Another reason to sympathize with the cops...

I mean, really: Officer investigated for speaking his mind on St. Pete crime

So lemme get this straight, he warns the father of a 16 yr. old girl about a tough neighborhood and gets slammed for it. Guess he should have stayed mum and let the chips fall where they may. Good thing the kid wasn't raped and killed.

Cops have a tough job, I'll say that even though I've met my share of assholes in blue. Who the hell would want to get up every morning and put on a uniform that might as well do double duty for a bulls eye on their back? To top it off, they've got to deal with ass kissing, chair polishing, pencil pushing fools like the ones mentioned in the linked article.

I recall being a young E3 in Uncle Sam's canoe club, going through my tech school up in Great Lakes, Illinois right outside of North Chicago. On weekends I'd go to either Milwaukee, WI. or Chicago. One Saturday night I was in the Windy City and a cop stopped me, asked where I was headed. "No place in particular, just looking for the train station to head back to the base." was my reply.

He informed me I was headed into an area where it didn't pay to be an "outsider", then told me to follow him and he'd take me to the station. As we walked he spoke about his beat, how a lot of the bums staggering down the street would probably wake up dead some morning, either frozen to death or with their throats cut. After we got to the station he bade me good bye and wished me luck. He didn't have to do any of that. I was suitably impressed, especially since he was as black as the ace of spades and this all happened at a time of racial unrest in the nation.

Nowadays I guess he'd have to be careful not to speak in a derogatory manner of his city. Noted.

Like I said, cops get my respect and they deserve the benefit of the doubt about how they do a really stinking, rotten job that damned few of us could do.

They ought to give this cop in St. Pete a medal.