The new cops

[KT2000]

I live in a rural area in NW Washington State. We have lots of retired people - also our share of drug issues in the non-retired population. We used to have a friendly Sheriff Department with older deputies who covered a large territory. They always tried to be helpful. They have retired.

Now we have a new crop of young cops who seem to have seen too many TV shows and movies. We have a mentally ill/paranoid man in the neighborhood. He stood in the street and screamed that his wife was trying to stab him, so neighbors called the police. Two showed up, one wearing a cowboy hat and dark glasses, and he was the boss. The man's appearance and demeanor is obviously that of a deranged person but the cop chose to believe him. When his wife tried to explain that she did not try to stab him, he told her to shut up and put cuffs on her and took her to jail - for the weekend - Domestic Violence, with nothing but the man's word.

This cop's inexperience and arrogance has just ruined two people's lives. The wife has supported him for 30 years but he is now alone in the house destroying it, getting drunk and leaving his wife homeless but for the generosity of friends. He has claimed the house as his and she will not ever be able to return to the house for her own safety.

I am sharing this as a lesson for others. Cops just are not who they used to be. Of course some are good and some are bad but the overall changes are for a more power/militant attitude. This is not just a city problem but everywhere now as recruitments are from all over the country. I also wonder if the jails no longer want to house the mentally ill.

If you care for a mentally ill person with a mean streak, make sure you have a paper trail confirming the mental illness. Make sure all police contacts are documented. They could turn on you at the end as this man did.
Memorize the phone number of a lawyer in case you are put in jail - no phone books there. Tattoo it on your arm if you have to.
Inform neighbors of the mentally ill person living in the house because when the caretaker is removed from the home, the neighbors will surely be affected.

[mahina]

1. Yikes. Wishing you and your neighbors very well

I know what you mean about the new generation

[KT2000]

2. Thank you

[captain queeg]

3. Yeah I grew up in a small town kind of like Mayberry with the police chief kind of like Andy.

The only run ins I’d had were a couple times where me and my buddies were out after curfew. One time during duck season we were walking the dirt road home after doing some shooting. We hadn’t bagged anything. On the was home a new deputy stopped us and harangued for shooting within town limits. I guess the funeral home director/owner had called the cops saying we we shooting “his” ducks. As the deputy was threatening us the chief pulled up and informed him the ducks were not the property of the funeral home (there was a small lake there). He asked us where we’d been shooting and when we told him he said we’d been outside the town limits. We all had licenses. Then he said are those guns loaded? All four of us racked our pump action shot guns and spilled out all the shells. The deputy was mortified that he hadn’t thought of that. The chief then asked us to leave our guns at the closet friends house because he didn’t want us walking through town with guns, not that it was illegal. Then we’d get our moms bring us back in the car to pick them up. Anyway those were simpler times when everyone knew each other.

[KT2000]

5. What a great story

The funeral home thought they owned the ducks?? What an idiot.

My old neighbor was state patrol. One night he was some really green, poor loggers hauling a load without headlights. One of them sat on the hood of the truck with a flashlight. My neighbor always believed in helping out the working man so he escorted them to the log yard so they could get paid but they had to walk home.

[Irish_Dem]

4. This may be a blessing in disguise for this woman.

She is in obvious danger from her mentally ill husband.

Clinically this man is paranoid and increasingly dangerous. The heavy drinking
increases the potential for violence.

Paranoid people can get violent when they think others are going to hurt them.
The man is focused on stabbing, which makes me wonder if that is what he is thinking
of doing to his wife.

Yes I agree, the police could have handled this better. But the bottom line
is that she needed to get out of that home before she gets killed.

And yes it is a lesson about what caretakers must do to protect themselves
with documentation and legal backup.

[KT2000]

6. Wow - you get the picture

Yes, it is a blessing in disguise. He brings knives into the house and she throws them away so he started making his own to sleep with.

I really wish there was more mental health training for cops.

I am their neighbor and he came to my house to yell nonsense at me yesterday so I had to get a no trespassing order. I just hope it works.

Thanks for your knowledge about all of this.

[Irish_Dem]

7. There has been an attempt to give LE some mental health training.

It has not worked out well.

And in an emergency they use their police training.

Maybe they were being clever and got the wife out of a bad situation.
They didn't want to take her out in a body bag the next day.

[oasis]

8. "Blacks for Trump" take heed. He gets in and

it’s open season on all black folk, including YOU.

Don’t even think about street demonstrations after a questionable police shooting of a black person. National guard will be Johnny-on-the Spot, not to mention Proud Boys and “volunteers” ala Kyle Rittenhouse types.

[shrike3]

9. We have been very lucky here.

Great, young, compassionate police officers. Then again, the police chief helped organize the Black Lives Matter march locally and was a key speaker at it. He told attendees protesting was more than welcome, so long as it stayed peaceful. It did.