FLYING OUR COLORS

This exerpt was taken from Snapshots Blog. It is the truest statement and every cop understands it.

Understand right now that cops don't fight fair. We have toys and our own big gang behind us. We don't want to fight fair. We don't want to go to work and get killed. Trying to be big and tough and handle it yourself is assinine. We have one goal: Do our job and go home the same way we went to work. Alive. Maybe a few more bumps and bruises to show for the shift, but alive nonetheless. We know each and everyday it could be our last, but that's a risk we're willing to take. But we don't take it foolishly. At least smart ones don't.

We have the biggest gang, it has chapters in every state and abroad.

 These statements that Snap and I make may sound like self serving chest thumping but they are not. They are what gets us through the toughest street fight, the most challenging of shifts, it keeps us going to the door even though we know there might be a psycho on the other side who may or may not intend to make our wives widows or our children fatherless/motherless.

I took this job, I know the risks involved, I also know that officers are getting killed at an increasingly alarming rate these days. I'm not going to be one of them and I'm not going to be the one that has to knock on a friend/coworkers door in the middle of the night to inform their family that they have been seriously hurt or killed, if I have anything to say about it.

I have a problem with folks who monday morning quarterback, after having hours to dissect any given situation over coffee and a nice Krispy Creme Donut an act that I took or a decision I made When  I had maybe a fraction of a second to:

•  identify wheather or not someone is a threat,
• adapt to the level of force that may or may not be socially acceptable,
• meet and neutralize the threat and scan for additional threats.

All the while people are screaming,crying or calling me an asshole, sirens are blaring, strobelights are flashing and I have to relay important information to dispatch so that

•  my partner and I remain relatively safe (getting other cops to the scene as quickly as possible)

or

• "calling off backup" (slowing down responding units so that there are no cruiser related accidents) because backup officers may take unnecessary risks because they think either my partner or I are getting our asses kicked or worse and every second may count. 

The battle cry of my police academy class was:

 "99-01 ALWAYS ON TOP AND NEVER SURRENDER" 

It's more than motto, its a way of life on this job.