Quiet Day
- Thread starter Ian
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Ok, me gonna get all sensible 
You say that now but if you turn out to be a typical copper, within 3 - 5 years your only social circle may well be others in 'The Job' and your former friends will seem like fair game for a nick. I've seen it happen too often.
Well, the British population has managed to survice Ok until this present day and for most of the time before Robert Peel introduced policemen. Before then, survival of the fittest, those best armed and not falling foul of Royalty or the local Land Baron.
And if you're already biased against one section of society - chavs or those you perceive as chavs because of their dress style - you best question whether you're cut out for the job as you have to be impartial, uninfluenced, unbiased, to everybody.
Uh-oh, another bias - Nova drivers are fair game are they?
And you won't get to do much tearing around in a police vehicle and even if you do the novelty will soon wear off.
But - you WILL get a helluva lotta paperwork
christopherpostill said:
You say that now but if you turn out to be a typical copper, within 3 - 5 years your only social circle may well be others in 'The Job' and your former friends will seem like fair game for a nick. I've seen it happen too often.
Well, the British population has managed to survice Ok until this present day and for most of the time before Robert Peel introduced policemen. Before then, survival of the fittest, those best armed and not falling foul of Royalty or the local Land Baron.
And if you're already biased against one section of society - chavs or those you perceive as chavs because of their dress style - you best question whether you're cut out for the job as you have to be impartial, uninfluenced, unbiased, to everybody.
Uh-oh, another bias - Nova drivers are fair game are they?
And you won't get to do much tearing around in a police vehicle and even if you do the novelty will soon wear off.
But - you WILL get a helluva lotta paperwork
cirianz
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& what was that joke... I'm sure it's been on here before.
Late at night, a man & his family are woken by a noise & to their alarm they hear someone downstairs shuffling around in their conservatory. Grabbing the phone the man calls the police & in a whispered voice tells them that they're being burgled & that the burgalar is in the house right now! The police seargeant brushes him off, "I'm sorry sir, but all of our rescources are tied up at the moment & their just isn't anyone we can send for at least an hour." "An hour!" the man looks at his wife & kids huddled in the room with him "We could all be dead by then!" But the seargeant apologises, there just isnt anyone they can send, but they'll have someone drop by in an hour's time, and hangs up the phone.
By this time the man is fuming. He puts the phone down & glares at it, the sounds of the burgalar getting louder downstairs.
3 minutes later he phones the police back. "Oh, about that burgalar... well you don't need to rush. I went down & shot him"
Within minutes police cars and an ambulance are squealing up the street sirens blaring. The burgalar is caught & dragged away.
Furious the police seargeant comes over, "I thought you said you'd shot him!!!"
Replied the man "And I thought you said you had no resources"
The sad thing is that I know of a case almost identical to this when a shop owner was being burgled on a friday night & he rushed out of the shop, down the street, about a block away there were two beat police walking the street & he raced down to them for help. Their reply...? They were out to catch drunks & if he wanted some help he should go phone the police station. Presumably from the phone in the shop that was being burgaled as they spoke? But they refused to do anything. It wasn't their assignment for that night so had nothing to do with them.
So much for helping people, not to mention use of taxpayers (such as the shop owner) money.
There are good cops out there, but it is a lot like politics, the system itself destroys most of them eventually.
Late at night, a man & his family are woken by a noise & to their alarm they hear someone downstairs shuffling around in their conservatory. Grabbing the phone the man calls the police & in a whispered voice tells them that they're being burgled & that the burgalar is in the house right now! The police seargeant brushes him off, "I'm sorry sir, but all of our rescources are tied up at the moment & their just isn't anyone we can send for at least an hour." "An hour!" the man looks at his wife & kids huddled in the room with him "We could all be dead by then!" But the seargeant apologises, there just isnt anyone they can send, but they'll have someone drop by in an hour's time, and hangs up the phone.
By this time the man is fuming. He puts the phone down & glares at it, the sounds of the burgalar getting louder downstairs.
3 minutes later he phones the police back. "Oh, about that burgalar... well you don't need to rush. I went down & shot him"
Within minutes police cars and an ambulance are squealing up the street sirens blaring. The burgalar is caught & dragged away.
Furious the police seargeant comes over, "I thought you said you'd shot him!!!"
Replied the man "And I thought you said you had no resources"
The sad thing is that I know of a case almost identical to this when a shop owner was being burgled on a friday night & he rushed out of the shop, down the street, about a block away there were two beat police walking the street & he raced down to them for help. Their reply...? They were out to catch drunks & if he wanted some help he should go phone the police station. Presumably from the phone in the shop that was being burgaled as they spoke? But they refused to do anything. It wasn't their assignment for that night so had nothing to do with them.
So much for helping people, not to mention use of taxpayers (such as the shop owner) money.
There are good cops out there, but it is a lot like politics, the system itself destroys most of them eventually.
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Chris, have to agree with much of what Flops has said, with a few additions:
You can't just pick and chose where to enforce the law - if your mates commit offences which in ordinary circumstances you would arrest for, then you are being biased and not doing your duty fairly - you may have to lose some friends.
Likewise with 'Chavs' - you can't pick and chose who you deal with, you must do it without fear or favour. Where would your bias stop - blacks/asians/gays?
Thrill and adrenaline have nothing to do with expert driving - its all about cool, calm, calculating skill and accurate assessment (or it should be!).
You can't just pick and chose where to enforce the law - if your mates commit offences which in ordinary circumstances you would arrest for, then you are being biased and not doing your duty fairly - you may have to lose some friends.
Likewise with 'Chavs' - you can't pick and chose who you deal with, you must do it without fear or favour. Where would your bias stop - blacks/asians/gays?
Thrill and adrenaline have nothing to do with expert driving - its all about cool, calm, calculating skill and accurate assessment (or it should be!).
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I dont think i expressed myself correctly there.
When i say chav, i dont mean people that dress a certain way. I mean people that yell abuse to passers by, have no respect for a n y o n e but their own and beat people up for the hell of it/drugs/money. Thats the type of person i consider a chav to be.
If they arent causing a problem, i dont have problem with them.
Ok maybe i was stereotyping - but you can't say that there is NO association between the "chav" and the Nova... I'd pull any type of car if it did something wrong, but there is a certain type of person that drives a Nova, and round here at least thats generally accepted.
I value my friends, perhaps more than others... I wouldn't see them as fair game. I wouldn't go after them... but yeah if i was ordered to like... arrest them i'd have no choice. They shouldnt have gotten into that position in the 1st place. I dont really hang around with the type that gets themselves arrested. If they become that type then fair enough...
Yeah overall the population does survive ok - and yeah - it is survival of the fittest - but that is simply not fair. If theres one thing you should know about me, its that i am very Just.
I wont deny it - there ARE bad cops out there, as Ciri said - and in that case the cops should have been severely disciplined. But all of the sergeants, officers and Special Constables i worked with on Friday night did a fantastic job. I was no more opinionated than they. Yeah you would have to be un-biased but of course there are stereotypes and opinions in the service, its human nature. You develop them more as you work in that career longer.
Most of the evening WAS driving around in the police car - about 70% of it. They said the general public like to see what their tax money is spent on and like to see lots of police around generally patrolling the streets. We just patrolled the area in the car making sure everyone was behaving. It astounded me how observant the police sergeant i was with was. Absolutely amazing.
Who said you can't have thrill and adrenaline with cool, calm and calculated driving. I can and do - I get thrill when performing a driving manoever perfectly and adrenaline when i for example overtake a slow car safely and get to put my foot down, or so to speak.
I have been out for an advanced driving lesson in my car with a stage three police driver (the most highly qualified) and it was so much fun. And no i wasnt breaking the law.
You cant say that even when you are highly qualified and used to it, having 250bhp under your right foot doesn't excite you and that the feeling of being pushed right back into your seat dosen't give you adrenaline. I have been driving a year and a bit now - i still love that feeling. It would most certainly not be thrilling if it wasnt cool/collected/controlled - that would be scary, with the wrong type of adrenaline. Im sure there is MUCH thrill attached to have been able to use all the power in an expert way to stop a criminal.
One of the things high up on my list of things to is to get my advanced driving certificate. Driving does excite me, and especially when i get the chance to drive other cars. I get to drive dads 170Bhp 2.3 Turo'd volvo quite a bit now - that DOES excite me. Its a feeling of responsibility and power and thrill even more so than usual when i have driven it well because its about 10 times bigger than my car and alot to handle, especially for someone who had been driving just a year.
But then you cant stereotype the police - you may have said you have seen something happen all to often, dosent mean it always does. But you might be right.
It's a career i have chosen to pursue, and i'm taking the degree for it this september. We'll see. I am going to try and become a special constable this year also.
Chris
When i say chav, i dont mean people that dress a certain way. I mean people that yell abuse to passers by, have no respect for a n y o n e but their own and beat people up for the hell of it/drugs/money. Thats the type of person i consider a chav to be.
If they arent causing a problem, i dont have problem with them.
Ok maybe i was stereotyping - but you can't say that there is NO association between the "chav" and the Nova... I'd pull any type of car if it did something wrong, but there is a certain type of person that drives a Nova, and round here at least thats generally accepted.
I value my friends, perhaps more than others... I wouldn't see them as fair game. I wouldn't go after them... but yeah if i was ordered to like... arrest them i'd have no choice. They shouldnt have gotten into that position in the 1st place. I dont really hang around with the type that gets themselves arrested. If they become that type then fair enough...
Yeah overall the population does survive ok - and yeah - it is survival of the fittest - but that is simply not fair. If theres one thing you should know about me, its that i am very Just.
I wont deny it - there ARE bad cops out there, as Ciri said - and in that case the cops should have been severely disciplined. But all of the sergeants, officers and Special Constables i worked with on Friday night did a fantastic job. I was no more opinionated than they. Yeah you would have to be un-biased but of course there are stereotypes and opinions in the service, its human nature. You develop them more as you work in that career longer.
Most of the evening WAS driving around in the police car - about 70% of it. They said the general public like to see what their tax money is spent on and like to see lots of police around generally patrolling the streets. We just patrolled the area in the car making sure everyone was behaving. It astounded me how observant the police sergeant i was with was. Absolutely amazing.
Who said you can't have thrill and adrenaline with cool, calm and calculated driving. I can and do - I get thrill when performing a driving manoever perfectly and adrenaline when i for example overtake a slow car safely and get to put my foot down, or so to speak.
I have been out for an advanced driving lesson in my car with a stage three police driver (the most highly qualified) and it was so much fun. And no i wasnt breaking the law.
You cant say that even when you are highly qualified and used to it, having 250bhp under your right foot doesn't excite you and that the feeling of being pushed right back into your seat dosen't give you adrenaline. I have been driving a year and a bit now - i still love that feeling. It would most certainly not be thrilling if it wasnt cool/collected/controlled - that would be scary, with the wrong type of adrenaline. Im sure there is MUCH thrill attached to have been able to use all the power in an expert way to stop a criminal.
One of the things high up on my list of things to is to get my advanced driving certificate. Driving does excite me, and especially when i get the chance to drive other cars. I get to drive dads 170Bhp 2.3 Turo'd volvo quite a bit now - that DOES excite me. Its a feeling of responsibility and power and thrill even more so than usual when i have driven it well because its about 10 times bigger than my car and alot to handle, especially for someone who had been driving just a year.
But then you cant stereotype the police - you may have said you have seen something happen all to often, dosent mean it always does. But you might be right.
It's a career i have chosen to pursue, and i'm taking the degree for it this september. We'll see. I am going to try and become a special constable this year also.
Chris
cirianz
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Well said, & as I said, there are good cops out there, I have had the pleasure to deal with some in some very stressful situations. In such a situation a good police officer can make a huge difference and I don't doubt for a minute that you will be a good cop. You strike me as a person with a great deal of integrity &, as you have just demonstrated, as someone who will, not only stand up for what you believe in, but who is also able do so assertively & without attacking.I apologise for laughing & for stereotyping police officers. You are right & I was out of line.
Furthermore, as human beings we all carry our own share of biases & stereotypes. No one can claim to be free of these. The demands on police officers to be able to put their biases aside when dealing with people as individuals is much higher than most. All we can ever do is our best.
And flops, I'm sorry, but I have to agree with chris on this one, survival of the fittest is all very well... so long as you are one of the fittest. We have police because the fittest are not the only ones deserving of survival. And I would hate to try & define what exactly would be the physical & personality characteristics that would be necessary for survival, but probably a good portion of them are serving time right now.
And as for Adrenaline. being able to combine a cool calm & calculating attitude with high stress/Adrenaline dump, is a basic essential lifeskill for many jobs (business & high finance are good examples) & essential for good driving in extreeme situations. Adrenaline is there not just to give a thrill. It also (when combined with such clarity) increases the speed of reflex actions & thought processesing. increases sensitivity to peripheral stimuli while also allowing the individual to 'hyperfocus' if required.
Because it also involves a shift from verbal-sequential thought to visual-spatial & conceptual thought it can speed up the thought processes to nearly 100x that of verbal-sequential thinking. Most of us have at sometime had the experience of reacting & responding to a stimulus, threat or percieved threat before our verbal thought processes were even aware that it was happening. This is a very useful skill while driving & policing obviously. In this situation adrenaline is a tool to be used, not something to fight.
Chris I wish you very well in your chosen career. You've chosen a difficult job which will put you in a lot of situations that require very hard choices of you, but, as you said, it is a job where you can make a difference. I don't envy you at all, but I'm certain that the police force will be better for having you in it
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Well said Chris
Look, it wasn't so much a criticism as advice, was all. Just trying to open your eyes a little, perjaps, but it seems you got a good handle on things.
And I don't advocate 'survival of the fittest', not at all, I was merely pointing out that's how it was.
It's a strange thing, but it seems the older I've become the better the police have become as well. I'm not sure if that's down to better police training techniques and discipline or the fact that I'm no longer percieved as a threat
Look, it wasn't so much a criticism as advice, was all. Just trying to open your eyes a little, perjaps, but it seems you got a good handle on things.
And I don't advocate 'survival of the fittest', not at all, I was merely pointing out that's how it was.
It's a strange thing, but it seems the older I've become the better the police have become as well. I'm not sure if that's down to better police training techniques and discipline or the fact that I'm no longer percieved as a threat