As I mentioned earlier, I am back! One thing I am dedicated to accomplishing is a redux of my, “ask a cop” column. It was always popular, and some of the questions can be absolutely enlightening. Some others can be, well, deleted!
So comment on this post with your questions - police, law, procedures, or simply, “why did this cop do such and such…”
I cannot speak for all of us, but I will do my best to answer, explain, and engage in the dialogue. I look forward to hearing from you!
It seems like politicians and media outlets (my two favorites) like to get face time from an officer killed while performing their duties. Sometimes it seems they are truly moved, but often they shamelessly seek the attention for their own gain.
In any case, it struck me that even I have become jaded to the number of sisters and brothers I lose every year. In 2007, the ODMP reports 186 officers killed in the line of duty. My lord, that is more than one every two days! So to try and scratch the surface, I am going to research the circumstances behind the officers killed for just two weeks and report on them here at the Philosophical Cop. I hope that means I will have nothing to report; the numbers tell me otherwise.
I expect it will, quite honestly, be difficult. I will have to post every night, even though that only takes a few minutes. I will complain that I have other things to do, and I am too busy, and I am tired from my own shift, and I don’t feel well, and on and on. But I will have to pay attention to each and every one of these officers and their families. I will report back with my reactions. I hope it helps us all understand, not just recite the numbers…
Before I could even finish this post, here is the first:
Today, on March 1, 2008, Cleveland Police Officer Derek Owens died after being shot late last night. He was chasing four suspects who were drinking in public. One of them shot and killed Officer Owens. Like me, Owens has been a cop about 10 years. He has an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old child. I think we should remember that more than a number, Officer Owens was a father and a husband — and a cop who was just trying to arrest four thugs. Rest in peace.
As you can see from my limited blogroll, I try to keep my recommendations to a minimum. My hope is that folks will actually visit and pay attention to the few that I recommend.
To that end, I strongly urge you all to check out www.truecopstories.com. It is quite a simple concept, it seems. They just put up stories by cops. That’s it. The site is not fancy, but I kinda like that. It is just cops telling what happened last night, last month, or last year on a memorable shift. Check it out and let me know what you think!
It never ceases to amaze me. From time to time I stand at a critical or dangerous incident and think, “what on earth are you thinking?” I started this as a young patrol officer when suspects would continue to fight with 3, 4, or 5 police officers who were subduing them. Sometimes I would say out-loud, “Dude, do you think you can actually win this…knock it off!” Of course that was generally ineffective.
Anyhow, last shift the officers who work for me had to arrest a guy for beating up his wife. Nothing too serious on the injuries, but he was going to jail for certain. Who is there to arrest him? Count with me here, folks: three armed police officers (guns drawn), one police sergeant, one police canine (sounding quite hungry) and the Philosophical Cop.
