No way I’d make the decision today that I did 25yrs ago to get into law enforcement. I love the helping people and the interactions with the community, but there is just way too much stupid chit going on these days. People are plum crazy and there is a lot of people that are totally against you no matter what you do!! I can’t wait to get off the road and take over the Marine Patrols.

When you factoring in a vehicle and you have no fuel cost going back and forth to work and insurance on the vehicle they drive their kids to school in I think they they are well compensated.How many other people get that perk from their employers. I agree with the rest here. It’s the militant attitude that’s the problem. You take these little small local police departments around here with all the ex military humvees. They have no need for that. Most have so large of a gut and are overweight they couldn’t perform in a job requiring actual physical performance. I will say Alabama state troopers seem to all be the exception in being physically fit though.

Troopers are paid a lot more money and benefits, many retired at100% pay. It’s still better than most retirements. Many of these small town cops qualify for food stamps. I know one town that pays minimum wage. Most hire on so the small town pays for their schooling and they can move on to better paying jobs. Here in the shoals Tuscumbia and Sheffield pay is low. Muscle Shoals and Florence pay well. Sheriff deputies start out low. You can get other qualifications to get additional pay. CMHO picks up a few more thousand a year and so forth.

I think lonster laid it out well and like jawbone stated pay will bring better choices to the pool.

Remember this is a job where you might not come home is exponentially higher than any other civil profession.

Do away with qualified immunity and that does away with so many of the events happening.

Once these idiots cops are personally on the line and their retirements, homes, assets,
Etc…..they will stop making stupid preventable mistakes.

Then you have no police officers because no one is willing to put everything, including their life, at risk for nothing in return. Well, maybe you'd still have a few idiots. I'm not sure that people on here that holler about qualified immunity realize what it is.

If I understand Qualified Immunity it protects LE civilly unless a constitutional law is violated. Good in idea not in practice when no one is adult enough to ask "Maybe we are at the wrong house?" Courts decide in days weeks months years for seconds of stupidity and not perfect but it's the best we have right now but not forever. I don't know how to "say" this sensibly and legible like but law and justice are not the same if recruits KNOW BEFOREHAND that doing stupid will protect you in law but not from justice that may help. Doing stupid won't get you sued but it will get you hunted stupid will stop. QI protects you from ink and paper but not gunpowder and lead.

Not quite. That is one instance where they don't have immunity. But they also lose immunity if they commit an act they know, or should have known, violated a law or right, or if they were negligent in any way. In this case, someone didn't do their homework on the house so they will not have immunity. Police officers get sued all the time without immunity because they failed to properly do their job. Qualified Immunity does NOT come into play as often as some of y'all think it does. It does a lot of times for some officers, but not everyone involved. For example, in this case, the officer(s) that should have checked the address will not be immune nor will his supervisor likely be immune if they didn't check the address too.

They get Qualified Immunity only when they are acting in Good Faith. Meaning they believe, because they have good reason to believe, what they are doing is legal and proper.

Also, if the neglect is egregious enough then they can face Criminal sanctions as well as Civil penalties.

Don't let the Absolute Immunity that judges and politicians enjoy taint your view of LE, because they don't have Absolute Immunity. Please don't confuse Absolute and Qualified Immunities because they re vastly different.

One big issue is the outlook on the job from every walk of life. It’s an impossible job that doesn’t pay enough. People skip over law enforcement these days because it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t. The guys serving the warrant were wrong on this one, and I’m sure they will catch hell.

The problem with that is that in Alabama you are required to sign if you want to drive away because by signing you are signing your bond. You are not signing saying you are admitting guilt but just that you will appear in court or take care of the ticket before the court date. By not signing you will have to go to the jailhouse and get a professional bondsman to come and put up the amount for you unless you have the cash and wish to post it in cash. It would be anywhere from $300 to $1000 depending on the infraction you are being cited with.

Discussing career paths with my children the subject of law enforcement comes up. I tell my children that a police officer catches hell from good and bad guys everyday constantly. Because of that, sometimes it gets very difficult to tell the difference between the good and bad guys, even at home. Police are never paid enough to make up for that problem.

That’s the real issue. A lot of professional Monday morning armchair quarterbacks.

Like many of these cases started out wrong and went worse from there

Wrong address

Guy at wrong address presented a gun at cops.
Training kicked in and guy was shot


What do you do if someone points a gun at you. Wait???

Same thing happened twice last year here in north Alabama. One in Hazel Green, the other in Decatur. The LEO in Hazel Green were granted immunity. The Decatur LEO(s) did not get off so easy. The difference? The white community did not protest the death of the person in Hazel Grenn. The black community in Decatur has and is holding their police dept accountable.

Didn’t black guy have a gun in his hand or not?


I’m not condoning anything just lay out all the facts. Don’t leave something relevant out

This entire incident was caught on the neighbor's surveillance video. If someone, that you believe has no right to, is taking your vehicle from your yard, aren't you going to confront them with a gun? I know I more than likely would. While standing there with your gun in your hand, people who you didn't know were hiding beside your house run out yelling. When you are startled, what is your natural reaction no matter what they may be yelling? I know what mine would be and I would probably be just as dead as this guy.

Bottom line, LE is no different than pretty much anything else in our world. You get what you pay for.

Negative, the cops were doing their job. The higher ups that sent them to the wrong address based on bad info need their asses put in a sling.

I’m not taking sides on it just pointing out that sometimes crap happens.

The guy pulled a gun on the repo man

Did the guy point a gun or flashlight at the cops?
Cops hear don’t do nothing I bet at every confrontation

I’ve seen where it was and then seen where it was not supposed to be repossessed. What’s the truth?????
I’ve got friends and family that live there and still don’t know the truth. Heard both so who actually knows????

As a cop if someone points a gun at you do wait for them to shoot??? Who’s winning that deal in a public space

Should the cops have gone to a call for a guy brandishing a weapon or not????
Let them fight it out and finish and then go clean it up? There’s so many possibilities depending on the ifs and or buts.

I was confirming what skinny was saying

No way in hell I’d want to be a cop in todays world

The sad part about the instance which was the subject of this post is that it was about a STOLEN WEED WHACKER! It's the middle of the winter and nobody in that town is using a weed whacker right now. Where was the common sense?

The officers who served the warrant, for a stolen weed whacker, should have served the warrant in the daytime AND not show up in full force like the military!

Did they not read the warrant? A little bit of common sense goes a long way. Every officer involved is to blame. You would have thought that at least one of them between mouth breathing, drooling and eating boogers, would have said "we are serving a warrant for a stolen weed whacker, no big deal."

Their stupidity and foolishness resulted in an innocent man being killed. No amount of money, reprimands, terminations, training, etc. will bring this dead man back.

You would think that in this modern age stuff like this wouldn't happen.

Heck just a couple of weeks ago a black man, hard-working, no criminal history, black man was pulled over for a traffic stop in Florida. He informed the officer that he had a concealed firearm on him, just as he had done so in the past. In a prior stop the officer thanked him for telling him and instructed him to keep his hands up near the steering wheel, etc. and addressed the reason for the stop and everyone went their separate ways, no harm no foul.
HOWEVER, on this particular stop the officer instructed the driver to step out of the vehicle, face the vehicle, spread 'em, etc. and had backup (a female officer) to remove his firearm. She struggled to remove it, the driver asked if he could loosen his belt so that it would be easier for her to remove the weapon, he was denied that opportunity and as she struggled and tugged on the pistol she ended up shooting him with his own gun and he nearly bled to death!