Barbarian’s issues with law enforcement: An Introduction

My issues with law enforcement are not your typical defund the police activists problems with police, though some might overlap. If nothing else I hope this serves as a realty check for those looking at getting into the profession so that they know what they are signing up for.

Most commentators on law enforcement have had no interaction with or knowledge of police work. Whether they are on the “cops are good and there are only a few bad apples side.” – The people who believe the system works and trust it blindly because they have never had an interaction with it, or work inside it – or they are the people who are running training companies of one kind or another, K9, firearms, etc and they only deal with the “good cops” who by their definition are those that seek out training on their own time.

The same goes for those that blindly talk shit about cops as well. They either have had to many encounters with law enforcement or they sit on the side lines thinking that all violence is wrong and live in the world they think should be and not the one that is. They talk just as much shit about citizens defending themselves as they do about cops.

This is not what I am doing.

Some Background

I grew up in a law enforcement family. I wanted to be part of law enforcement through my entire childhood and young adult life. That was a dream that I in fact accomplished, and then regretted almost immediately. Though a regret that I did not really understand until a few years later as well as the blessing that was me having to leave that dream behind.

Shortly after I made it on to a department I had to resign due to some health issues. A resignation of a dream that I had for the better part of two decades. That resignation became a blessing over the next couple of years, because of events at both that specific department, which I learned was just some in a long list of prior events as well as events on the national level. The years following completely changed my point of view on law enforcement as a whole. Where they used to get the benefit of the doubt now was a complete lack of trust. I used to defend them in debates and now I only defend the individuals I know personally if they deserve it.

Intentions VS Results

I do not want this to be a complete bashing of law enforcement personnel as I do believe that at least some of them do get into the profession with good intentions of protecting their community and helping people. However they could do the same thing by getting a concealed carry permit and going about their every day lives. Looking back I got into it for those reasons, as well looking for some action fighting the bad guys.

I was also looking for a brotherhood. A brotherhood that i was depending on to rebuild my social and support network after moving thousands of miles for the job and ultimately a brotherhood that I did not find and that after talking to many in the profession I now know no longer exists.

Now as we know intentions don’t matter, results do and the road to hell is paved with good intentions. What you think your going to be doing and what you actually will be doing are not always the same thing especially in law enforcement and I like most people learned this the hard way. Only a small percentage actually get to chase the bad guys and handle the true threats to the community, the majority don’t. the majority do more of what looks like harassment than serving the community. This is not entirely their fault but the fault of the justice system as a whole but they are by definition the enforcers for that system.

Strong moral men and families make safe communities, regardless of law enforcement’s existence, and like the founding fathers understood, you also need to protect your community from the state, you cannot do that if you are the enforcer for it.

I don’t know if the profession was always this way or only recently but I know that what people have been saying about law enforcement for decades if it was not true the whole time is becoming true now. That being said I do understand why certain things happen in law enforcement that the general public does not understand, which I will cover in more depth.

I am going to harp on one last point here before we get started. It applies here but is not limited to this topic alone.

Follow Nothing and No One Blindly

If you don’t know them or the incident personally, don’t die on that hill. Doesn’t matter if its cops, celebrities, brands, influencers, or religious institutions. If you don’t have personal experience with it or them never jump in with them 100%

There is only five current or former law enforcement officers that I truly respect, and trust were good when they did the job. I know all but one of them personally and thats the point. One is my father who worked for two different departments and ran an academy. His career culminated in retirement from a gaming regulation agency in the western united states.

One is my step father who retired from two different departments, in two different states. over the course of his life and career he worked special investigations full time swat and air support devision as a pilot.

one is a fellow academy graduate from my class who at the time of this writing had taken over as deputy chief in a sheriffs department in the western united states.

One is my field training officer from the department i was at who i assume is still there or possibly retiring soon I would hope if he hasn’t already. This officer worked as a k9 officer while i was there and was the only officer i have ever seen argue with a person on the call over not infringing on someones rights.

Now the last one is the only one that I don’t know personally, but would not hesitate to meet him. Greg Anderson who chucked his career over doing the right thing during the Pandemic when he released a video calling on his fellow officers at his department and others across the country to make sure that they were doing the right thing, not infringing on the rights of the citizens when following orders. As you can imagine this was not welcomed by the politicians and his superiors and resulted in him loosing his job when he refused to take the video down.

What is Law Enforcement?

Its right there in the name, Law Enforcement. How ever their is a disconnect between what the public thinks that means and their job definition and what they actually do. People have one of two images of law enforcement in their heads, on the side that defends them, they see them as police officers or peace officers. There to protect them and solve their problems, but there is a reason their official title was changed to law enforcement officer.

Then there is the side that has either had run ins with them or that can be objective enough to see them clearly, that they are their to enforce the laws, what ever that law may be, or how right or wrong the law is. This disconnect is why you have the good cop and bad cop arguments, more so then because of dirty cops because that is actually exceedingly rare, at least in the prospective of corruption.

Law enforcement is historically a tool of tyrants, they respond to violence but only that which is unsanctioned by the state. They mainly bring violence upon those who do not comply or obey the regime in charge. They do some things that are good and some of their actions could be seen as good deeds, but a good does not undo a wrong.

I started this article with the intent for it to be one article but consisted of so much that it grew into a multipart series so stay tuned for more to come.