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Bob B

An Important Question for the LEO's

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I recently spoke with several LEO's, all of which had very strong feelings against the recent gun bills at both the state and federal level. They all had well formed opinions based on years of law enforcement experience as to why they opposed the bills. After asking them if they attended the rally or spoke at the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee hearing or contacted their legislators to express their opinions, they told me that they were prohibited by their departments from participating in such things even if they were off duty and not in uniform. Is this true?

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There is some truth to this, The agency I work for would not likely look kindly on this. Most rank and file LEO's realize that most of this bill/laws are just vail attempts to show that the politicians are doing something. How is the war on drugs going, and think back to prohibition.......Even though only the law abiding citizens are affected.

 

The International Chiefs of Police is very anti gun..... Most ( not all ) bosses then in turn tow the party line.

 

Look at most big municipal cities and see the correlation between how the politicians in charge lean and the head LEO will lean right with them.

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Police Cheeves & wannabee Cheeves, promotion seekers, fascist photo-op furniture, likely useless friends and family appointees to various LE posts (Undersherriff Joe Cryan, ahem). I believe more R&F and the two that I know personally are against new laws.

 

LE officials appear behind politicians who show up on media proposing anti gun laws all the time, LE officials show up on news talk shows against guns all the time.

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let me preface with the fact that i respect the job that our pd's try to do. you couldn't pay me enough to be a police officer.

 

that all said........something doesn't sound right about the op. to me, that would be the same as me telling my mechanic that he can't go to a ford dealer, because i don't like fords. maybe i'm looking at it wrong, i don't know/?

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The higher up you go in LE the more political it is so you can all figure what happens.

 

Have you ever been told not to participate in such events as rallies, public meetings, committee hearings or contacting your legislators?

 

Do you feel like you would suffer some sort of retaliation if you did, even if you were not in uniform and it was on your own time?

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I'm not sure you are going to get answers on a public forum. Maybe not even through PMs.

 

That is quite sad, though by not answering, it is pretty obvious what the answer is. You have to love internal politics...

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Yeah I'd think it would be a career limiting maneuver for them to comment in an auditable forum. Simply the org structure: they are employees of the city/county/state and their careers are controlled by the politician in charge. I'd imagine it's the same reason we're not hearing from active duty mil. The few I've talked to have echoed a 2A friendly stance but not about to write it up because their careers and putting food on the table are subject to how the politicians like them.

 

Sad and scary because you realize it will take an extreme event to make it worth the risk to them and their families to go against the status quo. Not an enviable position...

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Hmmmmm......guess they tell you how to cast your vote also.....sorry situation.....IMO.

 

Most cops vote conservative...while the State PBA does ASK that members support certain politicians, it's never at least in MY experience been a matter you ordering us to vote. Most of the guys on my dept voted the opposite anyway. Being Vocally pro-gun can and in some places will affect your career. Maybe not Openly, but Most assignments are at the SOLE discretion of the Chief, and Intra-agency assignments (Task-Forces, Multi-Agency Teams) and the like are vetted by the County Prosecutor's offices..again with the County prosecutor being the SOLE decider. Some folks here love to prattle on about LEOs having "More Rights' when in fact, the nature of the Job makes the Opposite true.

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Most cops vote conservative...while the State PBA does ASK that members support certain politicians, it's never at least in MY experience been a matter you ordering us to vote. Most of the guys on my dept voted the opposite anyway. Being Vocally pro-gun can and in some places will affect your career. Maybe not Openly, but Most assignments are at the SOLE discretion of the Chief, and Intra-agency assignments (Task-Forces, Multi-Agency Teams) and the like are vetted by the County Prosecutor's offices..again with the County prosecutor being the SOLE decider. Some folks here love to prattle on about LEOs having "More Rights' when in fact, the nature of the Job makes the Opposite true.

 

come from a family of cops and respectfully disagree. From townies to staties, there is way too much lock step and barrel going on in LE.

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Last year I had to give my personal cell phone records to two Judges with absolutely no probable cause or even reasonable belief. The second Judge laid me out in open court after I blacked out some of my personal phone calls to my wife and family that were DAYS away from what I was told to give him (cell phone bill one long bill with the days listed one behind the other)

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I agree, I'll keep you updated......

 

Don't hold your breath though, the police or courts would need a search warrant for a private person's cell phone records, but not if you are a police officer and you phone is kept in your pocket while you are working so your wife can call.

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let me preface with the fact that i respect the job that our pd's try to do. you couldn't pay me enough to be a police officer.

 

that all said........something doesn't sound right about the op. to me, that would be the same as me telling my mechanic that he can't go to a ford dealer, because i don't like fords. maybe i'm looking at it wrong, i don't know/?

I disagree. The local LEO who handled my last set of PP permits told me flat out he knows nothing about guns and all he does with his is qualify once every 6 months. He also thought our NJ laws were typical of what people hade to endure around the country. LEOs can be just as ignorant about guns or gun laws as anyone else.

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the getting shot at is not the issue. Its the risk of serious long lasting injury. Its the long hours, missing holidays and time with the family and so forth. I know about the injury part as i have now been dealing with this for over 2 years. Now i know i chose this profession knowing all this but i also did expect nice compensation. All the people who complain stop...you could tKe the same tests i did and get hired. I waited 6 years to vet hired from the time i started testing.

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the getting shot at is not the issue. Its the risk of serious long lasting injury. Its the long hours, missing holidays and time with the family and so forth. I know about the injury part as i have now been dealing with this for over 2 years. Now i know i chose this profession knowing all this but i also did expect nice compensation. All the people who complain stop...you could tKe the same tests i did and get hired. I waited 6 years to vet hired from the time i started testing.

 

Nevermind.

 

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OP:

 

Just using some deduction, I would think that most LE wouldn't want to "get involved" publicly with this no matter what they thought. When you see in the news various high ranking NJ LEO's standing lockstep with the Cryptkeeper and other politicians at anti-gun rights freak show circus events, it kinda makes sense. It never helps to be known as "that guy" to your superiors in your peer group. Definitely can be viewed as a career limiting move.

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Cmon man, most police dont get shot at let alone draw their duty weapon in their entire careers.

 

I have been shot at twice (8 times if you count each round fired my way). Both times I was working with the same partner. Both times he had no rounds go his way and had never heard shots fired in anger before or since. (I am just lucky I guess) ;)

 

Should he get less compensation than me?

 

To the OP and everyone else reading - tell me one professional career where politics and personal beliefs don't matter. If everyone in your Accounting Office is a vegan, and you walk in eating a cheesesteak that's not going to have repercussions of some kind? Get real.

 

No one likes having anyone else's personal beliefs thrown in their face. Not about religion, sexuality, etc...

 

At work I am Sgt. High_Exposure of the Anytown NJ PD and I act professionally, as I should in my role as a supervisor and the only representative of Government most people get to meet. In public, even Off-Duty I am Mr. Exposure and I still represent my profession and my agency.

 

At home, in private, with my family, I am just me, a Husband, Dad, Brother and Son. This is where I can engage in the pastimes, beliefs, and politics as I see fit.

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We were just notified by the PBA that a new law saying that employers cannot ask for any personal facebook, phone, i-phone and even sites like this as part of their employment, EXCEPT that police and corrections are excluded. What they are saying is that we HAVE to provide our passwords to our facebook accounts and sites like this along with our user names so that they can look and see what we are doing.

 

Outrageous invasion of privacy.

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