Thank you Police Officers!
Attorney · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2008 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
To all police officers who are either Bigger Pockets members or may come by and view this, I want to give you a well deserved thank you.
Thank you for putting your lives on the line every day to maintain order in our society.
Thank you for dealing with the worst of society so that we don't have to.
Thank you for evicting dangerous tenants for us.
Thank you making sure we're ok when our car breaks down on the side of the road.
Thank you for being on call 24/7 in case a weather event puts our lives in danger.
Thank you for doing this and more for far less money than you deserve.
While they are not BP members, I will pass on your appreciation to my uncle and cousin who protect one of the toughest cities in the nation (Baltimore).
I'm quite certain they will appreciate your sentiments...
Thank you for that.
In a market economy, how much a person "deserves" is based on whether you can fill positions without a problem or whether there is a shortage of applicants for a position. It should not depend on the normative value that one attaches to a job. The latter attitude results in suboptimal outcomes, such as the ridiculously high salaries and benefits for prison guards in California, etc.
I do agree with the rest of Tim's post, though. I feel similarly grateful for a lot of other people in other jobs, such as the ones who keep bathrooms clean in public places so that it is convenient for travelers. (I am not being facetious - there are many countries with dirty bathrooms and it makes travel really unpleasant there.)
All government employees, including cops, should be paid wages sufficient to allow positions to be filled by qualified candidates. Just as in the private sector.
If there are many more qualified applicants for a job than positions available, that is fairly convincing evidence that the position has too high a salary.
You have some reason to believe that everyone who applies for a police officer position is qualified?
A whole bunch of folks want to be cops for wrong reasons and they are in no way qualified for the job and I certainly hope they are not considered for the position. Just because there are lots of applicants doesn't mean that the jobs are over-paid.
Who do you want responding to an emergency call at your house, the lowest paid cop they could hire?
Luckily, we have a system of supply and demand in this country that -- in theory -- should allow us to optimize for quality and cost when it comes to filling jobs.
Btw, if your argument is that cops should be paid much more because they protect your life, then logically you'd probably have to agree that taxi drivers should get paid even more than cops, as you're more likely to die in a car crash than from random crime.
Not to mention, using that logic, the guys that work at our water sanitation plants and sewage treatment plants should be getting paid a lot of money too, as contaminated water poses a great risk to health as well.
These political threads seem to have a problem with people taking extreme positions or making it seem like someone else is taking an extreme position.
Tim
To play the 'devil's advocate', my father in law has a saying, "If you get in trouble, the LAST person you want to go to is a cop!"
While I can give story after story, just watch "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe to see just how crooked and corrupt cops can be.
I have a friend who became a cop mainly because "he liked to beat the pulp out of people.' (His words)
While there are many GOOD cops out there, overall, I don't trust them.
"Personally, since cops are paid out of my tax dollars, I want the most qualified one at the lowest price. I don't want my taxes to go up just to get a Harvard-educated cop at my door. And likewise, I don't want a cop who doesn't know how to do his job just so I can save a couple bucks on my taxes."
J. Scott,
I think you made my point for me. As you will agree, as with most jobs, you will not get the most qualified candidate at the lowest price, nor do you need to pay for someone who is overqualified. I don't think they teach law enforcement at Harvard, but I could be wrong ( I realize you were not implying that). As you suggested, the cheapest is not always the best way to go, neither is over-paying. A middle ground, based on more factors than whether or not a police officer can be hired who meets the bare minimum requirements at the lowest cost (minimum wage, particularly with this job market?) needs to be used. Perhaps more emphasis needs to be placed on suitability for the job through better psychological screening to avoid some of the issues we have had with law enforcement. Maybe we would need to pay a little more than the bare minimum to get a better pool of applicants. That was my only point.
Vikram,
I have no interest in responding to your condescending post.
"To play the 'devil's advocate', my father in law has a saying, "If you get in trouble, the LAST person you want to go to is a cop!"
What kind of trouble? So you are saying if you are in need, don't dial 911? Or is it possible he was saying when you do something illegal and get yourself into trouble the last people you want to see are the cops. I would agree with that.
"While I can give story after story, just watch "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe to see just how crooked and corrupt cops can be."
Yes, let's look to Hollywood for the answer. :roll: :roll: :roll:
"I have a friend who became a cop mainly because "he liked to beat the pulp out of people.' (His words)"
I tell people I became a landlord because I like to make kittens go hungry and evict orphans in the snow. If you can't handle a sense of humor that's your problem.
And if that is your idea of "a sense of humor," I now have a much better understanding of who you are as a human being.
Thanks for clarifying that for everyone...
I have a feeling that most of us would agree that:
1. Most cops, like most people, are good.
2. Some cops, like some people, are not nice people.
3. A person who is not nice can sometimes be dangerous if he has a gun in his hand and a legal monopoly over violence.
4. The government should not overpay its employees and waste taxpayer money.
5. There is no evidence anywhere in this thread to support the contention that cops are underpayed.
6. How much a job deserves should depend on market forces and not the subjective opinion of some taxpayers as to how much the job deserves.
Is there really any need to have a heated debate on this subject?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/md-bs-tshamba-charges-delay-20100610,0,2008667.story
Is that more or less than the Marine he killed who also put his life on the line for this country?
Hmmm, let me think that last time a cop helped me? Hmmmm, Hmmmm, Hmmmm, can't seem to come up with a single instance, but give me the entire weekend and I am sure I will come up with something.
Let me think the last time a cop harassed me. 17 car stops WITHOUT A SINGLE CITATION, ie, your tail light is dim, you tags expire NEXT MONTH, you were going 7 MPH over the speed limit (72 in a 65 zone on a lonely highway with no traffic passing us the entire time we were stopped),etc...
Overall, cops have an attitude that just rubs me the wrong way. They THINK because they put their lives on the line, they are better than every one else.
I could give the example of the COP who killed 3 teenagers here a few years ago because he was TOO LAZY to park his patrol car correctly, ie. I am a cop, I can park any way I want to. The Colorado State Patrol backs me up on my allegations, the La Plata County Sheriff differs from me.
I am not a cop hater and they are needed, but I am still very leary of their intentions.
On salaries: they have to be high enough to attract applicants, but they also have to be high enough to retain employees.
Maybe you could hire police for very low wages. But after the expense of training them (which is a chunk of money) most of them are going to quit as soon as the going gets rough, saying they aren't paid enough to put up with that stuff.
Whatever remained on the force is a scary thought. I've seen the type of people who work for low wages (like some of my tenants). I hate to think of them walking around with a gun and a badge.
Mike M hit the nail on the head. It's not that cops are bad, it's just that so many of them have a bit of an attitude that rubs many people the wrong way. This is something peculiar to the U.S. - at least among the countries that I frequently spend time in (In Europe, Asia and N America).
I think this arrogant attitude comes partly from the slavish adulation of a good bunch of the public, which is evident from some of the posts in this thread. And arrogance, in the hands of a guy with a gun, can result in some of the crimes that we have seen in these videos.
If we grant a legal monopoly on violence to a subset of our citizens, then we owe it to ourselves to very carefully monitor how that power is used. Instead, what we have is the delegation of enormous power along with an unquestioned faith in how that power is being used.
Apparently, some police officers believe that it's against the law to ask them a question:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/atlanta-expected-to-pay-552542.html?cxtype=rss_news
Sad that my city has to shell out $20K because of this idiot...of course, if they had gotten rid of him the last time he got caught abusing his power (he has been suspended without pay for most of this year), this may never of happened.
Btw, Tim - It's been 24 hours since your hate-filled tirade where you accused me of saying some ridiculous stuff I never said. I'm still waiting for you to either substantiate it or to apologize.
I think people are starting to see your true colors now...
This thread is about thanking officers. I know this is going to be very hard to accept but it's not about you.
Actually I just realized this might be confusing to some folks. To find out what Jason was saying you have to go the the thread that has "street gang" in it's title. It doesn't have "police officers".
And when Jason is talking about "street gang" he's not talking about the crips or ms13. These street gangs only hack drug dealing competitors to death with a machete or spray public transit buses with automatic fire. Jason's talking about street gang activity like enforcing the law, arresting the drug dealers that are trying to string our your kids, and issuing parking tickets. You know - real hardcore street gang activity.
Given this, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised...
:roll: :lol: