I didn't want to get off topic in the original thread, so I started this one. Join in if you wish. Say what you like, but please don't clutter the original thread with debate and bs.

Last night's shooting of Senior Trooper Steven Vincent rang a bell for me so to speak.

Last night I crossed paths with another trooper. He told me that the two of them went through the academy together. He spoke very highly of Vincent.

I told him how I truly respect troopers. What few people realize it that the two most dangerous jobs in law enforcement is that of a highway patrolman such as Vincent, or a small town officer. Those guys are like the Lone Ranger, but without Tonto. If one works for a medium sized agency, they generally patrol small areas and have other units close by who can back them up. Not so for troopers. Generally there closet backup is miles away.

Most officer involved shootings happen at night on the open road. For whatever reason, someone decides taking a shot at an officer is a good thing. It really makes no sense at all.

Victor, wtf were you thinking?

One phrase most officers hate to hear is "routine traffic stop." That phrase needs to be removed from our vocabulary. It's rarer than a unicorn. There is a reason why aren't may not seem chatty when they pull someone over. Though the person getting pulled over may be the kindest soul in the world, the officer knows that each stop may be their last. The public is quick to judge, but chances are they haven't seen the dash cam videos of their brethren taking their last breaths with some a$$hole standing over them laughing.

It's days like today where those of us who serve question the decision to do so.

I didn't post anything Dave. I didn't feel that was the place to do so. Hence, this thread.

I don't disagree that a traffic stop is probably a seriously tense situation... the cop has no idea what they're walking in to. In this case, it was apparently a seriously unhinged guy with a shotgun. That's bad, for the police officer, for the police officer's family and probably a whole slew of people in the community who I wouldn't even speculate to be able to identify.

I wasn't trying to be unsympathetic to the situation. I simply was trying to figure out how some dude could be sitting in a car in a ditch, with a cop car behind him (which everyone knows has a dashcam, which everyone knows his license plate was likely called in before the officer got out of the car) on a road that apparently was crowded enough to have people who would come by to subdue him.... how that guy could be dumb enough to think that shooting the officer would be the action less likely to end him up in jail. I wouldn't speculate what was going through that guy's head... and I doubt we'll ever know, unless he's got some damn manifesto stashed somewhere. But if it was that the course of action he chose to take was the one which was going to keep him out of jail... then he's an idiot of the highest magnitude.

Victor, I didn't feel you were thread jacking. I've come to understand that you bring meaningful conversation. That is exactly why I started this thread. I think those conversations should be had.

As far as your original post, I think you were looking for a rational answer. In your profession, its required. On the other hand, those in my profession deal with irrational behavior all the time. I can't tell you how many times a day I ask myself why some individuals I have the pleasure of interacting with do the things they do. It's completely irrational. Desperate people do desperate things.

I tend to block out a most of my experiences because they are truly bizarre and I don't wish to think about them after the incident has occurred.

On such incident is always in the back of my mind. Without going into too many details, I was confronted with the threat of an active shooter at a high school where I was the resource officer on my off duty days. As a result, a 20 block neighborhood was flooded with officers looking for a person enroute to the school to shoot someone. After canvassing the neighborhood for about an hour we learned the alleged shooter was actually in jail. Since the school day was ending, about 20 officers had gathered in the parking lot of a small store as a large group of students walked from the school about 2 blocks away. About 20 units were parked in the parking lot and we were all standing there as they came up the street. They stopped on the corner across the street from where we were standing, not more than 50 feet from where we all stood. All of a sudden, at least 50 people started fighting. We all ran across the street and started handcuffing people. We ran out of handcuffs.

As fate would have it, about 3 years later the alleged shooter who didn't show up that day was shot to death at a house directly across the street from where we broke up the fight. There person who alleged shot him was shot to death a few blocks away a few weeks after his murder charge was dropped.

I don't think I could do your job without losing it and just going on a shooting spree. Sometimes people simply make no sense to me.

...scratch that, most of the time people make no damn sense to me.

If you've ever got dead-time on your hands you should check out the podcast (and I believe there is a book as well) called "You are not so smart"... they do a regular thing on different studies showing how people make completely irrational decisions. It might amuse you. Or it might just remind you of your workday and you'll hate it.

There are days where I wonder how much longer I can do it myself. Last night was one of those nights where I came within inches of hanging it up. Ironically, it had nothing to do with the shooting.

I'll pass on the podcast. You're right, I seen so many things I seriously doubt any of that sort of content would surprise me. That last thing I want to see on my days off is anything remotely having to do with the crap I see on a daily basis. In fact, I've cut waaaay back on the amount off duty work I do for the same reason.

I feel like police get a darker view of humanity, that is worse because of whom it is they deal with and how people, regular people respectable folks react when confronted by the police. From my observations, this tends to make law enforcement persons cling to their own and not others.

To Victor's point, criminals are usually not too bright to begin with. How about everybody else though? WTF would posses any rational person to drink and drive? Now some would say I'm wrong, they drink responsibly, blah, blah, blah, whatever. If you get pulled over, for whatever reason or are involved in an accident, that alcohol on your breath is going to do zip for your credibility let alone your reflexes.

:-k