This has been around a while. It has a lot of truth to it.
Mr. Citizen, it seems you've figured me out. I fit neatly into the category
where you've placed me. I'm stereotyped, standardized, characterized,
classified, grouped, and always typical. Unfortunately, the reverse is true. I
can never figure you out.
From birth, you teach your children that I'm the bogeyman and then you're
shocked when they identify/associate with my traditional enemy.... the criminal!
You accuse me of coddling criminals.... until I catch your kids doing wrong.
You may take an hour for lunch and several coffee breaks each day, but point
me out as a loafer for having one cup. You pride yourself on your manners, but
think nothing of disrupting my meals with your troubles.
You raise Cain with the guy who cuts you off in traffic, but let me catch you
doing the same thing and I'm picking on you. You know all the traffic laws....
but you've never gotten a single ticket you deserve. You shout "FOUL" if you
observe me driving fast to a call, but raise the roof if I take more than ten
seconds to respond to your complaint.
You call it part of my job if someone strikes me, but call it police brutality
if I strike back. You wouldn't think of telling your dentist how to pull a tooth
or your doctor how to take out an appendix, yet you are always willing to give
me pointers on the law. You talk to me in a manner that would get you a bloody
nose from anyone else, but expect me to take it without batting an eye.
You yell that something's got to be done to fight crime, but you can't be
bothered to get involved. I am the one who runs to a gun fight or any fight for
that matter and you are the one who is always running away and calling for the
POLICE. You have no use for me at all, but of course it's OK if I change a flat
for your wife, deliver your child in the back of the patrol car, or perhaps save
your son's life with mouth to mouth breathing, or work many hours overtime
looking for your lost daughter. You are the one calling in about speeding in
your area and want something done about it. Then we set up radar and its your
wife or even you that we catch. Then its a radar trap again . Go Figure.
So Mr. Citizen, you can stand there on your soapbox and rant and rave about
the way I do my work, calling me every name in the book, but never stop to think
that your property, family, or maybe even your life depends on me or one of my
buddies. Yes, Mr. Citizen, it's me the cop!
- author unknown (no, not a deceased Trooper from VA. That is false).