Thanks to all those who\u2019ve been voices of reason in the cop-bashing fest that appeared in the commentary section of the last couple of blog entries here. Thanks also to those who had concerns, and took up the challenge to apply critical thinking to them. Too bad everyone couldn\u2019t manage that.
\nLet me answer some of the questions that have been repeatedly asked here:
\n\u201cWhen did the police start becoming paramilitary?\u201d Police have been paramilitary in structure for as long as anyone posting here has been alive. That\u2019s why the uniforms are similar. That\u2019s where the Sam Browne belts came from. That\u2019s why we are organized into \u201csquads\u201d or sometimes \u201cplatoons,\u201d why the rank structure includes titles like \u201clieutenant\u201d and \u201csergeant,\u201d and why the ones on state police agencies are called \u201ctroopers\u201d and work out of \u201cposts\u201d or even \u201cbarracks.\u201d \u00a0If the question is about the proliferation of patrol rifles, the rifle has been part of the police armory since the old West. Lawmen of the last quarter of the 19th Century routinely used lever action Winchesters, the \u201cassault rifles\u201d of their day, when the Army still had single-shot Springfields. If the question is about SWAT teams, it\u2019s because several armored and heavily armed men are less likely to be murdered serving a warrant than two detectives in suits with snub-nose .38s.
\n\u201cWhen did it change from \u2018peace officers\u2019 to \u2018law enforcement officers\u2019?\u201d It\u2019s been both for as long as I\u2019ve been around.
\n\u201cWhen are the good cops going to weed out the bad ones?\u201d Who the hell does anyone think has been doing it all along? Who the hell do the critics think have been investigating and charging the bad cops whose convictions they like to link to here?
\n\u201cAre you going to join Oathkeepers?\u201d The oath I took to uphold the Constitution that I took when they pinned the badge on me is enough, thanks. It don\u2019t need it refreshed. That\u2019s why it\u2019s called an \u201coath,\u201d not \u201ca short-term, revocable-at-will verbal contract.\u201d
\nFor those who don\u2019t like the drug laws: work to change them, don\u2019t focus your anger on the cops whose job is to enforce them. If working within the system isn\u2019t your thing, move to California and have a sympathetic doc write you a scrip for medical pot, or move to Amsterdam. Dumping on the cops won\u2019t help your situation.
\nAnd, for the punk who thanks God when policemen are killed (yeah, it\u2019s good that no one is expressing hate here)\u2026fella, you\u2019re one sick puppy. You need to talk it over with a qualified therapist\u2026or maybe with your parole officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thanks to all those who\u2019ve been voices of reason in the cop-bashing fest that appeared in the commentary section of the last couple of blog entries here. Thanks also to those who had concerns, and took up the challenge to apply critical thinking to them. Too bad everyone couldn\u2019t manage that. Let me answer some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}