On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 04:59:02 -0700, "Tom Sixkiller"
wrote:


It used be charged under "Disturbing the Peace", but that was before police
spent half their time on "drug enforcement" or "revenue gathering". Barely
thirty years ago, that was the primary function of smaller town police (any
sort of disturbance), but now...

There is a problem with your theory Tom. As a police officer for
almost 15 years there are even rules that we have to follow. As far
as disturbing the peace, where I was from, there had to be a
complaintant. The police officers Peace could not be broken. He can
be cussed at, yelled at, have a car go right beside him with the glass
pulsating from the base, what ever and he can not do anything about
it. But if I had a citizen complain about it, then I could. It is
the courts that have made it that way. They would throw the case out
without someone else complaining. And as far as your "drug
enforcement" and "Revenue gathering" comment, Most of my 10 hour
shift consisted of going call to call. And I would say approximately
80% +- 10% of those calls involved alcohol or drugs in one fashion or
another. Either it was a domestic violence situation where one or all
parties involved had something on board or a burglary or theft so the
thief could get some quick cash for their fix. If I brought back 2
tickets to the station at the end of my shift that would be a good
night. And that is usually because someone did something real stupid
in front of me and half a dozen other people and they all look at me
like "Well, you going to stop him".

So stop your generalization of officers. Most out there are trying to
do thier job and do it right. I am not saying that there are a few
out there that do make us look bad, just like here in the aviation
world. I have been a pilot for almost 8 years now and have seen my
share of people who dont care about what others think and bust Fars
all the time. But it is the system that ties their hands and prevents
them from doing things, not because they dont want to.

Scott