I never asked for his name or badge number.
Strictly true, but irrelevant and diversionary to my point until such time as you care to directly state that you had no intention nor hope of discovering his identity when you asked the details of his life/work you did ask.
I believe that ANY communication intended or calculated to leave a false impression is rightly characterized as a lie.
And let's just cut to the chase.
I've had occasion myself to let a particularly offensive and threatening troll whom I discovered was an officer in a city not far from me know that if he didn't either change his ways or go away, I'd send the police chief in his city a copy of his posts with time stamps letting him know that one of his officer's conduct (either on or off the clock) was outside the bounds of propriety for any peace officer. A police officer is, rightly always going to be under a certain level of scrutiny for his conduct even off the clock, much less if he should be caught posting something offensive during some down time while technically on the clock.
It is a huge hammer hanging over the officer's head. It is proper it hang there. And yet, it can also act to separate officers from the very interactions with the public that would help prevent mistrust, misunderstandings, and an "us-vs-them" culture. I would never even contemplate invoking that hammer except for the most egregious and repeated of communications that had the clear intent of intimidating or harassing law abiding citizens. There are those who would attempt to drop that hammer at any disagreement, or even simply because a poster happened to be a cop. That is also very offensive.
Whether such was even an inkling of your intent I cannot say. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know why a cop or other first responder, member of the military, or anyone else drawing a government paycheck would have even more reason to maintain some level of anonymity above and beyond the regular anonymous forum members. If I express a politically incorrect opinion about guns, the proper definition of marriage, drugs, immigration, etc, in my free time it is none of my employer's business. But fire chiefs get fired for writing books or expression personal opinions about marriage. Even on this board, cops get crucified for shooting in cases where most would give every benefit of the doubt to a private citizen.
If we want any conversations with cops and other public employees at all, we need to understand some of these realities and not attempt to undermine the benefits that anonymity provides to those who would otherwise not be free to express personal opinions anywhere except among their most trusted circle of friends.
I hope to see productive conversations and even vigorous debate that includes peace officers, members of the military, perhaps even elected officials or bureaucrats. Those who dislike moderation the most, should be the last to do
anything that might suppress others' ability to peacefully, civilly, express their views, even if one disagrees with some of those views.
Stan's views on MRAP ownership and use among police departments is fair game. And perhaps illustrative. Where he works, especially if it is a State with as small of cities as most all of Idaho has, is not relevant.
Charles
