United States - Being a Cop

Being a cop is tough. Here at DP we are pro police, even if they do pull us over for doing 140 m.p.h. on a street bike. But we gotta wonder when a New London, Connecticut, officer is not hired because he is considered too intelligent. Robert Jordan scored an IQ score of 125, 21 points higher than the national average score for cops. The city decided that smart cops would get bored and quit after going through expensive training.

More than 160 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 1995. California was the deadliest state, with 18 police fatalities. Florida and New Jersey had nine deaths each. Kids are mostly to blame. Between 1984 and 1993, 94 cop killers were under the age of 18. Each year, more than 66,000 police officers are assaulted and 24,000 are injured.

Cops are starting to look more like storm troopers than community civil servants. Between 1995 and 1997 the Department of Defense gave cops 1.2 million pieces of military gear. We're not talking camouflage BVDs here but sniper rifles, machine guns, assault rifles and armored personnel carriers. Using rapidly expanding paramilitary groups or SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams, cops can now facilitate the new phenomenon of suicide by cop with special sniper training, high powered weapons and other deadly skills.

Cops have taken to videotaping every pursuit or apprehension with $6,000 video systems installed in cruisers. Could this be a direct reaction to the amateur videotaping of Rodney G. King in Lake View Terrace in March 3, 1991? What's next? Live feeds straight to the Fox network, in car editing and sweetening? Stay tuned.

http://www.nleomf.com/News/LineofDuty/tributes.htm

http://www.morganquitno.com

http://www.bna.com/e-law/cases/heroes.html