Originally Posted by motor_oil_madman
I live in a small town of only like 9,000 people and it's only like a 4 or 5 mile radius. Ever since I was little I've seen the cops go to a call in packs, generally no less than 4-6 cop cars all following in tandem to a call. Just a couple weeks ago I was heading home and saw 5 cop cars hauling [censored] over to a broken down vehicle in the middle of the road. Now it was rush hour, but I didn't see the need for 5 cop cars, maybe one but that's about it. What's the reason for this? Lately though I haven't seen the fire truck and rapid response vehicle that usually comes along too. Now I've never claimed to know what police do from day to day, but am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous?
As you said, you don't know what the police do. Typically, they don't respond 5 deep with lights and sirens to a broken down car. What you saw and assumed was a broken down car in the middle of the road, was possibly much more. Perhaps it was a bank robber that ran out of gas on the highway? Perhaps it was a suicidal subject that decided to make a huge traffic jam and stop his car in the middle of a highway, while holding a gun to his head? Perhaps a domestic related incident, where a female was pushed out of a car at speed? There are literally a million "what if" scenarios that "just looks like a broken down car" as you are passing, when it could be a much more serious incident.
When I was a police officer, if was quite annoying, and rather insulting to have a "tax paying citizen" stop me in the middle of what I'm doing, to tell me how to do my job. For instance, I was literally fighting for my life to handcuff a guy, who was a two time loser released from prison. This guy KNEW if he went back, it was likely for life. Not to mention he had robbed someone that morning and sliced them up with a knife for not being as compliant of a victim as he preferred. So here I am, fighting this guy, he literally snaps my taser in half, leaving me without that very wonderful tool, and starts reaching for my gun. Basically a fight for my life. After the handcuffs are on, and Im wiping the blood away from my eyes, little miss moron "tax payer" comes over and scolds me for being so forceful and mean to that poor down trodden homeless man. You see lady, I was forceful for a reason. This is a junkie robber, who thinks nothing of slicing and dicing people for $20 so he can get his next fix. You ever wonder why the "Robbery Homicide" dept is called that, in large cities? Because robbery ALWAYS turns into homicide. If you have an armed robber, doing enough robberies, eventually he is going to kill someone. They start out at theft, then burglaries, then robberies, and almost 100% of the time if they do it long enough, eventually homicides. So yes, this was a very dangerous guy that needed off the streets and I was going to do everything in my power to arrest him. You see, in the state of Florida the law specifically says that I can use whatever force necessary to arrest a violent scoundrel. We prefer when they comply, but will absolutely go toe to toe with a bad guy if we have to.
Or how about the time I'm pointing a gun at some very dangerous home invasion suspects in a felony stop who have already killed two people, and here comes Sally Do-Gooder tax payer, who walks right up to me to "insist that I put my guns away" and ask the bad guys to nicely comply, because she is sure of it that had I just been nice and asked, Mr. nice bad guys would have surely just handcuffed themselves and placed themselves in the back of my police car with a cordial and polite smile on their face. She continued to dress me down and call me every name in the book for having the gall to point guns and take down violent felons. I mean, what the heck was I thinking? These guys are facing a life sentence if caught, and would do anything to get away, I'm sure they are nice and compliant fellows that wouldn't think twice about killing a cop, right?
Basically, I can sympathize with the public that wants professional law enforcement, and their tax dollars used justly and appropriately, but the vast majority have NO idea what law enforcement does, or why they do it. For instance, I once knocked on a door of a house for some reason, as I had reason to speak to the homeowner. I can't remember why, and it wasn't really important, but I knocked on the door, and then stepped to the side behind a pillar. Every cop in America doesn't stand in door ways, especially at night. They step to the side of the door way, or get behind cover. Door ways are called fatal funnels, and that's where the bullets start flying WHEN they start flying. So door ways are classic danger zones to any cop. Homeowner gets rather ornery and mad that I wasn't standing right there at the door for him. He was livid that I was 4 feet away behind a pillar. Sorry, I don't care if you get mad. I don't stand in door ways. Not at your house, not at the bad guys house, not any time, not ever. Get mad. I don't care. I use tactics (the dark and cover) to get home to my loved ones at night.
