They hit one of us they hit us all

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2005-06-05 10:06pm

We all know the scene in question, it shows up on every cop show or drama. The cop gets shot. The police mobilize everything possible to track down the killer(s) and start kicking down doors. I just watched a CSI Miami episode and a cop is shot. Horatio Kane orders all shifts on this case and pulls off his glasses dramatically (which of course means he's suddenly very serious or he's about to be profound.) "They hit one of us they hit all of us."

In the sweating the suspect scene Kane says "Nothing is more personal than killing a cop."

Some poor schlub gets killed on CSI or other cop show and suddenly its whoever's shift it is and can you handle this for me or "I've got to get home to my kids." etc.

Does this reaction or depiction of this reaction trouble you?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2005-06-05 10:07pm

Yes, I think it's unrealistic and just ridiculous in a sense. One guy dies on the line of duty and you pull every other officer from whatever important case or job they may be on to carry out a vendetta against one guy? Please.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2005-06-05 10:08pm

And I can understand the sense of brotherhood, but these guys are also professionals. Their jobs and duties come first.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-06-05 10:10pm

It also depends on the seriousness of the case. If a cop gets killed by a drunk driver, then no, you're not going to have the force come down and find this guy. If he was tagged by a serial killer, you've got a serious situation on your hands.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2005-06-06 05:00am

Perinnqus is a cop, perhaps he has a perspective on this issue?

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2005-06-06 05:14am

The police are there to serve and protect the citizenry, not themselves. Of course they should do everything within their power to bring the killer to justice, but they should do that with anyone who is murdered.

That would be like only mobilizing the military after military targets are hit, even though attacks against civilians have been going on for some time.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-06-06 09:34am

Personally i would understand that level of response if a cop’s family was hit,

but sadly these days the sheer abundance of crime means a cop has a high chance of getting hurt by some trigger happy lunatic or drugged kid.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2005-06-06 10:34am

Depending on the area it realy comes down to perceiption

In my home town, you did not mess with the cops because it was understould that NO one messed with the cops(Fact that 85% were former Marines had alot to do with that), made their job alot safe when people would rather run then try and take a cop on.

When someone DID attack a cop that person was quickly made an example of.

But thats just small town justice, how it works in cities is far diffrent

Miles Teg · Post by **Miles Teg** » 2005-06-06 11:46am

Hmm. this doesn't just happen on CSI or other cop shows. It happens in real life. A gunman in Colorado (my state) became a cop killer, and practically the entire police force was involved in the manhunt (they eventually tracked him to Mexico and arranged to have him sent back).

http://denverpost.com/news/ci_2781531

Anyway, the important part. Some other poor schlub got offed that same day, and his case hasn't even been hardly touched! And, I can't even find a news story about it. *sigh*

Miles Teg

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-06-06 03:11pm

It is messed... I live in Colorado, and I heard a lot about this manhunt. I don't even watch TV, so it's gotta be pretty heavily advertised for me to notice. They put a ton of fucking effort into finding this guy, but I know that if I got shot, nobody would give a fuck. They wouldn't run a news story for me. They might look for a while, but wouldn't overly give a fuck. Fucking 'justice'... bullshit...

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-06-06 03:18pm

Part of protecting the populace is ensuring that people involved in administering justice are safe to carry out their duties whenever possible. While some amount of danger is inherent to their jobs, police officers have to be protected by the judicial system since if they lost their ability to enforce the law then the country would fall apart. Killing a police officer is, in that respect, similar to killing a judge--it's something that absolutely cannot be tolerated, and IMO it mandates an even greater response than a normal murder because it attacks the basis of society as well as a member of society.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-06-06 03:36pm

In the UK, assault of a uniformed officer carries a much harsher penalty than standard GBH on a normal civilian.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2005-06-06 03:47pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:In the UK, assault of a uniformed officer carries a much harsher penalty than standard GBH on a normal civilian.

I don't mind the harsher penalties for assualting or killing a uniformed officer. I think what is disturbing is the highly disproportinate response in resources and manhours that a cop death incurs as opposed to a civilian. At least as a Police Office there is an assumption of the risk when you put on that badge. With me if I get stabbed and killed on the subway I didn't go looking for it. Why am I someone's burden on his caseload that may warrant a few days of real investigation but a Police Officer's death warrants doors being kicked down and raids all along a neighborhood?

I live in one of the high drug crime neighborhoods that was ground zero during the Crack epidemic in the late 80's early 90's. Cops would roll on by in their squad cars and the dealers would be right there on the corner. One of them gets hit with a flying bucket full of bricks from a roof top and suddenly there are mobile Police Head qaurters on the corner, drug dealers being rousted (only to walk down a few blocks and set up shop somewhere else.) doors get busted down and then in about a month, like clockwork, they were gone and back to cruising on by in their squad cars.

This changed under Giulianni where we began to see Police Officers on foot in our neighborhood and we started seeing dealers getting rousted on a fairly regular basis.

But status Quo seems to always be a civilian death is a burdensome statistic and the cop death is "When they get one of us they get all of us."

My death by stabbing probably wouldn't merit a single squad car being tasked to find my killer.

Singular Quartet · Post by **Singular Quartet** » 2005-06-06 04:13pm

Part of it is that cops have a connection to each other: They're cops. It's a level of connection. You know something about that person beyond a name and a face, making them real to you.

That, and you're always really fucking pissed when somebody you know gets murdered.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2005-06-06 04:15pm

Stravo wrote:My death by stabbing probably wouldn't merit a single squad car being tasked to find my killer.

You have no idea how much this disturbs me. Other than this, know what's more disturbing? It really isn't the quantity of police officers involved that solves the case.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2005-06-06 05:49pm

It actually makes a lot of sense to me. Follow it through logically: Officers of the law have one of the most important and difficult jobs in society. They have to put themselves in danger to uphold the basics of civilization, and as a result those they are stopping don't like them for it, to the point where it is a status point to be a cop killer. So in making it very well known that killing a cop will bring all their resources to bear on the killer, it helps cut down on the number of attacks by making the risk to reward ratio even more skewed. This makes it easier for police to do their jobs (fewer killed means more of them and the fact that criminals don't want to make things even worse means some of them will come along more quietly. In addition, it results in some self policing in the underworld making for less work for the cops. In one case I remember growing up, some 14 year old who wanted into a gang killed a cop to prove himself. The result of this was that he turned up dead less then a week later, when those he sought to impress killed him just to get the police of their backs), thus making us safer. It seems biased against us, but should really work out in our favor.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2005-06-06 06:20pm

Ender wrote:It actually makes a lot of sense to me. Follow it through logically: Officers of the law have one of the most important and difficult jobs in society. They have to put themselves in danger to uphold the basics of civilization, and as a result those they are stopping don't like them for it, to the point where it is a status point to be a cop killer. So in making it very well known that killing a cop will bring all their resources to bear on the killer, it helps cut down on the number of attacks by making the risk to reward ratio even more skewed. This makes it easier for police to do their jobs (fewer killed means more of them and the fact that criminals don't want to make things even worse means some of them will come along more quietly. In addition, it results in some self policing in the underworld making for less work for the cops. In one case I remember growing up, some 14 year old who wanted into a gang killed a cop to prove himself. The result of this was that he turned up dead less then a week later, when those he sought to impress killed him just to get the police of their backs), thus making us safer. It seems biased against us, but should really work out in our favor.

You really have to consider the degree though.

If i can commit a crime quite safely because the police is using most their recources on a hunt for a cop killer then there´s obviously too much recources going towards this hunt. If it´s like in the case Zero132132 talked about something is clearly wrong.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-06-06 06:25pm

Anybody stupid enough to harm a cop will harm *anybody* and is the kind of mad dog that I'd like hunted down ASAP, so aside from the purely self-serving fraternal nature of cops hunting cop-killers, I'm perfectly happy that they prioritize incarcerating somebody that stupid/dangerous.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-06-06 06:26pm

It gets a bit excessive when they actually find him in mexico, after he's crossed the border.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-06-07 01:01am

Hey, the guy was a serial killer. He killed multiple cops. That warrants a large search. He could kill anyone.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-06-07 01:48am

I'm not saying he shouldn't have come to justice. Actually, I find the story of his arrest a bit funny... he was walking out of a convenience store in mexico, and he was, needless to say, very surprised. Lol.

gizmojumpjet · Post by **gizmojumpjet** » 2005-06-07 04:52pm

salm wrote:If i can commit a crime quite safely because the police is using most their recources on a hunt for a cop killer then there´s obviously too much recources going towards this hunt. If it´s like in the case Zero132132 talked about something is clearly wrong.

Police very rarely prevent crime, save by their very presence at public places like sporting events and so forth. More often they're there to clean up the mess, so to speak. If taking police off the beat to hunt down a cop killer actually increased the crime rate, you'd see a demonstrable spike in crime shortly after each police killing. Cop killers are public enemy number one. If you'll kill a cop, what won't you do? It makes sense that extra efforts would be expended to catch someone who'd kill a cop.

I don't think it's a good idea to watch CSI and assume that's the way real police officers operate... That doesn't change the fact Marg Helgenberger is hot.

(Full Disclosure: One of my best friends was a cop and some bastard fatally shot him in the head. They caught the guy shortly thereafter and I'm happy to say he was sentenced to death.)