h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In response to your post 225 in the “When is it OK to kill someone thread ?” , I asked what Lawful Neutral meant. You weren’t around to answer so I came to look at your “space” to see if I could find out. Yes, I was very surprised to see that you are a former policeman from Georgia, not so much for what you said (I wrote post 226 before looking at your “space”) but just due to the fact of you being here in this specfic online community.

If you take a look at my post 99 in the “When is it OK…” thread you will see that I’m just another wishy-washy European. So yes, it’s nice to exchange thoughts with someone from a very different background

I’d like to make use of your experience in the police to check up on something I assumed in a later post in the same thread:

“…….But the fact that you might find yourself in a potentially dangerous situation someday doesn’t give you any special “rights” today.
You will assess the situation and, depending on the type of person you are, you will make certain decisions (whether they are flawed or not is pretty much beyond your control). In high stress situations, the assessment will be very quick and the survival/protection goal will be probably uppermost in your mind. If you are very frightened, you’ll probably skip assessment and just aim for survival/protection.
-> -> I assume (hope ! ) that policemen and the like are trained to make assessments in high stress situations, and study flaws in reasoning in this type of situation.”

How does reality check with my assumption: are policemen seriously trained to stay cool and assess, temper their reactions…. ? Does the inability/unwillingness to stay cool lead to rejection from the force? [Note that the thread had been discussing "perceived risk" vs "real risk".] I’m not trying to get you to say unpleasant things about your former colleagues (and I have realised from reading your space* that the kind of violence talked about in the thread didn’t represent most of your work), I just really wonder how people confronted with extreme violence on quite a regular basis can handle it.

We probably disagree on quite a few things but I’m glad we can talk.

deni

PS. Your quote of the day is totally politically incorrect but it made me smile, is it your own ?


*I read “making of a moron” + “policing”

Hi Back from the States.

My user space could have clued you in to what Lawful Neutral means. It's a reference to Dungeons and Dragons. Lawful generally means someone who follows the rules and believes in order. Neutral, in this context, means someone who is neither good nor evil. My wife and friends with whom I've played D&D describe me as Lawful Neutral.

>I assume (hope ! ) that policemen and the like are trained to make assessments in high stress situations, and study flaws in reasoning in this type of situation.

There's some training for it. The academy that I went through used something they called controlled stress innoculation. They yell at you and scream at you while you're trying to recall information and/or do something. They generally raise your stress levels by forceing you to pay attention to details about silly non-sense. If you fail to perform, and they expect you to fail, you're punished with physical exercise or more hauranging. Then you have to learn your academic stuff too. If you fail a test, you're out, and you may lose your job. If you can't qualify on the shooting range you're gone. The idea is that they get you used to operating in stressful situations. Many academies are more lax, and something like college. Others are much tougher.

I guess it has some effect. When I want through, no graduate of that academy had been killed in the line of duty. Since then, there has been one killed.

After that, there's filed training, where you apply what you learned in school to the street. You're always being evaluated. You're judged on the quality of cases you make. So on and so forth.

Police can handle stress, and we get used to operating in emergency situations. I think most of it comes from exposure in the field, rather than just being able to deal with it from the get go or academies intilling it in you. When I started policeing, I was a war veteran and graduate of one of the hardest schools in the military. I was used to stress.

Officers are taught the law about use of force, and it's drilled into you. You have to show your understanding of it in class. Then you have to to apply it in training exercises. Finally, you'll deal with it in field training. Then on the road. The training guides you pretty well when you have to employ force.

I'm usually pretty cool when I'm in a fight. For me, it's just like I posted on the thread. I'm thinking all the way through it.

The quote on my page was e-mailed to me by my mother. I thought it was a really funny way to look at the world right now.

Hiya Two-bit. Great to see you back, I was afraid you had left the site. Always good to have you in a discussion so I can shake my head and go "Americans..." Nah, you add some flavour to this site.

I've always been here. It's just that I the arguement threads were limited for a bit. I didn't care much for the Opinions on the War with Iraq thread and the What's Wrong with Americans thread, and those were the only ones going.

That's not true, the What Is It With Breasts is also very much alive

That's an argument thread?

Okay, that might be more of a tribute thread.

2-bit:
Thank you for your quick reply to my message. Sorry I couldn't get back to you earlier, I've been very (very, very) busy.

Let your mother know that her Quote find has now "flown" across the Atlantic thanks to you

Bye for now

I was wrong. It came from my wife who recieved it froma college friend of hers.

If you confused your mother and your wife.... probably wise not to tell your wife !

bye

My mom forwards a bunch of stuff. I just assumed it was here that sent it. Yesteraday I went to find the e-mail, and it turns out it was from the wife.

So it seems you're living at a distance. Hope it's not for too long.

No, we just use to different profiles on the computer. I work evenings from 2:45 to 11:00 and she works days from 8:00 to 4:00. If it's not too important, it's easy to bounce e-mails back and forth. Usually only do it when it's something cute that's been forwarded. Or if it's something I might forget.

We don't see eachother all that much since my days off are Wednesday and Thursday. It doesn't matter so much during the summers when she has several weeks off. During the school year, it's a bit of a pain. Hopefully, this will change in July when my agencey begins its new fiscal year. We should get more positions working regular hours in the courts. That would give me a day shift with weekends off for the first time since 2000.

My partner and I have had that kind of situation for 20 years, I sometimes think we appreciate each other more because of it.