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Re: “The Year We Wish it Were: Historical Revisions to 2009”
Regarding ctwheby's comment.
Thank you. You very concisely wrote what I've been feeling for years.
It's a misconception that the Police have the hardest job, but that they do have a great deal of responsibility for their actions. Or rather, they should.
I'm inclined to think that the "whining cops" make up a smaller percentage of our local force, and that honorable cops are in the majority. Trouble is, in order to weed out the whiners, the more respectable will have to take it upon themselves to educate their fellow public servants. "Public Servants" being the operative words that whining cops seem to forget.
I've been pulled over several times for very bogus reasons by several police officers who were on obvious power trips. I've been threatened, harassed, profiled, and hit by a drive-by pepper spraying. I had guns drawn on me for riding a skateboard after 8pm, in a Safeway parking lot. No arrests on my record, and one ticket for a traffic infraction.
I have ever reason to be making negative generalizations about the police in our lovely city. And yet, when I've needed them, they have been there overwhelmingly and respectfully. And I have met more professional and honorable police officers in Portland than I have the whining "bad eggs". The trick is, I want the honorable professionals to police their own. Like it or not, they are marginalized when the feces hits the oscillator.
I understand the need for a Police Union, and that they should "stick together" for mutual support. But if good men and women are saying nothing when one or two of their own make bone-headed decisions, they look just as bad, if not more so than the "Christopher Humphreys" that keep making headlines. It's a tightrope between doing what is right, and getting kicked out of the union.
Whiners, shut up and quit attacking the people you swore an oath to protect. Do your chosen profession with dignity.
Honorable Police, thank you and keep it up, and see if you can't keep your less than respectable co-workers from doing further harm to the city and people you swore an oath to protect.
RSSGoing to Seattle?
Re: “Police Bureau Overspends Budget By $5million”
How about the PPB cut back on the amount of paramilitary ordinance? This isn't LA we're talking about, mini tanks and microwave weapons are just not things that Portland needs. Unless there's some sort of unseen threat that the citizens are being kept in the dark about...again.
How is it again that the PPB gets to go over budget for weapons, overtime, and rationalizing excessive violence, and the city decides to close schools again?
Doesn't crime prevention start with a good formative education? I mean, if the city is truly in favor of crime prevention, shouldn't we make sure the next generation is smarter and more capable than the preceding generation? Rather than a bunch of punks telling me that I'm old and "don't get it" when they take to the streets, I would prefer if they actually were capable of "schooling" me on a thing or two.
Instead of preparing for warfare, shouldn't the city be preparing for peace? Or hell, preparing for an onslaught of hyper-intelligent people who will actually take care of me when I'm a decrepit old fart? This is the Portland we all know and love, and financial mis-management and a lack of oversight are degrading MY BELOVED CITY.