@ArmyJerry might be interested in this reply as well.
I left the Sheriffs Department about a month ago. Complications with my sons medical issues and my wife’s surgery necessitated me leaving because of time and schedule conflicts. It was the hardest decision I’ve made concerning work. I loved my team I worked with. My Sgt was a straight shooter and I NEVER had to guess what she was going to do. Guys, at least here in Wyoming, in my small sample of fellow deputies, cops have the same concerns we do about just about everything. Yes there are idiot cops. I worked with one or two, they had no business being in uniform. In fact, my LT got fired for abuses about the time I left. Wyoming is definitely different than the rest of the nation, I’m not saying cops are perfect. Quite the opposite. They are human. The laws cops enforce are not written by cops. Yes, officers have discretion in enforcement, but that is a small consolation to a larger problem.
The larger problem is the elected class who differentiate themselves from the rest of society. Yes, this can happen and does happen at the street level officer, but the bulk of the problem lies with elected officials who write and pass the abusive laws and are kept in office by an ignorant and a misdirected public. That misdirection comes from a complicit media and other elected officials to further separate themselves from the masses. Constitutional abuses are not new, some would argue and have credence in saying the civil war was fought over states rights and the feds overreached. That is a discussion for another time. Here in Wyoming we had the Jonson county wars as they were called, but what it really was, was an outright abuse of power by elected officials and powerful banks to try to justify the outright murder and intimidation of Wyoming citizens simply because some company men and local elected officials who worked for the cattle company got caught cooking the books and embezzlement of foreign investors. They hired an out of town posse of outlaws to go chase off and murder sheep farmers in the northern part of Wyoming simply because the thieves told the banks that the locals were stealing cattle and that was where the money went, the thieves were not only company men but local elected officials who were stealing the cattle and starting their own heards. The evidence goes all the way to the White House at the time. It even involved the military posted at Fort Laramie at the time.
It was stopped by a local sheriff in Buffalo Wyoming by deputizing citizens and riding south to meet the illegal militia head on. I won’t retell the whole story, it doesn’t end there but the violence did. A coverup of huge scope that some say lasts today try to obscure what happened.
The point I’m trying to make is, people have the capacity for evil. It is natural. It is not right. Constitutional abuses are not new. The elected class and their separation from the public whether it be by accident or design is the root of the problem. People who seek to have power over others is the problem. And unfortunately law enforcement officers are not immune. But I will refuse to lump all of them into the same boat. Not all cops are bad. Just the same as not all gun owners are mouth breathing redneck retards.
So yes, I hate drunk drivers, I hate that they take a risk with the public and end up killing innocent people. At the same time I hate constitutional abuses by law enforcement and elected officials.
Sorry for my rant.
