I'm done supporting cops, deputies, detectives, Law Enforcement in general. Here's TODAYS video...

[nadinbrzezinski]

98. We looked into the hiring of vets and the low end is 10 percent

the high number is 30 percent, with this being closer to 25 percent around the country. This is from the DOJ... and this has not broken any averages from previous eras. A minority of police, a signifiant minority in some departments, are military veterans. Not all are coming from combat arms either.

Ironically from talking to sources the conflict is actually between the vets, who do not like what they are seeing, and the non vets... I just wish any officer came forwards and spoke to these horrors though, and the shield is starting to crack in some departments.

The militarization, you have no argument from me, but the source of that was 911 and the fulfillment of what started to happen in full in the early 1990s, and that was the rise of the warrior cop as an ideology.

This book, by the way is a tour de force...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rise-of-the-warrior-cop-radley-balko/1113024804?ean=9781610392112

We challenged the Chief on community policing recently. She will tell you ten ways to Sunday how much they are doing that at SDPD, which was where some of this was actually developed in the 1990s... today they spend their time chasing the radio, and tend to be behind in responding to category 1 calls. They do not have time to walk the beat. They at times are under pressure to K a cat 1 call to respond to the next one... yes, it is that bad. Listening to the scanner can be enlightening since you hear this from dispatch often.

This was actually addressed in the DOJ report that was put together for SDPD and DOJ, well PERF, recommended improved staffing (DUH!). But that will take a couple of years, at least... assuming people stay and no longer leave, now that better salaries have been approved.I am not so sure that SDPD is the only department having these staffing issues, especially larger urban ones.

There are many structural reasons why this department is well under approved manning, among them poor pay. But the fact is that they are bleeding more officers than they are bringing in still. So instead of admitting the issue... Houston we have a problem, you are right we do not have enough officers to walk the beat, she still tried to sugar coat it.

From talking to others who have experience with this kind of reporting from around the nation I know she is not exceptional and speaks to the siege mentality I alluded to.

By the way, we are not in her christmas list, trust me on that one. I will wear that as a badge of honor.

We ask tough questions and we will not take the sugar coating as gospel.