Deamonizing The Cops At OWS Is Not A Good Thing. And I'll Tell You Why.

We don't want our Cops to be professionals in this country.  Most of them don't have college degree's.  They are not educated.  They might have been in the military.  And they have been to Police Academy's.  Two places that teach you WHAT to think, not HOW to think.

So they don't know that the folks at OWS are fighting FOR them and their Unions.  They have just been told that anyone who is in violation of the law, like camping in a park, needs to be dealt with, and they go and do their job.  As they should.  The, "Thin Blue Line Between Anarchy and Civility".  The reason the whole country doesn't need to wear a gun like in the old west or what ever planet Rick Perry is living on.

I got a BS in Sociology, with and emphasis/certificate in Criminology And Corrections.  Minor in Psych.  I WANTED to get a MSW, but couldn't get accepted to Graduate School.  I had no intention of going into law enforcement.  Let alone working for the Department of Corrections and IN a prison!  I was, surely, above THAT!

But I got my first State job with Youth Corrections BECAUSE I had the BS.  I got my next job at the Juvenile Court because I had the BS.  And I got my last job, with Adult Probation And Parole because at the time, you HAD to have a BS in the Social Sciences, to get a job as an Agent.

Since then the requirements have changed.  I actually worked FOR people who didn't have college degrees by the time I retired.  I worked with some of the dumbest, most ignorant, ill informed, morons on the face of the planet.  The dumbing down of law enforcement continues to this day.

I worked with a bunch of guys who despite the fact that the Republicans in the State Legislature froze their salaries, tried to take their pension, and DID take their retirement health insurance, while keeping if for themselves (Chris Buttars has lifetime PEHP.  I don't and I have cancer from being in meth labs! How is THAT right?) would vote for them every time because they were Mormon, Republicans!

My friend, Todd, who's a Mormon Republican, but a smart one who can think for himself, told me the the truth.  He said that voters in Utah vote on, "Abortion and guns" and nothing else.

How sad.

So you have a bunch of guys, mostly military who come home, and get a job as a Cop.  Most of them do a great job.  But, they are not the folks who will say, "Sir?  That order is just not RIGHT!"

They do what they are told, even when it's against their own self interest, because they need the job!  What are these guys going to do?  Quit and write a book?  Go into computers?   No.  They trained to do what they were told to do, and they do it.

The guys with degrees get to be detectives, or in my department, Agents.  But in the Utah Department of Corrections, you advance by being stupid, and subservient.  Not Smart.  If you question authority, you get in trouble.  I did many times.

And the guys pepper spraying old people in Seattle, or New York?  It's wrong, but it's what we expect of our Cops.  Even though they don't know that they are doing themselves a bad thing.

If we still had Unions for public employees, who could educate and protect the jobs of these guys, who said, "NO!  I won't pepper spray Grandma for standing up for herself!" we wouldn't have this behavior.

But since we don't?  Don't beat up the Cops.  They need that job.  Just like the guy at Wal Mart.  Or McDonald's, or anywhere else they can't have a real, effective, Union.

Think about it.