It is hard to to police work- you have to respond to a near lighting fast movement of a suspect- if you are too slow he may kill you, if you kill him and he turns out to be unarmed- you will become a national symbol of hate by the nations media- your family may be targeted, you WILL be sued, your family may even be targeted- and all of this EVEN IF YOU DID THE RIGHT THING.
Not surprisingly, many are deciding that this job isn't worth it and more police are quitting. Worse, new recruiting classes are not supplying enough replacements young people decide its not worth it to be a living target.
Police departments face a recruiting shortage amid a growing anti-cop mood that some fear has taken the pride out of peacekeeping and put targets on the backs of the men and women in blue.
Open calls for the killing of police have been followed by assassinations, including last week’s murder in Texas of a Harris County sheriff’s deputy. Instead of dialing back the incendiary rhetoric, groups including “Black Lives Matter” have instead doubled down at demonstrations with chants of “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon.” Public safety officials fear the net effect has been to demonize police, and diminish the job.
“It’s a lot harder to sell now,” Jeff Roorda, business manager of the St. Louis Police Officers Association and former state representative, told FoxNews.com. “This is a very real phenomenon.”
“You no longer just have to worry about your life while in uniform,” he said. “Now you have to be worried about the well-being of your family,” he said.
Roorda said the new academy class continues to be delayed and the police force loses about double the amount of officers per year than in the past.
Knowing police face public scorn or career-ending legal battles even if they acted properly has convinced many prospective cops to abandon their dreams of patrolling America’s streets.
“I saw all this anti-cop propaganda and I was like, ‘Who needs this?’” said Antonio, a New Yorker who asked that only his first name be used. The 32-year-old had applied and been accepted into the NYPD academy, but withdrew his candidacy amid the cop-bashing climate sweeping the country.
Recruitment nationally is “way down,” said Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriff’s Association. He said some sheriffs around the country say the number of applications has fallen by as much as 50 percent.
Sgt. Delroy Burton, chairman of the DC Police Union in Washington, compared the current treatment of police to veterans returning from the Vietnam War.
“We have to fight the bad guys, and the policymakers go unnoticed,” he said.
Burton, who was born in Jamaica and is a former U.S. Marine, said his police force is about 131 officers understaffed and has seen nearly 600 officers resign in the past 19 months — a number he said is unheard of.
“We’re sitting ducks,” he said. “We’re in these uniforms, brightly colored cars and there’s nothing we can do. And the vast majority supports this loud vocal minority.”
http://nypost.com/2015/09/07/police-fac ... r-on-cops/
Meanwhile the anti-cop protests are intensifying and becoming more violent (like many leftest protests in general)
About 100 demonstrators marched through downtown Olympia Saturday evening chanting "Nazis out of Oly" as well as anti-police slogans.
Many in the crowd wore black and had bandanas covering their faces. A few were carrying bats. They passed out fliers saying they were there to counter a Nazi gathering that had been called for Saturday night in Olympia.
The group gathered about 7 p.m. near the Harbor Days vendor tents on Percival Landing then set out up Fourth Avenue about 8 p.m., carrying a banner that read “All Cops are Bastards.” They marched past City Hall, then back to Percival Landing. Some were lighting fireworks; others knocked over trash cans, but passersby picked them up.
One young man who was watching the crowd remarked, “We do need the police. Otherwise, I’d have to be down here. I’m in the Army, by the way.”
When a white truck drove through the crowd of demonstrators near the Big Whisky at Fifth and Franklin, one of the demonstrators with a bat hit the truck. The driver stopped, then drove away.
About 9 p.m., there were reports that a demonstrator had hit a motorcyclist, and he was taken away by ambulance.
At about 9:45 p.m., demonstrators smashed the glass in the door at City Hall. Shortly after, about 15 Olympia Police officers emerged from a police vehicle at City Hall. They were wearing riot gear and carrying night sticks. They urged all bystanders to leave the area.
Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/a ... rylink=cpy
As people quit the police it is going to embolden criminals and protesters to become ever more aggressive- given that many US mayors are black and don't want to cross the BLM movement things may go out of control quickly.
This wouldn't be a Peak Oil based collapse- but a liberal policy based collapse- as the demographics of the US change to include more anti-authority types and police haters the entire social fabric may rip apart.
Collapse by any other name is still collapse.
