When I lived in the US I was surprised about how casually everyone treated DUI. In Northern Europe, where I am from, driving after drinking is socially unacceptable in Generation X and younger.
Same experience here in Canada. I used to think it was something rarely done until I started spending a lot of time at bars in my university days. Every night, I saw countless people driving home drunk, and often the same people too. Even though the bartenders knew and were legally liable, they never said a thing unless they were stumbling down drunk.
This is absolutely endemic to many police departments.
Remember the case where the cop arrested the nurse for refusing to administer a blood draw without a warrant following a car accident?
He was so anxious to get the blood draw because his supervisor had told him to, because the other party in the MVA was an off-duty cop who was drunk and had blown through a red light. They were desperate to find anything to pin on the person in hospital (who later died) while stalling on a blood test for their fellow cop, so they could shift/diminish liability.
A lot of people just don't understand how thoroughly rotted our policing institutions are in the US. In any other scenario if someone pulled something similar they'd be blacklisted from their career for life. But the cop in question got rehired elsewhere after being fired. Corrupt cops never leave the system, they just get shuffled around.
It's funny, such a blacklist/register actually does exist in the US, of LEOs who were fired or resigned/retired in order to avoid termination...
... and the entities (local, state) who employ an estimated 70% of LEOs around the country are prohibited from using it for hiring decisions based on their CBAs with the local police union.
I have a sibling comment about this but I know a lot of cops in AA and drunkly crashing the squad car and pinning it on the victim is among the most common reasons they end up in there.
And I mean that they choose to go to AA after successfully doing that, not that they are forced or otherwise experience any consequences for it.
I'm on your side that 1. Public servants should be held to a higher, not lower, standard and 2. There is a huge problem in this regard with the current US police situation.
Even with that extremely aligned base you still lose me completely when you say things that start with "no cop has ever...". I've never seen any system at scale with such absolutes so this immediately makes me doubt your other story and your take (which is what I already believe!) in general.
I'm sorry but if you honestly thought I was claiming to have privileged insight into the inner workings of the nous of others I'm not sure how to approach this.
What I assert is that working as a police officer in the US is incompatible with a sincere and complete passage through several of the 12 steps, beginning with that one. I've known some retired cops who I believe to have done it though.
I used to go to a members-only bar in Apex, NC (in NC, at least at the time, if >50% of your sales was alcohol, you had to be a "club"). The last time I ever went there was when someone called the bartender and "reported" a DUI checkpoint down the road and they announced it in the bar.
Why do some folks think it's OK to put other people at risk to this level?
My local AA group is about half active & retired cops just due to neighborhood history & demographics. And hooooly shit the stuff I have heard in there over the years.
Pretty much any sort of common malfeasance or misconduct you've heard a cop accused of I have heard them confess as part of a drinking story. And these guys aren't forced into sobriety or anything. These are the ones who want to be there, these are the good ones!
When I lived in the US I was surprised about how casually everyone treated DUI. In Northern Europe, where I am from, driving after drinking is socially unacceptable in Generation X and younger.
Same experience here in Canada. I used to think it was something rarely done until I started spending a lot of time at bars in my university days. Every night, I saw countless people driving home drunk, and often the same people too. Even though the bartenders knew and were legally liable, they never said a thing unless they were stumbling down drunk.
https://archive.is/0sGU9
This is absolutely endemic to many police departments.
Remember the case where the cop arrested the nurse for refusing to administer a blood draw without a warrant following a car accident?
He was so anxious to get the blood draw because his supervisor had told him to, because the other party in the MVA was an off-duty cop who was drunk and had blown through a red light. They were desperate to find anything to pin on the person in hospital (who later died) while stalling on a blood test for their fellow cop, so they could shift/diminish liability.
A lot of people just don't understand how thoroughly rotted our policing institutions are in the US. In any other scenario if someone pulled something similar they'd be blacklisted from their career for life. But the cop in question got rehired elsewhere after being fired. Corrupt cops never leave the system, they just get shuffled around.
It's funny, such a blacklist/register actually does exist in the US, of LEOs who were fired or resigned/retired in order to avoid termination...
... and the entities (local, state) who employ an estimated 70% of LEOs around the country are prohibited from using it for hiring decisions based on their CBAs with the local police union.
I have a sibling comment about this but I know a lot of cops in AA and drunkly crashing the squad car and pinning it on the victim is among the most common reasons they end up in there.
And I mean that they choose to go to AA after successfully doing that, not that they are forced or otherwise experience any consequences for it.
Kind of hard to see how they make restitution, though. (Step 8, willingness to make amends.)
No cop has ever sincerely & successfully made it past step 4 so the rest are purely theoretical for them.
No cop ever? Not even one?
I'm on your side that 1. Public servants should be held to a higher, not lower, standard and 2. There is a huge problem in this regard with the current US police situation.
Even with that extremely aligned base you still lose me completely when you say things that start with "no cop has ever...". I've never seen any system at scale with such absolutes so this immediately makes me doubt your other story and your take (which is what I already believe!) in general.
I'm sorry but if you honestly thought I was claiming to have privileged insight into the inner workings of the nous of others I'm not sure how to approach this.
What I assert is that working as a police officer in the US is incompatible with a sincere and complete passage through several of the 12 steps, beginning with that one. I've known some retired cops who I believe to have done it though.
I used to go to a members-only bar in Apex, NC (in NC, at least at the time, if >50% of your sales was alcohol, you had to be a "club"). The last time I ever went there was when someone called the bartender and "reported" a DUI checkpoint down the road and they announced it in the bar.
Why do some folks think it's OK to put other people at risk to this level?
My local AA group is about half active & retired cops just due to neighborhood history & demographics. And hooooly shit the stuff I have heard in there over the years.
Pretty much any sort of common malfeasance or misconduct you've heard a cop accused of I have heard them confess as part of a drinking story. And these guys aren't forced into sobriety or anything. These are the ones who want to be there, these are the good ones!
the title could just be
"Members-only Philly cop bar"
everyone would instantly go "uh oh" and fall into two categories ,#1 I dont want to know, #2 I cant help myself