Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Monday, July 21, 2014

No, the Police Don’t Work for You

Law enforcement is a "product" we are forced to buy

“The police are worthless. I don’t know what we’re paying them for.”


That familiar, despairing lament was voiced by a friend here in Payette after his family had lost $20,000 worth of property a burglary. The crime was solved before the police intervened: Some of the pilfered property was still in possession of the suspects, who admitted that it didn’t belong to them. Working on their own initiative, my friend and his adult daughter — the primary victim — tracked down more of the stolen goods at local yard sales and garage sales.

A phone call to the Payette PD led to a visit by an officer who was courteous, professional, and who provided no practical help of any kind. He did arrest one suspect, a mentally deficient man who readily admitted to the officer that he had taken the property because an unspecified “they” had told him it was “all right” to do so.

Neither the responding officer, nor the colleague who took over the case when the first officer went on vacation, expended any effort to identify who “they” were, or to press charges against the accomplices. The case was closed with the arrest of a solitary man — a registered sex offender — who “became somewhat upset [because] he was the only one who was going to be in trouble for the thefts that occurred, because he was honest,” as an investigative report summarized.

More

5 comments:

lmclain said...

Ain't no money in busting REAL crime.
The police are no longer your friend, protector, or servant.
They are revenue enhancers for the state.
They STILL use the (expensive) time and money to bring 3-7 cops and a K-9 dog to a traffic stop (for a broken tail light) to bust someone for 5 grams of pot. the fine is worth it to the state.
Catching the responsible parties, and arresting them, for a $20,000 theft???
You're on your own. Good luck.
Note: I had 3 Diamondback bikes stolen from my shed, worth about $400 apiece. Cops took a report (to justify MORE cops). My wife found the culprits and got two of them back. Cops refused to arrest anyone. No money in it.
Keep cheering.

Anonymous said...

Shut up larry. Dont call next time then.

Stu Stinchfield said...

Serve and protect is their motto but they can not do either one and they admit it. When a woman says she feel threatened by a neighbor they say unless he actually does something they have no grounds to arrest or intervene in something that hasent happened.After the woman is raped or killed they can go into action but they have neither protected or served.It isn't their fault thats the law.If OMally and the democrats had their way that woman wouldn't even be able to protect herself with a gun they want to eliminate all the guns.

Anonymous said...

Quite the astute observation: Cops can't arrest somebody if they haven't broken a law yet. Cops aren't perfect and don't claim to be. Cops are human just like everybody else. Humans/Cops make mistakes, use bad judgement sometimes, lose their temper, etc. Everybody wants to jump on the cop hating bandwagon and play Monday Morning Quarterback judging a cop's actions based on 30 second videos that never shows what the suspect did wrong to get punched or tased. Don't get me wrong we go too far sometimes, but if you as a suspect are getting punched in the face, 95% of the time its because you dictated the situation and took it into a bad direction. If you are on the ground with a cop on top of you and he or she is saying you're under arrest and stop resisting,and you aren't putting your hands behind your back or your still trying to get up off the ground - that's resisting! That's why you're getting punched. If you are unhappy with your local law enforcement, join the department and change it from within. Not good enough? Run for an elected office and start changing laws. Become a lawyer and run for State's Attorney. There are so many things you guys could be doing to make things better but all you do is sit on here and whine. Hopefully Joe or whomever is moderating comments will have the guts to post this. Not trying to start fights just tired of the cop hating. It's kind of like complaining about politics but you never bother to vote. That makes you part of the problem.

lmclain said...

6:17....lol...I don't call the police. For anything. My wife called the police for the bikes....against my wishes. As far as cops "being human" and "making mistakes", I agree. But they have the official power to KILL. They should be accountable when they give a drunk and unarmed kid 200 stitches for saying something -- just saying something!! -- they din't like. Happens to regular citizens on a daily basis, but WE don't get to take 3 friends and a trained attack dog to beat him almost to death. Prison for "we the people". Party time for the cops. Accountability. Self control. Higher standards of behavior. All absent from the Gestapo today.
And 7:16, I supposed you missed the video of the cops striking people (already in handcuffs) with batons, night sticking PRONE suspects, macing KNEELING and HANDCUFFED kids, while laughing. AND while OTHER officers laughed.
WE go to prison for what you cops do on a regular basis. You TRY to escalate everything into a
"WE ARE THE POLICE!!!" gang attack or shooting and then say you were "afraid". The biggest bunch of sissies I've EVER seen. "Afraid" all the time. Get another job if your fear is so tremendous....