Ok. Well said. My turn. I am a police officer. Have been for 17 years. **** proud of it too. I worked hard to get there. I have led my agency in arrests for those 17 years, no matter what unit I was assigned to. Perhaps I can enlighten some of you folks a little bit into the workings of the crimninal justice system. IT IS FRUSTRATING! There is no overnight solution to any one problem that exists. If I had a nickel for every time a person said to me "Why didn't you arrest this person, they're doing this" I would not need to work to this day. Understand something, when you are wrong, your wrong. Man up. You knew it was wrong Scrappy to beat he crap out of your sisters drug dealing boyfriend, yet you did. You lost one of the most precious and valuable rights that hundreds of thousand of soldiers gave their lives for, the right to vote, over what a drug dealer?? But Im sure if you could turn back time, you would do so. Im not picking on you bro, I know what its like when it comes to family and wanting to protect then from wolves.
I have heard quite a few folks talking about cops should be arresting crack dealers and robbers, etc. Guess what, they are! You may not see it, thats the whole idea. Do you expect the uniform patrolman to run into a phone booth, change his attire from uniform to drug buying clothes and take down a whole drug dealing cartel??? Too much tv folks. It takes weeks, months and maybe years to appropriately take down a drug dealer. Alot of time, money and effort go into these operations I can assure you. Do you know why? They have rights too! A police officer cannot stop and frisk a person merely on a hunch alone. Probable cause needs to be established to search a person, otherwise you just violated a constitutional right that we all possess. The right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizure. Stopping a person on the street, preventing them from leaving, moving, going on their merry way is a seizure. And when it comes to drugs and searches, at least in NY where I work, there is no "plain feel" doctrine. In other words, even if I feel what I KNOW is drugs in a persons pocket during a frisk, I cannot retrieve those drugs from your pocket. Only the Feds have a "plain feel" doctrine that I am aware of. Dont like it, write to your local congressman or assemblyman, not scrap forums. It will not change a thing, I can ensure you.
Now for the obvious. People steal things. Anything thats not bolted down. Now more than ever ferrous and non-ferrous metal have become the target to all types of thieves from those who abuse drugs and alcohol to those who just wish to make a little money on the side. Do you have any idea how many homes are being broken into and the copper piping ripped out of, water running and all? Its distrubing! What would your reaction be if you had a for sale sign (or not) on your front lawn and came home to a flooded house and $8,000 worth of damage done? Right, i thought so. And what would you do next? Right i thought so, call a cop. And what would the first thing that cop would do? Right, I thought so, he would go to the local scrap yards and request to see who had recently sold 200 lbs of #2 pipe for $500+ . Then what would he do? He would hopefully be able to identify the perp because the local scrap yard would have taken proper identification (or asked to see his scrapping permit) from the perp before purchasing said non- ferrous material. Then, as long as the DA's office is on board, the perp can be charged with criminal possession of stolen property, burglary etc and face some jail time. But come on guys, we all know this. Why harp on it. Ill be honest, I have yet to be stopped in my truck, pulling my trailer, with a load of scrap yet. And please dont be stupid enough to say "Yeah, because your a cop!" I have to drive between sometimes 5 jurisdictions and sometimes into another state to relieve of my scrap for the most profit. My truck does not say "Im on the job" alongside the door alerting other cops who I am. Its because my load is properly secured, my lights work, my truck is properly inspected and deemed to be road worthy and unfortunately, I'm not overloaded. I dont know what to tell you.
I am sorry for the long post, but all of the recent anti cop bashing bulls#*t has gotten me a little worried here. I have grown very thick skin over the past 17 years, trust me. But when I see or hear hard working honest men and women blaming other people for their own mistakes, it kind of rubs me the wrong way. Yes 40,000 laws were passed last year. Thats is absurd! No doubt. But take the time to know the laws that apply to you as the professional and heed them. A judge will never throw a case out of court because of ignorance on your behalf (I did not know it was illegal). They will give the same advice I did after rendering his verdict . I just recently posted about how I did not know about a local ordinance in a town I drove through. The same would apply to me. Ok, Im late for the gym now. No donuts for me, shocking I know. Be safe out there folks, its a crazy world!
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