Heh, my dad has been LAPD for two decades, before I went to the Academy he was like "Dude, be a firefighter. Everyone loves firefighters, and firefighters never have to play the bad guy, nobody is ever pissed to see a firefighter. Save yourself the grief and do that instead."
Never wanted to be a firefighter, I have some friends who are, it's a great job, but not quite what I'm cut out for. My main concern is bringing in bad guys and protecting people from them, not really what firefighters do, and much less glorious.
Being a cop is a kind of shitty job to be honest, but I've got a bit of stockholm syndrome with the profession.
edited 23rd Apr '11 10:26:32 PM by Barkey
The Mod with the Migraine
Gosh, I'm always glad to see such positive news from my hometown. *sigh*
I've never had problems with the police, not really. I am always polite, tell the truth, and generally stay out of trouble. I do have a problem with rent-a-cops (sorry Barkey) because generally if one of them comes over to talk to me, it's with a major in-your-face attitude problem. I do jokingly ask my children, "What did you do?" when I hear sirens, and my older son (who's trying to be a smart ass just like daddy) responded once, "They're coming for you!" But I have told my children that the police are there to help them, and their scout troop did a tour of the local police station last month.
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
It's all good, I'm much different in my current rent-a-cop role than I was in my real cop role. I have a really hard time taking this job as seriously as some of the other guys do. 
^You mean you're not going to hassle me for walking with my hands in my pocket?
I didn't even do that as a military cop, that's a rule I broke constantly.
I never correct people on uniform violations unless they are wearing their hat indoors or something. We're allowed to do that when we're armed though, so nyah nyah.
Oh, and when people here ranger roll their hats. I fucking hate that, it's acceptable practice when you're in the field on an exercise or deployed, but please don't do it stateside.. It makes the branch look like a bunch of douchebags. Those two uniform regs are about the only ones I enforce.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Barkey: I take my job seriously but I am not an asshole about it. The guys who go around like swaggering assholes push my buttons too. I want to tell them to shove off. As a point of general manners calling them rent-a-cops is not very nice it would be like calling barkey a pig. He might not give a shit but it is still rude.
I want to know why this cop in particular in the article flipped out.
Who watches the watchmen?
Because he's a dick, at least that's my assumption. This guy in particular is a serious asshole.
You should see the Garda guys who come in with the armored cars Tuefel, I always heckle them because they roll up with bald heads, kevlar vests worn on the outside, drop holster at the hip, and bloused trousers. Top it off with the fact that most of them wear Oakleys that they don't take off indoors, and it's pretty funny.
I'm always like "Dude you must have fallen asleep and caught the plane to LAX instead of Kabul."
edited 25th Apr '11 12:35:07 PM by Barkey
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Armored car services are a bit different from general security. Some of them have to wear their pants like that. The rest though is pretty stupid.
Who watches the watchmen?
Use a car metaphor.
Cops should be like a Toyota Camry, reliable and dependable, but we get a Jaguar, which is great when it runs properly but when it doesn't...the fix is expensive.