If your emotions are in control of you, you are not in control.
Training, training, and more training, combined with good mental screening in the onset, is how you keep your emotions from taking control in a stressful situation.
Rich, I think you fail to realize that they were probably so patient because they were dealing with a fellow cop. (former cop) Or maybe I’m just really cynical about these things.
In good police departments, the vast majority of the officers do the right thing the vast majority of the time, under stressful and dangerous circumstances. But it needs to be better.
I don’t think you’re being cynical to highlight context. Back in May, Vox ran a good article by a police officer who said that while 15% of police are cowboys, it’s the rest who are not who are responsible for tolerating cowboy behavior.
“Rich, I think you fail to realize that they were probably so patient because they were dealing with a fellow cop. (former cop) Or maybe I’m just really cynical about these things.”
You’re cynical. The HBT (Hostage, Barricade, Terrorism) Team at CPD finds themselves in this situation several times a year. It never varies. Always a fine touch with a cool head.
No real cop likes a cowboy sitting next to him…potentially risking both of their lives foolishly or flipping out on Citizens( born out of the “Cowboys” own personality defects) thereby involving both Officers.
No doubt the thin blue line exists…but…most cops are on the job (initially) out of a sense of purpose…and, as in any job…there are cops who are cowboys…and they are a very dangerous minority… Cop Culture has room for improvement and I would suggest the answer might lay in increasing Police pay…Ask any retired cop, they paid quite a bit for doing a stressful and dangerous job … that most of us do not want and/or could not perform.
Who you gonna call?…when it’s the wet backside hour?
Humans will always need someone to call for help when the situation is dangerously out of hand.
The Responders must be responsible…and most of the time they are…most of the time should be all of the time…in our perfect world.
There is severe criteria for physical standards in Illinois,but little for psych—–a terrible sense of priority
- Former ISP Support Staff - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 3:58 pm:
I worked as ISP support staff for 22 years. The ISP officers are highly trained, extremely hard working, very conscientious and patient. Most people couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do their job (myself included as patience isn’t one of my strong points). I believe the majority of police offices try to do the right thing the majority of the time and definitely deserve better press from the media.
Whatever the occupation, there will always be a fraction of bad folks. These are the ones that usually get press coverage and tarnish the rest.
There are a few bad folks everywhere. Bad parents (leave their kid in a hot car, an example); demented folks who never get the help they need; bad bosses; bad kids (who somehow get on the wrong track & never recover); bad politicians; bad governors (look at Governot in IL right now); bad car repair shops; bad paramedics; bad doctors (someone is last in the class)……
Need me to go on?
BUT…most folks, including cops, who especially, when going into situations, never know whether they stay alive long enough to write the report and go home after their shift.
Training? Yup: as you must know, 100% of cops get it (people, not dogs, although they do too).
The Code of the Blue is real when it comes to the cowboys, in my experience.
Ain’t a lot of volunteers for Internal Affairs or testifying to the grand jury.
But the bigger issue is, this country has to get itself straight on the virtual impossibility of being a young black male.
They can’t win for losing, going about their daily business. We’ve all seen that.
Many have had a turn in the barrel. The Irish, the Italians, the Slavs, the Germans, the Catholics, the Jews — but it never ends for young black males.
(Of course, in some circles, 25% of humanity, the Muslims, has to wear the jacket for the barbaric slobs of ISIS and the 20 punks of 9/11. You’re never going to get those circles to pay more than shallow lip service to their responsibilities to the Gospels or Constitution in their own communities. But I digress.).
That means the rest of us have to do better.
I get it — the majority of street crime in the inner-cities is perpetrated by young black males. Duh. That’s where poor black people live.
Who did you think would be committing crime in the ghetto? Luxembourgers?
But it is a small minority of young black males doing it. The rest are trying to make a living and a life like everyone else.
And the crimes of a few are no rationalization for the coppers making my sons’ friends eat the hood of the prowler whenever they venture from Oak Park or River Forest to go to Johnny’s Beef or Cinemark or Target on Norfh Avenue.
That is flat out racism. Any fool can see that. My kids have never been treated that way.
Buy a couple of beers for any copper in the law-abiding communities of Dominick’s Cicero, Bruno’s Melrose, Skip’s Elmwood, Banks’s Galewood, etc, and they will get all honest on you about the subject, believe me.
(I should say, Madison Street in Forest Park between Harlem and Des Plaines figured it out a long time ago. They’re too busy counting the money from integrated business to get all racist. )
It’s the biggest issue of our time, here in the United States.
Forget about the Middle East, They were fighting thousands of years before Jesus or Muhammad.
Meh, like we can make them stop. Alexander, Cyrus, Julius and Saladin couldn’t make them stop.
We have oil now, here. And we have much bigger business in our neighborhood than refeereing the endless nonsense of the crazy cousins of the children of Abraham.
- Mama - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:29 am:
“Trained cops willing to be patient” How many cops are trained (2% or 100%)? Are we talking about police dogs or policemen?
- Juvenal - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:34 am:
If your emotions are in control of you, you are not in control.
Training, training, and more training, combined with good mental screening in the onset, is how you keep your emotions from taking control in a stressful situation.
- Slippin' Jimmy - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:36 am:
Looks like by the book to me, with the police showing due restraint in their attempts de-escalate the situation and thereby saving lives.
- Wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:39 am:
I was a cop reporter for 10 years and in my experience trained, patient, looking to de-escalate far outnumbered the cowboys.
But there are cowboys.
- Formerly Known As... - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:41 am:
Impressive.
- Slippin' Jimmy - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:49 am:
But there are cowboys.—Absolutely!
- A guy - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:51 am:
When you do it right, it doesn’t get enough pub. This was doing it right.
- John A Logan - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:52 am:
This renegade cop narrative is sure selling alot of newspapers and TV ads.
- Aldyth - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 12:00 pm:
Well done, officer.
Well done, indeed.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 12:10 pm:
@ Juvenal
“If your emotions are in control of you, you are not in control.”
I strongly disagree with that statement- try adding and if you act on your immediate impulses without thinking first .
- Juvenal - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 12:30 pm:
Anon 12:10 -
If you act on your immediate impulses without thinking first, your emotions are in control.
- anon - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 12:33 pm:
Rich, I think you fail to realize that they were probably so patient because they were dealing with a fellow cop. (former cop) Or maybe I’m just really cynical about these things.
- Wensicia - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 12:42 pm:
I don’t think cowboy cops are used on hostage negotiating teams.
- jake - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 12:44 pm:
In good police departments, the vast majority of the officers do the right thing the vast majority of the time, under stressful and dangerous circumstances. But it needs to be better.
- globalguy - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 12:50 pm:
Anon 12:33 -
I don’t think you’re being cynical to highlight context. Back in May, Vox ran a good article by a police officer who said that while 15% of police are cowboys, it’s the rest who are not who are responsible for tolerating cowboy behavior.
- Lobo Y Olla - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 12:58 pm:
“Rich, I think you fail to realize that they were probably so patient because they were dealing with a fellow cop. (former cop) Or maybe I’m just really cynical about these things.”
You’re cynical. The HBT (Hostage, Barricade, Terrorism) Team at CPD finds themselves in this situation several times a year. It never varies. Always a fine touch with a cool head.
- walker - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 1:07 pm:
Good job by the CPD and all individual officers involved.
A little different when you’re out on the road alone, without time or locale for calling in SWAT and negotiators.
- Pacman - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 1:13 pm:
Looks like they did a good. I’m a former hostage negotiator and as long as no one is in danger time is your friend.
- Levois - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 1:15 pm:
Thanks for sharing this, it appears to be a reasonable response by the police. We’re not seeing this on the cable news at all.
- Anonymous Redux - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 1:15 pm:
No real cop likes a cowboy sitting next to him…potentially risking both of their lives foolishly or flipping out on Citizens( born out of the “Cowboys” own personality defects) thereby involving both Officers.
No doubt the thin blue line exists…but…most cops are on the job (initially) out of a sense of purpose…and, as in any job…there are cops who are cowboys…and they are a very dangerous minority… Cop Culture has room for improvement and I would suggest the answer might lay in increasing Police pay…Ask any retired cop, they paid quite a bit for doing a stressful and dangerous job … that most of us do not want and/or could not perform.
Who you gonna call?…when it’s the wet backside hour?
Humans will always need someone to call for help when the situation is dangerously out of hand.
The Responders must be responsible…and most of the time they are…most of the time should be all of the time…in our perfect world.
- @MisterJayEm - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 1:23 pm:
“But there are cowboys.”
As the son of a cowboy, I object to this terminology. The word you are looking for is outlaws.
– MrJM
- A guy - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 3:00 pm:
Did Sling cause your chaps to chafe? lol.
- Ed - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 3:01 pm:
There is severe criteria for physical standards in Illinois,but little for psych—–a terrible sense of priority
- Former ISP Support Staff - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 3:58 pm:
I worked as ISP support staff for 22 years. The ISP officers are highly trained, extremely hard working, very conscientious and patient. Most people couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do their job (myself included as patience isn’t one of my strong points). I believe the majority of police offices try to do the right thing the majority of the time and definitely deserve better press from the media.
Whatever the occupation, there will always be a fraction of bad folks. These are the ones that usually get press coverage and tarnish the rest.
- sal-says - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 5:39 pm:
== - Mama - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 11:29 am: ==
Whut?
There are a few bad folks everywhere. Bad parents (leave their kid in a hot car, an example); demented folks who never get the help they need; bad bosses; bad kids (who somehow get on the wrong track & never recover); bad politicians; bad governors (look at Governot in IL right now); bad car repair shops; bad paramedics; bad doctors (someone is last in the class)……
Need me to go on?
BUT…most folks, including cops, who especially, when going into situations, never know whether they stay alive long enough to write the report and go home after their shift.
Training? Yup: as you must know, 100% of cops get it (people, not dogs, although they do too).
Cops? You might have guessed; I support them.
- Wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 6:28 pm:
The Code of the Blue is real when it comes to the cowboys, in my experience.
Ain’t a lot of volunteers for Internal Affairs or testifying to the grand jury.
But the bigger issue is, this country has to get itself straight on the virtual impossibility of being a young black male.
They can’t win for losing, going about their daily business. We’ve all seen that.
Many have had a turn in the barrel. The Irish, the Italians, the Slavs, the Germans, the Catholics, the Jews — but it never ends for young black males.
(Of course, in some circles, 25% of humanity, the Muslims, has to wear the jacket for the barbaric slobs of ISIS and the 20 punks of 9/11. You’re never going to get those circles to pay more than shallow lip service to their responsibilities to the Gospels or Constitution in their own communities. But I digress.).
That means the rest of us have to do better.
I get it — the majority of street crime in the inner-cities is perpetrated by young black males. Duh. That’s where poor black people live.
Who did you think would be committing crime in the ghetto? Luxembourgers?
But it is a small minority of young black males doing it. The rest are trying to make a living and a life like everyone else.
And the crimes of a few are no rationalization for the coppers making my sons’ friends eat the hood of the prowler whenever they venture from Oak Park or River Forest to go to Johnny’s Beef or Cinemark or Target on Norfh Avenue.
That is flat out racism. Any fool can see that. My kids have never been treated that way.
Buy a couple of beers for any copper in the law-abiding communities of Dominick’s Cicero, Bruno’s Melrose, Skip’s Elmwood, Banks’s Galewood, etc, and they will get all honest on you about the subject, believe me.
(I should say, Madison Street in Forest Park between Harlem and Des Plaines figured it out a long time ago. They’re too busy counting the money from integrated business to get all racist. )
It’s the biggest issue of our time, here in the United States.
Forget about the Middle East, They were fighting thousands of years before Jesus or Muhammad.
Meh, like we can make them stop. Alexander, Cyrus, Julius and Saladin couldn’t make them stop.
We have oil now, here. And we have much bigger business in our neighborhood than refeereing the endless nonsense of the crazy cousins of the children of Abraham.
- Wensicia - Thursday, Jul 30, 15 @ 8:18 pm:
MrJM, apologies. Perhaps the best term in this context is “renegade cops”. Growing up, cowboys were kinda my heroes.