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Originally Posted by CO Hummer
If you think I have a disdain for civil service, then you haven't been reading what I've written. This sounds like an emotional response to my posts.
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quite frankly, I have read exactly what you've written. You offer no personal respect to the individual who puts his life on the line for YOUR and your family's well being... that's disdain.
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Originally Posted by CO Hummer
Whether I "care about" or "disdain" civil servants is completely irrelavant to the discussion.
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No, it's not. It's the basis you are using to argue your point. If you are using an emotional position to provide for argument, then there's really no point as common sense really wouldn't make much sense because you can't argue emotion.
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Originally Posted by CO Hummer
The fact that a person is NOT required to do the job means a lot.
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care to explain? do you not feel any respect for anyone that served in the Armed Forces either? Someone that wasn't required but chose to do something that could easily cost them their life is still doing the same job as someone forced.
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Originally Posted by CO Hummer
He can be admired, and respected. But it is not a requirement, nor does anyone inherently "deserve" respect. To determine whether someone "deserves" respect is based on ethics. You can't arbitrarily blend ethics into the discussion.
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I still don't think you understand. Respect for the law is not admiration nor adoration. It is acknowledgement thereof and your civil agreement to abide by it. When a LEO dons his badge he is an extension of that law and as a citizen you are most certainly required to respect him and that law. Not respect as in think he is a really cool guy, but respect as in respect the deadliness of a firearm, respect the danger of rock climbing, respect the forces of nature, etc.
That is the term I originally used and to say you don't have to respect an LEO or the law is the same as saying it's OK to disobey the laws.
I believe that is where much of this is misunderstood. Secondly, it seems you are breaking this down to the personal level and not at the law/legal/pragmatic level. I have no regard for any LEO that abuses the authority offered him by his badge and don't think it provides an excuse for anything but personally respectable behavior.