NOW THAT'S THINKING AHEAD

Thorough job training is so important.

(Key quote: Patrol Superintendent Paul D. McClellan decided to include the Holocaust education in the cadets' 30 weeks of overall training because he wants to show his cadets how not to perform when they graduate. )

(Thanks to Leah Copeland)

Comments

[Bumble]

Okay...

[bbescuela]

...dokay.

[Josh]

I'm not so sure this is a bad idea. The Third Reich ruled by intimidation and harassment. If the idea is to teach the troopers what can happen if you let power go to your head, that's a lesson most cops could stand to learn, even veterans of the force. They need to try to remember what it's like to be on the receiving end of things and that citizens are equals, innocent until proven guilty, etc. The fellow who quoted Santayana had it right. Not at all a bad idea.

[Josh]

Sorry to bring a touch of sobriety to the blog...
Just one man's opinion.

[slyeyes]

I saw a news report a year or so ago by Bob Dotson on NBC about the Washington DC cops doing this. I remember he interviewed some veteran cops who said that after 9/11, there was a tendency to forget the rules, and the rights of certain citizens just because of their nationality. They now encourage cops in training to go through the Holocaust Museum to see what happens when power gets out of hand.

[WriterDude]

slyeyes: in order to "see what happens when power gets out of hand", these officers need only look at George Steinbrenner. Maybe Al Davis too, for good measure.

[insomniac]

those who forget the lessons of history are destined to repeat them

said before the 4th visit of Bush the Second talking about the Second Gulf War and the renewal of the Patriot Act...

(sorry to get political,folks)

[gfunksizzle]

I mean, this is the highway patrol. In Ohio. What're they gonna do, exclusively pull over short busses?

[Sleeping Easy]

insomniac, as much as you may disagree with Bush, he is still your president. as Clinton was before him.

[wowser]

Josh, you said a serious mouthful...and said it well. imho, i think it's a wonderful idea...gives me a ray of hope for our great country.

it's all about R E S P E C T

[Marvin]

insomniac, it was Robert A. Heinlein who is attributed with coining that phrase, and he died in 1988, so that phrase was around a long time before Bush or whoever said it to sound deep.

[alanboss]

Whoa! I just got done apologizing for setting a thread onto a political turn and then I read this thread. Gee, I hope this isn't my fault!

And as Douglas Adams once wrote, "Anyone who wants to be president should be automaticaly disqualified."

[alanboss]

Oh, as for the post... As long as it works, I'm all for it.

[Cyn]

marvin,
um, i'm thinkin' it goes farther back than that.

winston churchill said " a nation that forgets it's past is doomed to repeat it"

and i think it goes back even farther.

[U.O]

Um ... yeah ... I'm thinking Jefferson or Tom Paine ... or mebbe even earlier ... Disraeli? (Gotta google it now ... just to satisfy my own curiousity as to the gap in my memory of history classes ...)

[U.O]

George Santayana ... that's the earliest one I could find ... but I still think it arises from earlier times ... Plato? Shakespeare? W. C. Fields?

[Cyn]

U.O,
i think it goes back to a proverb...worded:
those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it....but whose?? have searched for more than an hour ...thot first of churchill,
then plato...nags at me that this is possibly Biblical...major problems searching...since santayana slightly pre-dated churchill, goes to him at the moment....would have thot soloman.
does anyone have a bible w/a serious ref. or concordence(sp?)...this is bugging me.

[queensbee]

i'm with you insomniac. and, disagreement does not constitute disrespect.

[U.O]

Cyn,

Yes, I have a Concordance ... my uncle wrote it (I am not making this up.) ... unfortunately, it's at home (1,800 miles away) and I'm not sure which bookshelf or storage box in which garage it might be found ... good thot tho ...

I, too, have this mildly nagging shred of thought that makes me want to search in the distant past ... Roman or Greek philosophers, or at least prior to the Middle Ages ... I din't spend that much time on it, 'cuz my Google came up with something like 18,000 pages (10 per page?) in a mere 0.18 seconds, and none of the early pages seemed to be interested in anything older than some relatively recent speechmaker -- other than the Santayana citation ...

We'll find it, or at least one of them ... sooner or later ...

Interesting, innit? We who would like to learn a bit from history cannot find the historical references [FLASH! Voltaire just popped into my mind! Will check it asap.] which we seek ...

[Balanchine]

alanboss - ain't it the truth? Or to quote another hoary old saw (Googlizers....go!), no good deed goes unpunished.

[Josh]

I do think it was Santayana. When I heard it years ago I was so impressed that I did some research on it, in pre-Google times. My research in a few encyclopedias led me to Santayana. Could be worng, of course, but this may be a time that Google makes things more complicated with too much information.

[Josh]

Oops, that's wrong, not wonrg, if you haven't realized that already. And thanks to wowser for the kind words.

[nitpicker]

U.O,
speaking of Voltaire...didja know his house was in two (not too,or to) countries?

[Cyn]

Balanchine,
i got clare boothe luce. a very witty lady.

one of many good quotes "love is a verb"

[U.O]

nitpicker --

I may have heard that fact once upon a time, but if I did, I had forgotten it ...

I do know (or did once, at least), however, the daughter of the man who golfed the first international hole-in-one in the USA/Canada (possibly the world?) ... and he did it twice ...

(still haven't gotten back to checking Voltaire ... been busy today, hadda suspicion of infection of my wrist surgery, hadda take a cab to the Dr.'s office ... no problem, but worrisome ... will get to the Voltaire asap ...)

[Josh]

One handed, yet. Devoted is this man!

I just posted another message in the wooden cellphone earpiece blog entry (wbagnfarb?) asking you about your arm, then I saw this. Sorry to hear about the infection. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[just sayin']

in reviewing the above discussions, it occured to me that, 1. some folks may have thought (given my habit if cutesy ids) that I was the
"sleeping easy" comment. it was not me. ( i would never "reprimand" any bloglit for such an innocent Opinion...much less someone like insomniac...who is among those whose posts i live for.)(i only get steamed when another blogger is the swipee...it is my nature to defend
those whom i consider wronged)
2. as to my comment about RESPECT...i ment it in
ref. to the trooper training...and to how all of us treat each other in general...disagreement does Not constitute disrespect...it's all in the tone...in How it's said. i offer you one of my favorite quotes by Voltaire:
"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death, your right to say it"

i come to this place to laugh, and natter, y'all.
and i consider m'self to be in Fine company!

that said....Booger! (and etc;)