I’m just back from visiting the old folks at home, a-way down south in Dixie, and realized on my morning train how much I missed the local papers. I don’t even know where to begin commenting on the wealth of absurdity that fills the pages of the Poughkeepsie Journal, Times Herald-Record and Financial Times. And the letters to the editor always inspire.
Today there was an odd letter to the Journal from a former cop criticizing the Beacon PD. William Harrison of Beacon writes “If I were a resident of Beacon, I would be very upset knowing a portion of my hard-earned tax dollars was being used to pay lawsuits caused by actions of certain members of the police department.”
Strange indeed.
On the matter of lawsuits and tax dollars: of course it’s upsetting to see tax dollars wasted due to irresponsibility, and we must demand accountability – especially from law enforcement, but even cops in sleepy HV towns have one of the hardest, worst, but also best jobs out there.
Police departments are one of the most intransigent entities in the world, they naturally hate change because the nature of the job demands consistency. For instance, consider cops getting free coffee from the newsstand guy – a practice that goes back generations. This is considered unethical, and is prohibited, but still happens because it is how things have been done for ages, and change comes slowly to police departments.
The Beacon PD already has the Justice Department punishing them for rogue behaviors of years past, the mayor and city council are exerting control over the chief, so lawsuits are an inevitability as change happens in the ranks.
I’m inclined to cut slack to civil servants, because I know that most people work very hard to make their jobs suck.
People treat the sidewalks like a garbage can, making lives harder for sanitation. They smoke in bed starting house fires putting firefighters at risk. They get drunk in bars, start fights and drive home to beat their wives and kids, if they don’t get killed (or kill somebody) on the way home.
Cops don’t make the laws – and some of them enjoy enforcing billy-club laws too much, but they are overwhelmingly decent people who are forced by their jobs into the sewer-pipe of humanity. Sometimes they can’t get the smell out of their noses.
Hell yeah! Welcome back! =)
Its good to see you back!
Posted by: hooking | July 16, 2010 at 10:43 PM