Cops

[Brian Koontz]

Poor cops. Now is the very worst time for them. They are as much villians as heroes... and in the normative schizophrenic culture that we live in they are always both villians and heroes.

Do a good job and noone notices. Do a bad job and the national news is fascinated and all-up-in-your-face in a hurry. Scavengers feast on tasty corpses.

I've examined cops for a while... they are generally power-hungry, small-minded, and sadistic (and/or masochistic). I guess they are the typical human that enjoys carrying a gun and stopping bad guys.

But these "character traits" if you will not only allow them to appreciate their job, but ostensibly help them be good at it. A sadist is a little quicker on the draw in a life-and-death situation than someone who wants to avoid shedding the blood of another human. Gandhi is not a police officer.

The key of course is personal restraint and systematic restraint of these character traits... focusing them in order to do a good job and avoid bad jobs. It is fully to be expected that there will be mistakes.

All forms of Law are under attack... culture is more opposed to it now than certainly at any time during the 20th century. Lawyers, Politicians, Cops... pretty much only Judges have been spared cultural wrath and that's primarily because they are quiet and the public doesn't identify with them as much.

I like Law being attacked in principal, but as so often happens the principal is attained but the execution is terrible. The most difficult thing to ever get right is the *details*, and it is therefore certain that culture is messing it up.

[Brad Grenz]

You so crazy...

The Sheild is a great show. The 2nd season just started this week, and the first season DVDs came out the same day! (though, the pricks at Best Buy didn't have it and had never heard of it Tuesday.)

[Jason McCullough]

So. Crazy.

[Anonymous]

"Do a good job and noone notices. Do a bad job and the national news is fascinated and all-up-in-your-face in a hurry."

Hey Brian, I guess you missed out on the nation's veneration of cops as a result of 9/11. And the media celebration of Charles Moose, the police chief who represented the hunt for the DC sniper. Or that show about police that's on Fox every week... what was the name of that again? Oh yeah...

[chet]

Look what you people have done! You accepted his crazy gaming posts as serious, so he has to take the trolling even further. First person who posts - "interesting point brian..." gets a punch in the arm. And I am willing to travel.

(someone some place warm, please)

Chet

[Sparky]

Everyone sing!

Brian Koontz, Brian Koontz, whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

[Tyjenks]

Look what you people have done! You accepted his crazy gaming posts as serious, so he has to take the trolling even further. First person who posts - "interesting point brian..." gets a punch in the arm. And I am willing to travel.

(someone some place warm, please)

Chet

If you set a monkey at a typewriter and let him type endlessly, chances are that eventually he will type something that makes a little sense. You give him a banana, pat him on the head, and he goes to his tire swing. With Brian, someone says, "good point...." and he just keeps typing and typing and typing and never goes away to his swing.

[Brian Koontz]

Hey Brian, I guess you missed out on the nation's veneration of cops as a result of 9/11. And the media celebration of Charles Moose, the police chief who represented the hunt for the DC sniper. Or that show about police that's on Fox every week... what was the name of that again? Oh yeah...

"and in the normative schizophrenic culture that we live in they are always both villians and heroes."

So... what part of that didn't you understand? Perhaps I'll put it in another way.

Cops in the current culture are always both vilified and sainted, depending on which TV program you are watching or which member of Joe Public you are speaking to. Shows like COPS came out partially to address a growing anti-cop trend. COPS is as much propaganda as entertainment.

It was a given that after 9/11 Order along with nationalism, defensiveness, patriotism, etc. was going to see a spike (if you remember right, the gun-control advocates were freaking out after the incident). Things were purely predicted in that sense. I'm painting with a broader cultural brush in my post.

[Troy S Goodfellow]

Judges have been spared cultural wrath? Did you miss the whole Roe v. Wade, "activist judges have to get off our backs", "they're not the legislature!", "damned 4th amendment" things we have going on in our culture.

"Broad cultural brushes". The thing about broad brushes is that they're lousy for making points.

Troy

[Anonymous]

"I've examined cops for a while... they are generally power-hungry, small-minded, and sadistic (and/or masochistic)."


I think those were James Ellroy cops you might have been examining.

[Brian Koontz]

Judges have been spared cultural wrath? Did you miss the whole Roe v. Wade, "activist judges have to get off our backs", "they're not the legislature!", "damned 4th amendment" things we have going on in our culture.

Judges don't get on national news for bad judgements. Judges don't have countless jokes told at their expense. Sex scandals involving judges don't often make headlines.

So, yes, judges have been spared cultural wrath. Kind of odd. Although Judge Judy and Co. are working on things.

"Broad cultural brushes". The thing about broad brushes is that they're lousy for making points.

I can only assume you're kidding. Anything specific is merely anecdotal. Your argument against a single point is "whatever... that's just one example".

[Ergo]

"I've examined cops for a while... they are generally power-hungry, small-minded, and sadistic (and/or masochistic)."

Um, ok. My dad was a cop, my grandfather was a cop. They were none of the above. You "generally" don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

[TomChick]

Why is Brian Koontz "examining" cops? Is he a lawyer? Is he a doctor? Or does he mean "examine" in the sense that Murph's friend "examined" the girl on the plane before he stalked her?

As a non-doctor/lawyer, I think the only thing I've "examined" is a newly bought CD, trying the find the little red tab that'll pull out the strip of cellophane that lets you into the shrink wrap.

-Tom

[Anonymous]

Actors are supposed to examine other people. Didn'tcha know that? It's how you know how to act like someone else.

[Dirt]

I have a friend in the LAPD and he's not power hungry, masochistic or anything else you describe. Then again, hearing his stories, I think everybody else in the department is. They're human too.