Stolen Kubota with Loader

[Bird]

Yeah, Rat, I think it's just about universal that the most satisfaction most cops get is in catching a thief; particularly burglars and auto thieves. My time as a sergeant was spent in the "Crimes Against Property Section" which consisted of an auto theft unit and a burglary and theft unit. I was in the burglary and theft, but of course we and the auto theft crew worked closely together.

And having the opportunity to go to a number of schools and training programs with officers from other places was not only educational, but sometimes hilarious, comparing the similarities and differences in law enforcement. One of the required courses at Northwestern was constitutional law and after a class discussion of the Miranda case and Miranda warning, during a break, 3 high ranking officers from Asia (I won't name the 3 countries/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif) came and asked me, "Bird, do you really do that?" I assured them that we did, and said, "I take it you don't." One of them said, "When we arrest someone, we decide whether he needs an attorney, and if so, we decide who his attorney will be and when he will see that attorney." Wonder how many of us would like to live there?/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif And in the budgeting class, he asked me to look at the budget he had prepared. He had included jeeps, machine guns, and hand grenades "to rid the highways of robbers."/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif I don't guess he had many repeat offenders./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Hello EJB,

I was a Police Officer with San Diego PD during the ‘70’s and I don’t agree with your assessment and statements concerning “cops”. It’s a very stereotypical blanket uninformed statement.

Every now and then you have that lazy individual that doesn’t do their job and sometimes that “bad apple” tends to make the whole bushel “bad”. That occurs across the board in all occupations, no one is excluded.

I’m sorry you used such a broad brush to paint that picture of Police Officers that is not true…

 

[Buck]

Franz,

Was it insured?

Buck

 

[ejb]

Guess I stuck my foot in my mouth with that one and
no offense was intended, but what I said was most "small departments", i.e. those depts with a few guys in a small town with little crime. I think I am accurate, I have dealt with more than a handful. San Diego is a far cry from a "small department" I would guess and has access to plenty of training and resources etc.

In the small towns were I work and live, my statement is accurate. I have had to call 911 for emergencies and have had it take over 90 minutes for anyone to show up...(and he showed up in his wifes car with 2 baby-car seats in the back seat which I actualy thought was pretty funny) those are the kind of police departments I am talking about. And even so, I was not trying to offend anyone. These guys get paid peanuts (about $9/hour in my town), recieve little or no training and usually have big attitude problems and are told by the town managers to write enough tickets to cover the costs of their entire department. Our towns total police budget last years as less than $25K and they wrote twice that in tickets.

I am sure there are many dedicated hard-working cops around...they just don't work in my town.

 

[JATO_RaT]

ejb, again I think your dead wrong. I've seen every episode of Andy Griffith several times over and since Mayberry fits the mold of a small town, I know for a fact that when even the most minute crime happened like Aunt B jaywalking, Barney was on it. Perhaps you to could benefit from this very educational show (happens to be my all time favorite), Rat...

 

[MikePA]

"Nip it, nip it in the bud. Andy, you have to nip it in the bud."

 

[Bird]

ejb, I wish I could remember the numbers, but don't remember, and don't want spend a lot of time looking it up, but of course I know you're right about that happening in some small cities (very few, I hope), so the State of Texas has a state statute that says all traffic fines over a certain percentage of the city's budget has to go to the state. That prevents the city councils from using a police department to finance the city budget.

Bird

 

[Bird]

We still watch it on TVLand (channel 301 on DirecTV)./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[MChalkley]

Rat - It's my all-time favorite show, too. To abuse a too often used cliche': They don't make them like that anymore.

MarkC

 

[JATO_RaT]

Mike, hehehehehe, Ainge, you got to nip it, nip it in the bud.

Best educational episode, Opie the Birdman, Opie kills a mother bird with his sling shot.

One of the funniest, Barney recites the constitution

Helen, most uptight character

Floyd, the more you watch, the more you realize he was a master of comedy

Andy, we need more folks like him

Aunt B, would love to have a local breakfeast cafe serving her meals.

G&G garage, well, I wouldn't really want either of these guys, Gomer and Goober working on my car, but they added alot.

Barney, oh man this guy was something, Don Knots your the greatest!!!

Rat...