Cop Mom: No One Has Alot of Respect for the Law
Fri, 08/17/2012 - 12:03am
Posted by Jo Woodworth
Being 57 years old and growing up in Maine half of my life and the other half in a city, volunteering at my son's schools until HS, becoming part of the ROTC program in HS, volunteering as a Court advocate for Domestic Violance and Rape victims and then my 29 year old son becoming a cop after private school for 4 years to the be a physical therapist, I have seen respect for authority literally "fly" out the window these past 10 or so years. It is not like it use to be.
Working in the jail library and seeing the change in the masses is frightening. I have worked with older cops who are taking early retirement b/c they see how things have changed for the worse and they are not lazy, they just want to live. NO ONE, especially our younger people, have alot of respect the law.
How many of us speed or throw trash out the window and then are offended when we actually get a ticket, how dare they? Many young people have a rap sheet an arm long by the time they are 21 and are so far in the hole, they just don't care. They are smart ass and disrespectful to all authority figure, even absent parents. Drugs and drinking are rampant in our middle schools, babies being born to 11 year olds.
I believe this is what has caused our police to re-act the way they do today. they realize going into a situation that every situation can get out of control. They have to show a force of power. They need to regain some of the control back. This may not be the situation here but if they go overboard, they have been trained how to defuse the situation and sometimes it means a united, strong front.
The best thing we can do is teach our children to respect authority and obey law. I know these "Flash" things are the rage and seem harmless, but that is not always the case. Just my opinion from the mother of a cop who could be put in that situation and I would want him to protect the public and himself from any potential harm.
Doesn't mean this particular case.......just stating some facts as I have experience them.