has come to segregate all the players - police are supposed to be checked and balanced by the prosecutors. defense counsel is supposed to check and balance the prosecutors. the jusge is supposed to check and balance the lawyers. yet in todays world - they are all in some sort of stupid "partnerships". the oringinal system was all about checks and balances. todays system is all about "compromise" among the players. partnerships collaborations is the root cause for why no one has any confidence in todays rendition of the judicial system. when tall the players work together - the checks and balances - completely disappear.
ReplyDelete"Couldn't the same be said of parents who tell their children the police will take them to jail if they misbehave? If you endorse "use of rhetorical excess to make a point," why is one okay but not the other?"
ReplyDeleteI didn't say that parents should not tell their children that.
Parents are adults (generally) and can tell their children whatever they want. Usually, those words are said to children not to instruct them about how the world works and how to be safe in a world of dangers, but to manipulate them to change inconvenient and undesirable behaviors. Whether that is a good or bad approach is up to the parents to decide.
Myself, I have never used that approach, because I don't believe in frightening children in order to make life easier for me. I've found it better to have long, patient, dreary conversations with children about the relative disadvantages of certain behaviors. Boredom is better than fear in motivating children, imho. But that's me.
8:09 writes, "I didn't say that parents should not tell their children that."
ReplyDeleteNo, the Dallas Police Association did.
"those words are said to children not to instruct them about how the world works and how to be safe in a world of dangers, but to manipulate them"
Same is true for the DWI ads, or they'd be focusing on car wrecks, deaths, etc., instead of "go to jail."
I invite all of you posting here who think being a cop is a walk in the park to get your certification, walk a beat with us for a year and then come back and tell us how you feel about the job then.
ReplyDeleteNot all of us are bad, not all of us abuse people but all of us are tired of being portrayed as ignorant knuckle-dragging thugs who care more about covering up for bad cops then with protecting our communities.
It is very easy to sit behind a computer and talk trash about a profession you have no practical experience in, much harder to get out here and do the job a lot of you either won't do yourselves or cannot do for yourself.
9/21/14 12:29 wrote: "all of us are tired of being portrayed as ignorant knuckle-dragging thugs who care more about covering up for bad cops then with protecting our communities"
ReplyDeleteThe way to change perception is to change behavior. Stop "covering up for bad cops" (the raisson d'etre of most police associations, btw) and folks won't think that way. It's indisputable that 10% or less of officers cause 80-90% of the serious problems. Most cops aren't out there beating people up or intentionally cutting corners to pump up arrest numbers. But when some do, their colleagues typically won't "rat them out" because of the same us-vs-them bunker mentality that makes you feel entitled to anonymously pronounce how "all" cops feel.
A ride-along won't change the fact that you probably wouldn't report, say, a steroid-using or alcohol-abusing colleague to your supervisors. Hell, you don't even comment publicly under your own name, why should we think you'll stand up and be counted on the job where you might risk professional blowback?
The public perceptions of police that worry you will persist until cops who care about their reputations begin to help Internal Affairs rein in or get rid of their misbehaving colleagues instead of looking the other way. Just being a good cop yourself is not enough. If you're not actively helping police your peers as vigorously at you do your beat, you can't really blame outsiders for the perception of a double standard that selectively tolerates lawlessness.
As for your final paragraph, channeling your inner Jack Nicholson doesn't change the fact that your salary is paid by taxpayers to whom you are accountable and to whom you may be required to explain your actions, or in the case of the subject of this blog post (I realize we've strayed far off topic) - official misinformation campaigns.