This is satire
Roughly nine out of 10 members of the San Diego Police Officers Association who responded to a recent survey say they would rather be fired than fired upon.
733 current officers took the poll, conducted by the Police Officers Association, and 45% responded that they cannot comply with the Department’s requirements that they conduct patrols and risk being killed or wounded by gunfire. And roughly 65% said they would consider resigning from their jobs if the city and the department forced them to go out on patrol.
In fact, they say, 35 San Diego police officers have died in the line of duty since the force was created, and they do not intend to add their names to the hallowed list. The SDPD was first formed in 1889.
Of those 35 deaths of officers, 20 were caused by gunfire. Officers point to those numbers and claim it’s too dangerous to be a police officer and first responder. One death of an officer in 1918 during the flu pandemic was tagged as “Duty related illness.”
SDPOA President Jack Schaeffer said the questionnaire drew hundreds more respondents than usual which indicates the topic of being shot at is one of intense interest to the city’s law enforcement corps. “So it’s obviously something that’s on their minds and that they have strong opinions about,” he explained.
In negotiations with the city, the police union has taken a stand against mandatory patrolling. The SDPOA’s leaders “want options,” such as regular assignments at a desk, watching surveillance cameras, and directing traffic in lieu of obligatory first responding, Schaeffer said.
One officer on a facebook post called the issue “the hill to die on, because I promise you if ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ lose this fight against being shot at, there won’t be another hill to fight on.”
The lawman, who identified himself as a 16-year member of the SDPD, opined that like-minded members of the department “have to be willing to get fired from this job to secure (their) rights and stand by (their) convictions.”
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
This is satire but it’s probably not too far off. My dad’s dad was a cop. I’ve had neighbors growing up who were cops, a close friend who used to be a Sherriff’s deputy. A close friend of my mom’s is retired SDPD (and now she’s a progressive activist) While all of these people were among the good cops, they’ve all indicated as much that if they truly felt threatened they’d be willing to possibly lose their jobs and deal with the legal consequences.
This post was almost word-for-word from a KUSI report.
And of course, when KUSI says “90%” of cops – is totally misleading; most cops didn’t take the survey / poll; only 730+ out of 1800 officers?
I don’t really trust any statistics as reported by KUSI. I’d go so far as to say the people who work for that station don’t trust any stats the publish.
Quoting from KUSI is akin to doing so from Newsmax or Fox News. Just peruse their website, such as it is, for a few upsetting moments to see that the narrative mirrors the prejudice of the far right.
Of course it does! Were you responding to what I said about “word for word”? I took their report as the basis for the satire.
I object to giving the misinformation army any oxygen at all in a progressive rag.
If you need to label a report “this is satire” your satire pen isn’t very sharp, and since a good percentage of readers stop at a headline and go no further . . . well, you get the picture.
If I didn’t label it satire, I’d get in trouble. Besides, I didn’t say anything about KUSI in the post itself.
Eye roll.
How very eloquent.
It really comes down to when is it/is it not reasonable for a cop to feel threatened and who would make that determination?
KPBS:
“49% of officers represented by the SDPOA have told city officials they are fully vaccinated.
25% have reported they are not fully vaccinated
26% have either refused to disclose their vaccination status or have not responded to the city’s request…
The vaccination rate among the city’s blue collar workers, such as street sweepers and sanitation drivers, is roughly 50%. Deputy city attorneys and “unclassified” city employees such as supervisors or City Council staffers had the highest vaccination rates, at 87% and 88%, respectively.”
How come nobody is attacking the sanitation workers and other city departments?
These pesky union employees organizing and flexing their power, we should break up the union.
So what, kh, you gonna roll your window down to let the cop who pulls you over with percentages like that? DON’T THINK SO! Oh wait! Just try to keep the freaking window cracked for sliding your license, registration, and proof of insurance through and see what happens!
The last time I was pulled over it wasn’t by a sanitation truck, it was because the cop “couldn’t read my back license plate” (I wonder what was written down in his report?) and he leaned waaaay in for a good whiff. Like 1 1/2 feet max from my nostrils. With his hand on butt of his .40.
More like driving with a ponytail and snowboards on the rack…but now the next cop to blow spit in their exhale less than two feet from your face through the open window could easily be an asymptomatic carrier of death! Holy crap! Here’s an idea: just start coughing wwhile telling him you have a fever and your chest hurts and you couldn’t taste your coffee that morning…
Oh wait! Then he might drag you through the window for ‘assaulting an officer’ and use his stick or fists on you. Boy, you just can’t win. Death by infected cop or death by pissed off cop. Covid or ‘roid rage. What a choice one has to make in these modern times, eh?
snark
So 49% are vaccinated but 25% of that number are not ‘fully vaxxed?’ Or is it 49% with an additional 25% vaxxed but not fully?
If the answer is the former then slightly more than half of the cops in San Diego are the equivalent of modern gun-toting potential Typhoid Marys carrying a deadly disease. Wow. Either way, even at the lower 26% not vaccinated number you still don’t want a cop breathing on you because we know that Delta is being carried by the some of the vaccinated.
So fire the ones who won’t vaccinate. They are government employees whose mandate and ONLY reason for existence is supposedly the well-being of the citizens they supposedly guard. Right? Oh wait, that union thing.
So maybe that pesky union of organized employees flexing their power with all this crap should be broken up. I mean, isn’t that was law is all about; taking responsibility for your actions? I screw up they make me pay so yeah let’s break up the cop union and let them be equally powerful as the rest of the citizenry. I also suggest dumping that insane ‘qualified immunity’ garbage at the same time; don’t you think so, kh?
not much snarky satire here, eh?
sealintheSelkirks
Sounds like you better just stay home and collect some checks. Life might kill you. If the CHP doesn’t kill you the Covid definitely will. Or maybe the murder hornets.
My wife and I are both fully vaccinated and still picked up Covid, spent 3 weeks coughing and noses running. Do what you gotta do to minimize your risk, and don’t bank on others doing a damn thing for your benefit.