Reply With QuoteCivilian- 1.a person who is not on active duty with a military, naval, police, or fire fighting organization.
Citizens Or Civilians? Bad Cops!
Why does the media ("AP"couric) refer to citizens as civilians in this article?
Associated Press6:26 PM CDT, June 1, 2008
CHICAGO - An officer from an elite Chicago police unit who is among those accused of shaking down civilians has cooperated with federal investigators by allegedly taping conversations with a fellow officer, he told CBS News' "60 Minutes" for a program that aired Sunday.
Keith Herrera, 30, said he was "petrified" when he offered to record his mentor and fellow officer Jerome Finnigan.
"I had the FBI on speed dial on my phone," Herrera told CBS News' Katie Couric.
Finnigan faces charges of plotting to hire someone to kill another member of the unit to keep him quiet as officers were under investigation. Finnigan has pleaded not guilty.
Herrera and Finnigan were part of an elite special operations unit that cracked down on guns and drugs. They are among seven members of the unit charged with abusing civilians.
"To me, he was like Superman," Herrera said of Finnigan. "He was one of the best cops in the city."
An attorney who has represented Finnigan did not immediately return a call for comment Sunday.
Herrera said there was pressure to perform in the unit.
"Get the guns, and get the drugs off the street. No matter what. At any cost. Just get 'em off," Herrera said.
Police Superintendent Jody Weis, who was brought in by Mayor Richard Daley to shake up the department, told Couric it's "horrific" if people were encouraged to engage in any misconduct.
Before Weis took over in Chicago, the police department announced it was disbanding the unit. Then-interim Police Superintendent Dana Starks called incidents involving officer misconduct "disheartening and demoralizing."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...,4258964.story
Last edited by bryanleu2002; 06-01-2008 at 10:35 PM. Reason: underline civilians
Civilian- 1.a person who is not on active duty with a military, naval, police, or fire fighting organization.
misunderstanding
Originally Posted by SnakeBiteLeader
I stand corrected! sorry for the misunderstanding on my part. I am just old school. WE THE PEOPLE are all citizens of a great nation..
Bryan
Cops are Civilians in a way that Soldiers are not. That's why they initially did not carry guns. While most Police Officers are upstanding, strong, polite, and intelligent civil servants, with a sense of history that reflects this; a few Cops forget that; especially when they start dressing up in camo for G.I. Joe ops, en-force, against 1 guy with Saturday Night Special, and 3 wad-cutter bullets. Then the guy with the .38's shoots back, and the said policemen piss their pants, and desperately try to convince the Naval Reserve to loan them a Battleship; not because they haven't collected themselves mind you, and figured out that they can indeed handle the jerk with the pop-gun, but because they really feel that this is their chance to justify playing with a Battleship. They get turned down, and sulk; then blow up the building with the perp. Then they go to the bar, and tell all the other members of the department about how they defeated Castro's Invasion Force with their super-cool, non-skid kneepads. The other Officers turn back around, and drink their beers. The "Heros" collect in a corner for a night of self congratulation.
This breed of Policeman is often referred to as a SWAT Officer, BATFE Officer, High-Speed Playground Ninja (HSPN for short; they love acronyms), or just "Jeyak-ayass" who doesn't brush his teeth often enough. They also will argue till blue in the face that they are just as much a Soldier as a Force Recon Marine is, because they wish it was true. It is best not to attack their delusions of Soldier-hood less you see what is about to happen 6 seconds after I post this. LOL.
P.S. Chicago is a pretty corrupt town. Some of the Police, and Organized Crime--I mean Government Officials--make few bones about their open cooperation, and is done so everyday of the week in the open air for all to see (so long as you actually look; most people don't). This story not surprising.
Last edited by BloodDiamondPants; 06-01-2008 at 11:12 PM.
Interesting. I was a SWAT cop. I'm afflicted with none of the attitudes you describe. Not now, and I certainly wasn't then.
In short, sod off.
I think your generalizing a bit too much on the "SWAT cops" statement, I've met plenty of street-beater average cops with the "I am God" attitude, especially with teenagers. I have had plenty of bad incidents with cops, usually when I was doing something totally legal or something that was part of my job or education. On the other hand, I've dealt with officers who were a credit to their department and handled things very well. Overall, the best trait I've seen with police officers is an ability to listen. All bad incidents I've seen have happened because the cop assumed he knew what had happened from the get-go and just wanted to arrest the guilty party ASAP.
The citizens vs. civilians debate here is less to do with the Police, and more to do with an reporter trying to get thier syndicated story in on time while their editor breathes down their neck. Civilian is just an easy word, meaning someone with no authority to most, I was stunned some of the words struck from my stories in news writing classes as "too difficult to understand", sadly, citizen may fall in that category.
Is somebody a little bitter for being passed-over?
Yep, and it burned. (Guys, satire? Hello? I was poking fun at the underlying theme of Cop/Civilian by making up a very funny story--if I do say so myself--about the similar dichotomy between Beat Cop/SWAT, etc. It's obviously too ridiculous to take seriously; at least I thought so. Notice how it starts off kind of seriously, and then descends into a diatribe that is obviously "in-character?" Have a beer, take a load off. Tough Room.)
Nice backpedal.
Last edited by Buckeye67; 06-02-2008 at 01:05 AM.
As a member of our ERT, I'm just dying to hear exactly what "G.I. Joe Ops" are.
Quick question, WTF are you smoking? Since it's apparent that you are talking out of your fourth point of contact and don't have a clue as to what you're talking about, the best advice I can give you is shut your yap, and refrain from posting asinine comments. If you're an idiot, there's not need for you to confirm it to those reading your posts.
I can only assume from your post, Blood Diamond, that you have served a number of high-risk warrants, arrested armed, violent criminals and been shot at enough so that your sympathetic nervous system doesn't engage under times of great stress, so that your bowels and bladder never release as a natural reaction to fear. Good for you. I hope to be as squared away as you some day.
There is something to be said about the militarization of police departments that's going on across the country. Every podunk sheriff department wants a SWAT team and an APC. Police-citizen interactions have been getting more violent in recent years, and the military style training and equipment may play a hand in it.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5439
During the past 15 years, The Post and other media outlets have reported on the unsettling "militarization" of police departments across the country. Armed with free surplus military gear from the Pentagon, SWAT teams have multiplied at a furious pace. Tactics once reserved for rare, volatile situations such as hostage takings, bank robberies and terrorist incidents increasingly are being used for routine police work.
Eastern Kentucky University's Peter Kraska -- a widely cited expert on police militarization -- estimates that SWAT teams are called out about 40,000 times a year in the United States; in the 1980s, that figure was 3,000 times a year. Most "call-outs" were to serve warrants on nonviolent drug offenders.
Like it or not, tactical teams are a necessary. Tactical teams don't determine when they're called out, their administration does, just like it determines what equipment they use, and their particular agency's use of force policy. and as previously stated, unlike what's portrayed in the media, they rarely if ever use force to resolve a situation. As far as police citizen interactions go, there's been a shift back toward "community policing" over the last few years.
Also, the average citizen doesn't have a freaking clue as to what his or her local law enforcement agency does. Most of them would be shocked hat the shear amount of BS they're required to put up with on a daily basis. For those of you out their whining about the police, I'd suggest that you attend one of the "Citizen's Police Academies" that many agencies sponsor, or ask to do some ride alongs, before you go spouting off as to what the police do, and don't do.
Well said.
Non violent until someone comes to arrest them.Most "call-outs" were to serve warrants on nonviolent drug offenders.
Look folks, obviously my humor was not some other peoples humor. It was a joke; others didn't see it that way. I got an "infraction" for it, so everyone should be happy. I honestly have a high amount of respect for SWAT Officers. If there was any one real criticism that I could level at them it would be minor, and that is the camouflage you see many of them wearing. In an urban CQB style environment, it serves no purpose what-so-ever, and does look a little silly, but other than that, I really have no beef. So, apologies to those of you that found it offensive instead of funny.
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