Cops

[ksoze]

The recent H L Gates event notwithstanding, we sometimes forget what a crap job it is being a cop. They also are incorrectly profiled by TV shows and movies who exaggerate both the bad and good. The truth is probably somewhere in the murky, depressing middle as the janitor and diplomat for our problems and accidents.

Like teachers and firemen, they are generally underpaid, driven by large bureaucratic organizations and have to deal in many cases, with a cross section of our worse elements every day. Although I think the very nature of being a cop breeds a macho, hard, heavily encircled, protective group, it is easy to see why. These are the people who get to see our worse every day - not many calls to come by and see some nice folks and have a swim in their pool. Those calls are to break up a fight between a couple, extract broken bodies from twisted cars and ride in a car all day eating fast food, working unpleasant shifts and wearing vests and heavy gear. I do not know how my attitude would be each day if I spent it picking up the trash from us all day. This in no way an excuse for racial profiling or the many documented cases of police violence and corruption. But we pay these workers a crap wage and expect them to be ambassadors to all while sweeping up our ugliness everyday and trying to determine which person is a nice guy and which one may take their life in a split second. Seems like our worse jobs pay the least and our expectations are sometimes the highest.