“Too Much Risk”
You could bet that they had their fashions just jammin’, though.
Beck (who else?). Yea. You know, it’s the corollary. Policing has become a "profession" unto and as an end in itself, rather than something good men used to feel called to as a simple desire to keep a bit of the "general chaos" in check, help out here and there, and generally provide people with a decent sense of reasonable security. It may be a tired reference, but good ol’ Andy Griffith comes to mind. He exercised authority now and then, but I doubt many would question that he hadn’t earned it through the respect he commanded, and guess what: respect is something that no uniform, badge, medal, or "fashions" establish. Character establishes respect. Imagine Andy letting those people die in that building.
A shame that all I can come up with is a fictional character, eh?
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Free The Animal is an eclectic writing project about everything since November 2003. 23 years, 5,500 posts, 5 million words.
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I'm reminded of the story (the source of which I don't recall at this moment) of the banker who once stated that no man ever had to ask him for credit, because it was something with which he walked into the office to begin with.
Understand?
To my mind, every single cop in this country now is dead broke, if not in actual arrears.
Billy, wasn't that Midas Mulligan?
Andy Griffith, hell. I'd gladly trade any random cop for The Dukes of Hazzard's Roscoe P. Coltrane.
Your reference to Andy Griffith brought something I read over at lewrockwell.com some time ago. Shame, though, as I watched the show virtually every day of my life until I was well into my 20s.
Jeez, Kyle, that's possible although I don't recall that. I'll have to look that up.
"A shame that all I can come up with is a fictional character, eh?" – Nikoley
Bill Jordan comes to mind, in real life characters. Skeeter Skelton. Tom Threepersons. Maybe a dozen more I can think of, maybe less than a dozen. A couple of older Ellis County deputies of my acquaintance.
None of them would have stood outside jerking off while people burned to death because it was "too dangerous".
Have to admit, it's a depressingly short list. And all of the ones I can come up with have one thing in common: they're "archaic" police officers – from before the era of modern militarised policing.