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The Great Police
Oficer
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"Well, Mr. Citizen, it seems you've
figured me out. I seem to fit neatly into the category where you've placed me.
I'm stereotyped, standardized, characterized, classified, grouped, and always
typical. Unfortunately, the reverse is true, I can never figure you out. From
birth you teach your children that I'm the bogeyman. Then you're shocked when they
identify with my enemy.....the criminal!
You accuse me of coddling criminals.....until I catch your kids
doing wrong. You may take an hour for lunch and several coffee breaks each day, but
point me out as a loafer for having one cup. You pride yourself on your manners, but
think nothing of disrupting my meals with your troubles. You raise hell with the guy
who cuts you off in traffic, but let me catch you doing the same thing and I'm picking on
you. You know all the traffic laws....but you've never gotten a single ticket you
deserve. You shout 'foul' if you observe me driving fast to a call, but raise the
roof if I take more than ten seconds to respond to your complaint. You call it part
of my job if someone strikes me, but call it police brutality if I strike back. You
wouldn't think of telling your dentist how to pull a tooth or your doctor how to take out
an appendix, yet your always willing to give me pointers on the law. You talk to me
in a manner that would get you a bloody nose from anyone else, but expect me to take it
without batting an eye. You yell something's got to be done to fight crime, but you
can't be bothered to get involved. You have no use for me at all, but of course its
OK if I change a flat for your wife, deliver your child in the back of my patrol car, or
perhaps save your son's life with mouth to mouth breathing, or work many hours overtime
looking for your lost daughter.
SO, Mr. Citizen, you can stand there on your soapbox and rant and
rave about the way I do my work, calling me every name in the book, but never stop to
think that your property, family, or maybe even your life depends on me or one of my
buddies.
Yes, Mr.
Citizen, it's me...the lousy cop!"
"The author
of this article was
Trooper Mitchell
Brown of the Virginia State Police
He was killed in
the line of duty two months after writing the article"