Palo,
Two things.
1. Washington State is OC friendly because of a lot of OC activists. Before all these people joined in, one of the more noticeable people was my buddy Gray Peterson who was hassled and threatened 8 years ago by many PD's in Washington for OC (same nonsense in Oregon). So these training officers are a little late to the party, but it's better late than never.
2. Police are held to a lower standard. For example, 18 USC 925 exempts government agents/employee's from all federal criminal gun prohibitions (felonies, illegal alien, etc) except for Lautenburg Domestic Violence. Many states do not prohibit prohibited possessors from being LEO's (most prohibit felons but they forget about all the other laundry list disqualifiers).
I've been a LEO for almost a decade and the abuses I see online are sickening. 5 minutes on Photogragraphyisnotacrime.com will make any moral person feel sick and copblock.org sometimes has some good stuff on it. Not to mention reason magazine has so many stories that are sick as well.
I know that in Michigan none of the misdemeanor disqualifiers for a CPL apply to cops so there are cops in Michigan who would be prohibited by law from obtaining a concealed pistol license due to violent criminal convictions (or DUI's) but they can carry a gun in MI with impunity and they can also carry under LEOSA because LEOSA does not address state disqualifiers.
For these reasons cops are held to a lower standard, and it's not the burden of everyone else to fix these issues.
Good info, spanx.
I don't think it;'s the burden of others to fix THOSE issues. I was very specific in my post what I think falls under the civic duty umbrella.
E.g. Your local PD harasses OCers. Your local PD has no policy regarding OCers. You and your friends ARE OCers
As a community member/OCer, I would feel a civic duty to either email the police chief, contact the ombudsman (if they have one), attend a community meeting, etc. iow do SOMETHING to at least draw attention to this problem and give insight into the correct way to handle OCers. And like I said, in MY community, we work closely with the police and community input is a huge determinant in how our PD does their job - what areas they concentrate on, how they handle certain kind of details, etc.
If your local PD is harassing OCers and you are an OCer, imo it IS your civic duty to DO something about it vs. sitting on your okole and wanking on the internet about it (which accomplishes nothing).
I especially take umbrage with the "it's not my job man! It's the police depts job to write their own policies!" and that with that in mind, this type of person WANTS the PD to keep doing what they are doing so he can see them sued (which only HARMs the community. it doesn't hurt the PD. It hurts the city and ultimately the taxpayers) and see cops get in trouble.
That's just rubbish, imo
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. That's how I see it.
Others can disagree. Groovy. That's what makes an interesting discussion. I've had and am having plenty of interesting discussion. There are a few trolls in this particular thread who are interested in personal attacks, contrasted with the vast majority of the people here who are totally kewl. That's groovy too, because now that I know who to ignore, it's much more pleasant here, discoursing with adults who discuss issues, not devolve to personality attacks and talking back and forth to each other about their inane analysis of my psyche, acting like a bunch of schoolkids in a clique. It's ridiculous. Elsewhere, we adults are having civil discussions. Much better
I appreciate your insight and I totally agree about the abuses. Thank god people have video cameras etc. to catch bad actors in the act. I film cops frequently too. I know it protects the good cops (the vast majority of cops) and it helps to see the bad cops get corrected or if necesary, punished.
Your last sentence doesn't reference my point about what it IS the burden of citizens to "fix".
And to make one last point about civic duty, people generally get the govt. they deserve. Those OCers, filmers etc. could quite possibly effect positive change, with something as simple as writing an email. The "it's not MY responsibility, brah" doesn't fly with me. We have a govt. of and by the people. It most definitely IS our responsibility to keep a watchful eye on the govt, and to at least take very easy and minimal actions to try to right the wrongs we see. These people claim they have a craptastic PD and these same people claim they have no duty to DO anything about it. Again, they get the govt. they deserve. Frankly, I think in a perverse way they'd rather have a craptastic pd so they can have somethng to rail about, an "other" to hate and vent their spew upon.
cheers