Fru

Okay, so I'm NOT crazy...........that makes me feel better!
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Thx for the assist fellas

 
You're certainly not crazy!
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By the way, did Fru ever respond? Being somewhat familiar with his P&R presence, it seems uncharacteristic of him. I'll offer my own take on the story below.

I had in fact the same question -- not to you, BRI; your reversal on our Commander-in-Chief is well-documented. But Trump did win over large numbers of police with 'I support you' bombast, and I wondered how those policemen felt about this. Seeing the Gainesville PD and several others respond the way they did was incredibly affirming -- as much so as it was troubling to see the police in this crowd laugh and cheer. In similar vein, the Boy Scouts episode had people asking (here and IRL), "Eagle Scouts, Boy Scouts...how do you feel about this?" It's not clear what the (global) answer to this is -- one of the possibilities is very frightening for me to contemplate.

I think authority positions can lend itself to joking of this nature, so this isn't an out-and-out condemnation of Trump. He's not being inventively wicked so much as falling into a lazy pattern. We can do it from time to time here, too, as Mods policing the boards and encountering all manner of riffraff, so it's quite easy to recognize the sentiments expressed. Obviously our role is not comparable to both the dangers and the civic responsibilities encountered and shouldered by actual LEOs. But, it can be easy to adopt a suspicious or punitive stance. It's to everyone's great credit here that we do a better job of staying out of that fray than any board I've ever seen or been a part of.
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Just musing and rambling here; please excuse that. Mostly I want to offer why I found that police rally story so disturbing. There's this fear and suspicion it can engender when you don't know whether that's something the people around you are also shocked by, or are pumping their fists for. These are some pretty suspicious times all around to be navigating in this country. But hopefully we can get through it without putting up walls between ourselves or assuming the worst in each other. To quote GWB
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I think we need to ask ourselves why did the officers in that room respond that way? They knew he was joking so of course they're going to laugh, but officers are also very tired of being ridiculed and second guessed in today's world so we enjoy the support from President Trump as we feel, as I've said before, that President Obama did not support us. I do not agree that it is something he should be joking about, but I also think it's being blown out of proportion some. It was a very poor choice of words and very poor timing on his part with everything that has happened over the past few years and not something the President of the United States should be speaking/joking about. The police unions typically support the democratic nominee, but Hilary was so terrible and refused to talk to those unions so they couldn't/wouldn't endorse her as their candidate. It's also known to those of us in law enforcement that she hates us.

 
I think if you're in the room, the natural response is to laugh along. The bigger question to me is whether they're laughing because of the circumstance and to play along, or unconsciously, or whether they are like: yes. This kind of muscle talk is what we've been waiting for. That third possibility is what scares me.

One of my big issues with Trump is rhetoric. An article I read the other day encapsulated this well. It's not that there's a massive percentage of outright bigots in this country, it's that the tiny fringe of the worst sees the posture Trump adopts, and starts to feel more emboldened to act it out. Similarly, even if that third group is a minority, I'm worrying that we'll see this element start feeling more free to take it into their own hands and do things their way/Trump way. So that's the "why" of it, for me, why Trump shouldn't be joking in this way. Language matters.

I'm curious how it's known to law enforcement that Hillary "hates" you guys, but that's a topic for another day and another forum, probably
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Appreciate your response, as always, BRI.

 
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