TheAgitator.com
Professional Courtesy
Friday, December 30th, 2011Good on Sgt. Parker, as well as the cops who treated him as if he were anyone else.
But it’s unfortunate, and telling, that he’d feel compelled to send this email.
A Maine State Police sergeant accused of drunken driving has asked his law enforcement colleagues not to retaliate against other officers in the department for arresting him.
Sgt. Robin Parker of Sanford, an instructor at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, was arrested Dec. 18 on the Maine Turnpike near the New Gloucester toll plaza, according to a previous report in the Bangor Daily News. Parker is on paid administrative leave. Last week, Parker sent a mass email to members of the law enforcement community taking responsibility for the charge against him and asking his colleagues not to blame the officers involved in arresting him. Parker was not specific about what, if anything, has taken place.
“What I have done to my family, friends and our State Police family has saddened me deeply,” wrote Parker, according to a copy of his letter provided to the Bangor Daily News anonymously. “There is one other thing that has saddened me and that is what I’m hearing around the department. I understand that there are many that are very upset that I was processed by our own and perhaps not ‘treated differently.’ Although this anger may stem from a respect and appreciation for me as a person and Trooper, they are not healthy.”
Parker said the troopers involved in arresting him were the “professionals that we all strive to be.”
Classic-era Harpersworthy headline on this post.
There’s a whole lot of face-palm in reading that email.
If we could just clone Sgt. Parker…
They didn’t beat him to a pulp or taze him or anything so I guess he still got a little professional courtesy.
Sgt. Parker obviously has some problems, but I have to say he strikes me as a good man anyway. May his life get back on track.
The exception that proves the rule:
If he’s writing an email telling his fellow officers not to retaliate, then there must be a culture in place that expects retaliation.
TO Aresen,
If we could just clone Sgt. Parker…
We’d have a lot of cops facing DUI charges….
@7 Well yes. Sure; we’d also have a lot of officers who can own up to their mistakes, swallow their pride, take punishment, know what is wrong, and stand up for what is right at the same time.
(I’m not saying he should be let off or shouldn’t be punished.)
>Good on Sgt. Parker, as well as the cops who treated him as if he were >anyone else.
Well…perhaps, but keep in mind that Parker’s actions are in his own best interest, given that he’s already fucked! He made a smart move that is likely to result in more lenient treatment by the DA, Assistant DAs, judge, jury, etc.
To put my comment more simply, Parker is just pursuing smart damage control.
In a sane culture, that would be the case. In the one we have now, “smart damage control” for cops is to demand your job back (nearly always successfully) and insist that you did nothing wrong, followed all proper procedures, and may in fact deserve to be canonized as a saint for heroically running over that class of preschoolers.
Fuck Sgt. Parker. He’s a cop. Fuck all cops.
If you’re not a cop, you’re not the same species as them. You have no relevance to them and vice-versa. You have no standing to comment on any act by a cop. You are inferior and can be terminated with extreme prejudice. Go ahead, challenge my conclusion — you fail.
Shame on anyone who defends a cop. Any cop.
Wow. Someone even more cynical than I. Good username CyniCAl.