Sworn to Duty.

[Ampolitor]

right!

"Quite an amusing train of thought, considering your sig.



Try them as if they were soldiers in deserted in the face of the enemy. THey had a sworn duty to uphold, they represented not only the law, but the government promise to assist it's citizens in times of dire straights.

They ran away like little children threatened with a spanking"



You have got to be kidding me with that statement, first of all that is NOTHING like being a soldier, Im a combat veteran from 2 campaigns, and Ive been a cop for over 9 years and I was there for 911 in NYC. If something like that, utter devastation happened you would go protect your family. There is no way you can tell me that you would stand there and say i have to protect the city when your very own child could be drowning a few blocks away, c'mon lets get real.The Public does not come before your family, ANY cop will tell you that. Now Im not saying that all of them were doing that, to the ones who left because the going got tough, well shame on them for giving up.
Being a cop has an oath, is it the same as the military, No Way and to compare it is silly. I love being a cop and Yes Im a good one I made LT in 9 years. I dont agree with all of them leaving but to condemn them all without knowing the factors is ignorant and thats the same type of people who listen to and believe everything they see on the news.

 

[Rel]

I'm a huge proponent of the concept of duty and honoring your commitments. I take every chance I can to thank and shake the hands of those who serve in our military as well as police and emergency personel. There is no higher calling in my mind than to place your own safety and comfort at risk for the sake of your fellow man. I've got several family members in that line of work and they take what they do and the obligations that come with it very seriously.

That said, these circumstances are far beyond what anybody could typically prepare themselves for. There is little doubt in my own mind that the majority of the missing police officers would do their best to execute the duties required of them, even if it meant risking or perhaps even giving up their own lives.

But therein lies the problem. I think that in many cases the missing officers were protecting those closest to them, family and friends, rather than the citizens at large. I shudder to think what a terrible choice it would be to make and I'm guessing that it will haunt them (in more ways than one) for the rest of their lives.

I think it is a bit uncharitable to judge them the way you would a deserting soldier. A soldier is not typically in fear of what terrible things could be happening to his children at that very moment. A brave man is willing to sacrifice his life for the safety of his fellow men in uniform. But does it make him less brave to sacrifice his honor, dignity and perhaps career for the safety of his family? I'm not prepared to say that.

It may come to pass that we discover that many of those who failed to report to duty did so for less noble reasons than this. If so then I would find that deplorable. But it is far too soon to be judging these folks for my own comfort.

 

[Torm]

Yes, and if they had taken time, on duty or not, to go check on their own families, and then went back to work, I'd be all for it - heck, their families are some of the people they are sworn to protect, and a VERY good argument could be made that not letting them take care of that first could impair their ability to perform their duties.

It's the part where they THEN ran for the hills that disgusts me.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

You have got to be kidding me with that statement, first of all that is NOTHING like being a soldier, Im a combat veteran from 2 campaigns, and Ive been a cop for over 9 years and I was there for 911 in NYC. If something like that, utter devastation happened you would go protect your family. There is no way you can tell me that you would stand there and say i have to protect the city when your very own child could be drowning a few blocks away, c'mon lets get real.The Public does not come before your family, ANY cop will tell you that. Now Im not saying that all of them were doing that, to the ones who left because the going got tough, well shame on them for giving up.
Being a cop has an oath, is it the same as the military, No Way and to compare it is silly. I love being a cop and Yes Im a good one I made LT in 9 years. I dont agree with all of them leaving but to condemn them all without knowing the factors is ignorant and thats the same type of people who listen to and believe everything they see on the news.

Fine, you may not have stayed.

I would have. When my wife's unit was attacked, I stayed at my post, did my job, and drove on, not knowing if she was alive or dead, and not finding out for hours. When the Chehalis River finally overflowed it's banks, flooding where my house was, I stayed at my post, and kept slinging sandbags, instead of abandoning my job and running off to save my family.

Yes, I will state that you have to stand there and protect the city when your own child could be drowning. That's my personal belief, the same standard I held myself to and still do. While you make your own decisions on what you do, I still reserve the right to compare the actions to my own sense of duty.

The cops in New Orleans failed thier duty, left thier posts, and abandoned those in need. I'm sure they will all have excuses that tug at the public's heart strings, and I'm sure that thier oath isn't taken as seriously by them as the military one was to me, but it won't excuse them in my book. They abandoned the public, and ceased protecting rescue services. They allowed looters and scumbags to take over sections of the city. The excuse put forward involved danger, nothing left to protect, it was useless, and all kinds of defeatest crap.

If it was so terrible, why did many many more police stay on the job? Didn't they care about thier families? Didn't they have loved ones? Were they cold hearted ruthless monsters? They left for the same reason that many National Guardsmen and Active Duty desert when war breaks out. They're in it while it's easy, but as soon as it's dangerous, they're out of there.

By your reasoning, whenever a disaster hits, those emergency services personell are within perfectly reasonable behavior in blowing off everyone else and running to see if thier family is OK. You listed 9-11 in your statement. What if everyone involved in emergency services had quit the force and ran home to protect thier family? What if every single member of emergency services abandoned thier duty in order to keep thier family safe during an eathquake or hurricane or flood or tornado? What is the use in having them around, when at the first sign of a situation when they will be desperately needed, it's OK for them to abandon thier duty.

Duty. Honor. Courage. They are more than words to be thrown about when it is convient, when the job or mission is easy. The true test of a person is whether or not they stick when it's difficult.

There. Is. No. Excuse. For. Deserting.

 

[Del]

I would have stayed but I have been accused jokingly by Vancouver PD officers that I have a "duty complex". I never had much but involvement in policing and information trafficking.

I wouldn't cast stones though at lowly paid NO personell who wanted to leave to care for their childrens' safety.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Okay, as it stands, just catching this on CNN, as mentioned by others here, with the notion. That the choice of protecting friends, family, loved ones....played as a major factor with the mass exodus. And also, there is a possibility that some may have died in the flooding as well.

And among those who exited as well, could not mentally deal with what was happening either.

As of now, those who left...are returning. Some of them.

And also, as advertise...no personal snipping on this thread, please.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

Okay, as it stands, just catching this on CNN, as mentioned by others here, with the notion. That the choice of protecting friends, family, loved ones....played as a major factor with the mass exodus. And also, there is a possibility that some may have died in the flooding as well.

And among those who exited as well, could not mentally deal with what was happening either.

As of now, those who left...are returning. Some of them.

And also, as advertise...no personal snipping on this thread, please.

Well, if I came across as personal sniping, I apologize. I'm in a lot of physical pain and trying to drive on, but you're right, that is no excuse.

I am not talking about the ones who died, or the ones who cracked mentally. I'm talking about the ones who turned in their sidearms and badges for BS excuses. Some of which went out and looted right afterwards (and were caught on TV doing it). I'm talking about the ones that when the going got rough, they got going on down the road.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Well, if I came across as personal sniping, I apologize. I'm in a lot of physical pain and trying to drive on, but you're right, that is no excuse.

I am not talking about the ones who died, or the ones who cracked mentally. I'm talking about the ones who turned in their sidearms and badges for BS excuses. Some of which went out and looted right afterwards (and were caught on TV doing it). I'm talking about the ones that when the going got rough, they got going on down the road.

np

 

[Simplicity]

Don't forget that many of those people may have
1) Died in the flood.
2) Been trapped by the flood waters (and possibly died at this point).
3) Had families who had to evacuate. (No one, and I mean no one is going to leave their family in eminent danger to go "defend the city"). Get the family to safety first... Then come back. Though if your trapped in the Superdome, that may not be an option.

A job as a police officer is a *job*. You don't take an oath to forsake your life and blood for 16-25 bucks an hour.

 

[wingsandsword]

A job as a police officer is a *job*. You don't take an oath to forsake your life and blood for 16-25 bucks an hour.

You haven't seen what enlisted soldiers are paid, have you? Compared to a civilian full-time job, they'd love to be making what those policemen are being paid. If you're a cop, you know that your oath to uphold the law and may well lead to your death, it happens, it happens all the time.

(http://images.military.com/Content/MoreContent1/?file=Pay_Special_E) A nice introduction to the pay of an average active-duty enlisted soldier. Averaging it out, if they were getting the same pay for a normal 40-hour-a-week job this sample E-4 with 3 years in the service would be making $15 an hour before taxes.