Responding to Courtney's post

Courtney brings up some very good points in his blog about the police officer in Dallas, Texas who was arrested.

Why was the cop carrying a weapon? I know as a sworn peace officer, he was allowed to carry a weapon. But I would think that the bar should have rules against weapons inside their premises. Maybe they do and the officer just did not think that the rule applied to him. That seems to be a common idea with some officers. Now, I don't want to lump all law enforcement officers into the same group. I know plenty of city police officers, sheriff's deputies and highway patrol that are stand-up good guys and gals. I feel safe knowing that they are patrolling the streets keeping crime at bay. But there are always the exceptions. The few bullies that think their badge makes them invincible. This group of historically men, however I am sure there are women officers that abuse their position, who think that their position gives them an all access pass to get away with whatever they want.

This is unfortunate for many reasons. First, the officer's family is probably going to find themselves in a bad financial positions. With the loss of income, compounded with the probable difficulties he will face finding another position in this economy and with such a mark on his record, will come financial problems and most likely depression and a strain on the family unit. Not to mention the loss of a pension that I am sure they were counting of for retirement. Second, the impact on the community will likely cause negative feelings and distrust of the police department causing more crimes to go unsolved and more criminals out on the street.

Hopefully this officer will get some sort of anger management and alcohol abuse counseling that may be able to save his job and the department will be able to restore relations with the community it serves.