So because he's in a union, he gets suspended from his current duties as a State Trooper, and put on administrative duties at a desk job and out of the public eye where he can no longer be seen as an embarrassment. Could you imagine them having him attend to a crime scene after this! Unless he faces charges of some kind, I can't see him ever losing his job. MOO.
The problem is, he can't be trusted with any private information because he has a tendency to leak it to his civilian friends. Nor can he be trusted with informal reports because he tends to use profanities. He is not without some merits, I suspect, but he is a liability to any PD.
Yes, I do agree people who work in LE may suffer from occupational stress such as PTSD. However, I don't know how the culture at those departments has obviously allowed their conduct to go on for so long. The way they were behaving was entrenched in their everyday lifestyle.
- Driving police vehicles around town while intoxicated.
- Driving own vehicles around town while intoxicated.
- Permitted to be at work while intoxicated.
- Permitted to hang around work on days off.
- Leaving badges and possibly firearms in police vehicles because of getting intoxicated.
- Sending confidential information to old high school buddies about active cases.
- Going for drinks during work hours while in possession of a police vehicle.
- Making decisions/conclusions about other people's crimes/lives while intoxicated.
There should have been systems in place to monitor all of the above.
I would hope all these individuals have now hit bottom and seek help, but I doubt it. I believe they will need more than AA because they're so far gone, they don't even realize how absurd it all is!
MOO.
I was posting about Trooper P. when I read your post.
Well, all it true, but policemen are neither worse nor better than population in general. In a way, they are the sample of our average population. We can't choose, so we have to work with whom we have. Are they workable? Depends on their defense mechanisms, but better than doing nothing. They need more than AA, of course, but there are too many limitations regarding the police and what is allowed, even medication-wise. AA and a group is at least the way to start. Plus, AA is an alternative to their "old boy club", Waterfountain or wherever they cluster, where drinking is normalized.
Alcohol, sadly, is so prevalent because it is an acceptable drug. Substitute your own phrases with: "driving police vehicles around town while high on meth; permitted to be at work when stoned", and it reads shocking. But alcohol, for centuries, was acceptable,
perhaps it had to do with church rituals. So "an alcoholic but holds his own" sounds "an OK guy."
However, would we even have this murder of John O'Keefe on the night of January 29, 2022, if Karen Read, John O'Keefe all the gusts in Brian Albert's house and Brian himself were sober? I doubt it. Who benefits from this case, short of two lawyers, the Turtleboy and maybe a couple of desesperados who got their own support group?
No one.
Least of all, Karen Read.
