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Try finding enough people willing to do that. I'm not willing to die with the badge on, so I will never be a police officer. But I suspect that if you ask polic

Try finding enough people willing to do that. I'm not willing to die with the badge on, so I will never be a police officer. But I suspect that if you ask police officers the same question, many of them are also not truly willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. I'm not really sure what to do about this. Surely many of those who are willing to make that sacrifice are already police officers or other first responders.

dclowd9901 9y ago
Yet, plenty of people go into the military. I call bullshit. And frankly the only people I want wearing the badge are ones who are willing to sacrifice themselves, even if it’s a much smaller number of officers being paid much more and are much more skilled.
- notwedtm 9y ago
  The military offers a much larger compensation package for your employment/service. As a LEO, you get a paycheck, and a pension. As a soldier, you get room & board, food, transportation (mostly), and all your necessities issued to you. For some people, those are worth the potential of death, where as the LEO compensation isn't. Lastly, there is a large group of people who enlist due to patriotic beliefs (i.e. "Doing your duty"/"Serving your country"). I don't see that same type of patriotism towards local LEO organizations.
  - gonational 9y ago
    While in the e.g., Army, you are likely away from your family and friends for the better part of 4 years, and if you perform much better than average, you’ll be an E4 late in your third year, earning $25k/yr. Meanwhile, cops are paid north of $50k/yr; they get to go home to their families every night, and compared to IED-laden roads and AK-47s, their risks are very minor. Also, saying the military pays for room and board is like saying prison pays for room and board; it’s not exactly the room and board you would choose, and you’re not allowed to just leave when you choose.
    - rayiner 9y ago
      In Witcheta, it’s $47k starting salary, overtime over 40 hours, and a retirement benefit equivalent to about another $25k per year.
- goblins 9y ago
  I call bullshit on this. These cops have to be willing to consider their lives less important that everyone else's. Bullshit. Yes plenty of people go into the military. For myself it was because I could not get a better job. Was I willing to die for my country, yes, but I sure as hell wasn't of the opinion I wouldn't be doing everything in my power to make sure I wasn't. I was just reading the other thread on here about the original story. The police got a proper doing on it. I bet myself before clicking the link for this one "I bet no one is speaking about the linked story just slagging the polic." Correct. Why is no one commenting on what this idiot did?
  - qaq 9y ago
    Because this idiot in some other situation can be seating in some other country. So to take out some high value US target say someone from US intelligence the only thing they have to do is to make a believable sounding call over VOIP line and they are golden especially considering the target would likely have a gun on him which will make it that much easier.
  - servantleader 9y ago
    It's called being a "Public Servant" for a reason. Meanwhile, the rest of us don't get any cushy pensions or any of forms of guaranteed stable government benefits like police do. Not trying to say they should consider themselves "less-than", more that they should be fucking servants. Police aren't the point! They are a necessary fixture to enable the real point- SAFE, LIVE CITIZENS.
    - goblins 9y ago
      Meanwhile you're not putting you life on the line to protect a public who couldn't give two shits about you. The police are is a game of heads they lose tails they don't win; what ever they do. No one wants to hear about the lives they save everyday, no one cares about when a cop is injured or killed doing their job; they deserved it right. It's one of the toughest jobs you can do; and you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Fact, society wouldn't function without the police. Fact if I was a police in America there is no way I wouldnt be armed.
banku_brougham 9y ago
Police are paid well in this country, better than the military by a long stretch. I suggest we find out how many are willing to step up and be heroes, I think there are many. Our civilization is so lacking in the honorable stoicism which would serve these personnel so well.
fatbird 9y ago
It's not, or shouldn't be, "willing to die". It's "willing to accept a heightened risk of death or injury" that every cop should be ok saying "yes, that's my job." Because time and again when you look at SWAT tactics or other situations where a cop kills someone, they were being pre-emptive. They were taking no risk at all of being hurt or killed. They pulled the trigger at the first ambiguous sign of threat, resistance, or something going wrong. They've created and valorized a mindset of taking no risk, of making sure they go home at night, of winning every encounter that always has death lurking somewhere. They've made cops chickenshit, is what they've done. Some of that is internal cop culture, "warrior cop" mentality, etc. Some of that is us having built up a lot of drama around policing and police deaths making us all think that it's a terribly dangerous job. And some of it is just a refusal to hold police accountable for mistakes, which makes erring on the side of a dead civilian preferable.

dclowd9901 9y ago

Yet, plenty of people go into the military. I call bullshit. And frankly the only people I want wearing the badge are ones who are willing to sacrifice themselves, even if it’s a much smaller number of officers being paid much more and are much more skilled.

notwedtm 9y ago
The military offers a much larger compensation package for your employment/service. As a LEO, you get a paycheck, and a pension. As a soldier, you get room & board, food, transportation (mostly), and all your necessities issued to you. For some people, those are worth the potential of death, where as the LEO compensation isn't. Lastly, there is a large group of people who enlist due to patriotic beliefs (i.e. "Doing your duty"/"Serving your country"). I don't see that same type of patriotism towards local LEO organizations.
- gonational 9y ago
  While in the e.g., Army, you are likely away from your family and friends for the better part of 4 years, and if you perform much better than average, you’ll be an E4 late in your third year, earning $25k/yr. Meanwhile, cops are paid north of $50k/yr; they get to go home to their families every night, and compared to IED-laden roads and AK-47s, their risks are very minor. Also, saying the military pays for room and board is like saying prison pays for room and board; it’s not exactly the room and board you would choose, and you’re not allowed to just leave when you choose.
  - rayiner 9y ago
    In Witcheta, it’s $47k starting salary, overtime over 40 hours, and a retirement benefit equivalent to about another $25k per year.
goblins 9y ago
I call bullshit on this. These cops have to be willing to consider their lives less important that everyone else's. Bullshit. Yes plenty of people go into the military. For myself it was because I could not get a better job. Was I willing to die for my country, yes, but I sure as hell wasn't of the opinion I wouldn't be doing everything in my power to make sure I wasn't. I was just reading the other thread on here about the original story. The police got a proper doing on it. I bet myself before clicking the link for this one "I bet no one is speaking about the linked story just slagging the polic." Correct. Why is no one commenting on what this idiot did?
- qaq 9y ago
  Because this idiot in some other situation can be seating in some other country. So to take out some high value US target say someone from US intelligence the only thing they have to do is to make a believable sounding call over VOIP line and they are golden especially considering the target would likely have a gun on him which will make it that much easier.
- servantleader 9y ago
  It's called being a "Public Servant" for a reason. Meanwhile, the rest of us don't get any cushy pensions or any of forms of guaranteed stable government benefits like police do. Not trying to say they should consider themselves "less-than", more that they should be fucking servants. Police aren't the point! They are a necessary fixture to enable the real point- SAFE, LIVE CITIZENS.
  - goblins 9y ago
    Meanwhile you're not putting you life on the line to protect a public who couldn't give two shits about you. The police are is a game of heads they lose tails they don't win; what ever they do. No one wants to hear about the lives they save everyday, no one cares about when a cop is injured or killed doing their job; they deserved it right. It's one of the toughest jobs you can do; and you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Fact, society wouldn't function without the police. Fact if I was a police in America there is no way I wouldnt be armed.

banku_brougham 9y ago

Police are paid well in this country, better than the military by a long stretch. I suggest we find out how many are willing to step up and be heroes, I think there are many. Our civilization is so lacking in the honorable stoicism which would serve these personnel so well.

fatbird 9y ago

It's not, or shouldn't be, "willing to die". It's "willing to accept a heightened risk of death or injury" that every cop should be ok saying "yes, that's my job." Because time and again when you look at SWAT tactics or other situations where a cop kills someone, they were being pre-emptive. They were taking no risk at all of being hurt or killed. They pulled the trigger at the first ambiguous sign of threat, resistance, or something going wrong. They've created and valorized a mindset of taking no risk, of making sure they go home at night, of winning every encounter that always has death lurking somewhere. They've made cops chickenshit, is what they've done. Some of that is internal cop culture, "warrior cop" mentality, etc. Some of that is us having built up a lot of drama around policing and police deaths making us all think that it's a terribly dangerous job. And some of it is just a refusal to hold police accountable for mistakes, which makes erring on the side of a dead civilian preferable.