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: Injustice in Seattle

From the E-Mailbag

By David Packman

Well, folks... sorry about not having time to put anything new up. At least any new posts since I have been throwing twitter newsflash pieces out there. Still hard at work but I figured I had time to share a nice piece of mail I received yesterday with everyone.

I like getting mail like this, it reaffirms that there are decent police officers out there who got into that line of work for all the right reasons and never lost sight of why they do this. I believe that there are officers like this out there and I do want to support them and encourage them to keep up the great work.

Ultimately, my job at this site is to put myself out of business, it's to solve the problems I write about... so that I never have to write another story about bad cops who got away with harming people needlessly or departments that encourage that kind of behavior...

and that the kind of officer that I admire would take the time to write puts a smile on my face and makes me think that there's still hope. So, to the officer who took the time to write, thank you for writing and I hope my readers appreciate your letter as much as I did.

I stumbled upon one of your blog posts when I was following another news story. There are a lot of us (Police Officers) who are embarrassed by the actions of the cops you describe.


I, for one, know I will never be the subject of one of your blogs because I believe in the oath I took. I have never been in a job that paid enough to make me greedy, or corrupt, but that?s a fact of life when one prefers to live in a rural area and work small towns.


The Constitution is the closest thing to a bible I have, and it gives citizens the right to express their views and concerns. I am also a retired Soldier so my duty to the Constitution began when I was 17 years old. My son came home in a flag-covered box while serving his oath to it.


Please keep in mind there are a lot of us that will NEVER put those we are sworn to protect in fear of us. That is a fascist trademark and I will never be a part of that! And I really don?t care what other cops think of that. My honor will remain intact so I can join my boy in the hereafter.


My previous job was in a small town, and one of my biggest joys was to have children run to the street when I cruised by so they could shout and wave to me. And the older kids knew if they got caught doing the things kids will do, that I wouldn?t make a federal case of it and send them to juvenile court.


By working with parents and victims I administered ?homework? assignments that would make even the hardest, toughest history teacher feel inadequate. And even in my current job, a lot of the students think of me as ?the old grumpy cop?, but ask any of them who is the first to help them with a problem.


So please remember those of us that do what we do because we believe in it, not because having a stripe down our legs leads us to believe we are king shit.


Thanks

This message was republished with permission from the author, with all identifying information removed to protect the identity of the sender. To send us a letter, just email us at packratt@injusticeinseattle.org

Full post as published by Injustice in Seattle on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).