We’ve talked about administrators and management folks taking umbrage to some of the comments in American COP. As you’ve seen in the past my “canned” response has been and will continue to be, “Build yourself a bridge and get over it.”

But, like all things in life there’s another side to the story. I recently violated one of my “Internet rules” and went lurking on a forum — specifically, Glock-Talk. I was really pleased with the general acceptance of the magazine. However, there was one thread I need to address and that brings us around to the Administrator / Management thing again.

Some comments noted an anti-management tilt to American COP. I can understand that train of thought, after all, we do poke them in the eye at times but can you really say they don’t deserve it? And, we also poke patrol in the eye too by pointing out some of the things we do wrong.

But, here’s the thing, we think American COP should be on the mandatory reading list for all ranking officers: Lieutenants, Captains, Majors, Supervising Agents, Agentsin- Charge, Colonels, Commanders, Assistant Chiefs, Executive Assistant Chiefs, Under Sheriffs, Chiefs and Sheriffs — or whatever the upper management at a law enforcement agency might call themselves.

This is not just so we get more subscriptions. That would be nice but it’s not my motivation here. Many of our competitors just send them free to those folks — we won’t — trust me, the chief can afford it. But what do you do with a free magazine? Around my house they immediately go in the recycle bin. (I live in California and if I told you I just throw them away, the environmental police hazardous violators team would be fast roping down from black helicopters serving a search warrant, no doubt printed on recycled paper.)

We believe any administrator or management type worth their salt would want to know the areas of interest of their street cops. What do they think? What are their concerns? What training do they need? What equipment do they need? What solutions do they offer? Can you imagine how much easier it would be to do your job if you knew what your work force was thinking?

Lieutenant John Morrison’s “Street Level” column and Dr. Richard DeParis’ management articles are just two examples of the material in American COP aimed directly at leadership and the last time I heard anything about it, administration and management at least attempt to use leadership techniques from time to time.

I really believe the administrators and managers want to do a good job and I’m sure most strive to accomplish that task everyday they’re at work. Reading American COP can help them do just that. If you have an indigent Chief or other manager, buy them a subscription for Christmas. You can do it anonymously if you don’t want your buddies to think you’re sucking up. And I’ll lighten up on twisting their tails, pointing out their shortcomings, poking them in the eye and the negative comments — NOT.

Have you taken a look at the state of politics inAmerica lately? It screams Toro Caca. It seems the only things easily passing both houses are pay raises. These folks, both Republicans and Democrats, epitomize what’s wrong with America today. They play politics with practically everything. I don’t want them to play anymore. I want them to take their damn job seriously.

Hey senators and congressmen, we’re in a war for our survival as a nation. Get a clue. Guess what, there are bad people out there bent on our destruction. They have evil intentions. They even lie to us about things like poison gas, nuclear weapons, the range a missile can travel and how much they like us.

On a micro-scale, we understand there are evil people out there. As cops we see it every day in the field. Why the hell do you think we wear those vests —
comfort? It’s not a great leap to convert this observation to a macro-scale.

So, House and Senate get off your collective asses and do what we sent you there to do — protect us. Stop bickering like two old spinsters and protect our borders, stay out of military decisions in Iraq and get serious about winning over there. Who gives a crap about what France, Germany and The Hague think? Show me a war they’ve won in the last hundred years.

Let the military build a fence around the “Sunni Triangle” and tell the occupants that if they don’t stop being murderous assholes, they’re going to die. Then kill the ones that don’t listen. The ones who are on the fence about becoming a murderous asshole might think twice about picking up that RPG.

Stop trying to impress each other with your prowess in political one-upmanship. Nobody I know thinks it’s cute. And prosecute the crap out of anyone who leaks secret information no matter what their party affiliation. That goes for the morons in the press too.

We need a new political party in America. It should be called the Anti-Toro Caca party. To go along with the donkey and elephant theme, the symbol should be a bull squatting over a huge steaming pile of toro caca with a circle around it and a line through it.