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> On the other hand people who deal with lots of grief hourly deserve some kind of protection from daily verbal abuse. hmmm.. do they? we are talking about law

> On the other hand people who deal with lots of grief hourly deserve some kind of protection from daily verbal abuse. hmmm.. do they? we are talking about law enforcement, which aside from being a public service is also _THE_ authority figure. The right to talk shit to authority is very important to me.

mc32 11y ago
Of course it is. and it should not be abridged, but we should not underestimate the abuse public servants who interact with people face daily. Ideally, there would be a way to balance this, but there isn't. So the fairest solution is for one side to take it for the team (society) and that is the public servant side (parking meter maid, police, bus driver, dmv employees, social services employees, etc. Still, it's not fair and I certainly would not work as public employee dealing with people who unload their problems on the face of the state.
derefr 11y ago
It seems to me that they deserve protection from abuse the same way disaster-cleanup people deserve protection from biohazards and radiation: by limiting their total lifetime exposure. If being a police officer was, say, a five-year-limit tour-of-duty, which wouldn't be followed by retirement but rather by sponsored retraining (as for drafted soldiers after a war), I think we'd see a lot more people willing to become police. It'd be like joining the domestic peace corps!
- tempestn 11y ago
  That's an interesting idea. I would think limited 'tours of duty' might help with corruption as well.
  - minot 11y ago
    We'd need a nationwide agreement of some sort to not employ people who have already worked their quota of five years in the police force. Other than that, I would absolutely agree with the idea. Something I don't understand is how we tolerate the blue code of silence. If a police officer lies in a court of law to protect a fellow officer, they should get at a minimum the same sentence as the fellow officer in question.
Retra 11y ago
You can talk shit to authority in a newspaper, letter, public forum, or demonstration. You don't have to do it in your car or on the street. And you don't have a right to choose the time, place, and specific officer you wish to talk to by making a scene where you can't reasonably be heard anyway.

mc32 11y ago

Of course it is. and it should not be abridged, but we should not underestimate the abuse public servants who interact with people face daily. Ideally, there would be a way to balance this, but there isn't. So the fairest solution is for one side to take it for the team (society) and that is the public servant side (parking meter maid, police, bus driver, dmv employees, social services employees, etc. Still, it's not fair and I certainly would not work as public employee dealing with people who unload their problems on the face of the state.

derefr 11y ago

It seems to me that they deserve protection from abuse the same way disaster-cleanup people deserve protection from biohazards and radiation: by limiting their total lifetime exposure. If being a police officer was, say, a five-year-limit tour-of-duty, which wouldn't be followed by retirement but rather by sponsored retraining (as for drafted soldiers after a war), I think we'd see a lot more people willing to become police. It'd be like joining the domestic peace corps!

tempestn 11y ago
That's an interesting idea. I would think limited 'tours of duty' might help with corruption as well.
- minot 11y ago
  We'd need a nationwide agreement of some sort to not employ people who have already worked their quota of five years in the police force. Other than that, I would absolutely agree with the idea. Something I don't understand is how we tolerate the blue code of silence. If a police officer lies in a court of law to protect a fellow officer, they should get at a minimum the same sentence as the fellow officer in question.

Retra 11y ago

You can talk shit to authority in a newspaper, letter, public forum, or demonstration. You don't have to do it in your car or on the street. And you don't have a right to choose the time, place, and specific officer you wish to talk to by making a scene where you can't reasonably be heard anyway.