Most people take police for granted and give little thought to the fantastic ‘value’ they are for our taxpayer dollars. Because, inside that symbolic uniform is a multi-talented individual that must ‘perform’ daily to impeccable standards and unfortunately for a pittance compared to his worth.
Incidentally, let me digress a moment. If a female officer of the law should appear at my door with questions or whatever, in my eyes she is ‘The Man.’ I’m as tired as most people of all this PC speak and sensitivities about gender. It does get ridiculous to be all inclusive all the time when the obvious is apparent. When I say policemen, I’m sure that most people acknowledge the existence and inclusion of policewomen. With deference to the ladies, since this column is titled ‘The Man’ and it is my column, I will be the lazy, old fashioned, creature of habit that I basically am, and do it my way. Besides, I really doubt that God is a she.
Now, back to police work. Policemen must naturally know law, (federal, state, county and city); keep abreast of applications and changes; collect evidence, operate various equipment including computers and firearms; undergo physical training; keep up with constant paperwork; work irregular hours; be on call 24/7; live with stress; be prepared to risk their lives; be expected to accurately testify in court maybe months after an event; are constantly vulnerable to lawsuits and be effectively assertive as well as making judgement calls about applying phycology when necessary.
No matter what they are paid for all this to be done well, in most cases, I believe most of them are grossly underpaid. If we were paying more closely to their worth we would attract what we should want in these positions and that would be the very best we can find.
A website named Payscale.com reports as of Jan. 2016 that the median pay A Police Officer earns an average salary of $48,337 per year in a range from $31,981` to $82,266.
Preliminary statistics released by the FBI last May show that 41 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2014. An additional 45 officers were killed in 2015 in line-of-duty accidents, which include officer deaths that are found not to be willful and intentional.
RECENT EVENTS, CONSIDERED
Now, dealing with the big current news about the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota last week. We should not prejudge these sad events, but the news we see does not look well for the police. My personal opinion is that irrespective of the competence of the police, emotional stability or and in the Minnesota case grabbing a gun thought to be a Taser might have happened. Both these killings were a disaster. I think it possible that the caliber of the people in uniforms might have been better. My heart goes out to the families of the slain men and from what I saw, it is my opinion that it wasn’t a black white thing, but over emotional actions on the part of the police without consideration of race. But, I could be wrong.
FAR MORE WHITES KILLED BY U.S. POLICE
Citing The New Observer.com article ‘Far More Whites Killed by U.S. Police’ last November, “Far more white people than blacks are killed by police in America, both proportionally to their population sizes and in real numbers, completely contrary to the anti-white propaganda put out by the “Black Lives Matter” campaign and its allies.
“According to statistics maintained by the far-left extremist Guardian newspaper in Britain, more than half of all people killed by US police this year have been white, while only 25 percent have been black.
“The Guardian’s statistics are contained in a tally of police killings maintained by that newspaper on a site titled “The Counted.” This was set up by the far-leftist newspaper with the intention of “proving” how “racist” the police in America are—an aim which has now completely backfired in face of the facts.
“According to the Guardian’s tally, of the approximately 1001 people killed by police this year in America, 502 were white, 250 were black, 163 were Hispanic/Latino, 18 were Asian/Pacific Islander, 13 were American Indian, and 54 were other/unknown.” – Unquote The New Observor.com
CITIZENS: GIVE THANKS
Compensation, work load, lack of incentive, stress, danger, attitudes of the public they work so hard to protect and serve, obviously all contribute to recruitment and turn over problems in police departments.
Sure we would like to pay them more, but there is a thing called budgets. OK, but what are we getting for our money in those budgets? There is always waste and misdirection of funds to be dealt with, but I think all lives would be better and safer if we were able to attract the cream of the crop in police work. I say the prioritizing of deserved pay for these fine patriots is necessary and long overdue. Out with the chaff and in with the cream of the crop. Not in the budget? Find a way. It should be a priority. You win in the long run by stopping turnover and expensive re-training and costs of errors and incompetence.
They are called by many different nicknames: Bears, Smokey, Boys in blue, COP (Constable on Patrol), Copper, County Mountie, Flatfoot, Fuzz, Gumshoe, and who know why, Pig, which should be a crime. But always respectfully, my favorite nickname will always be ‘The Man.’
