AND THIS IS A NICE JOB?

AND THIS IS A NICE JOB?

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Officer McGillum approached the dark colored Cadillac with caution, it was early on a Saturday morning, about 3:30 A.M. and he’d made this stop because the big car was weaving from lane to lane for about two miles on the stretch of interstate 71.

 

When the officer, who had three years of experience on the job, got about even with the driver-side window he heard a tremendous explosion and felt a stinging pain in his right shoulder. One of the occupants of the Cadillac had shot at, and hit, the three year veteran of the Missouri State Patrol force.

 

For whatever reason the trooper hit the dirt, and in the same motion drew his service revolver and opened fire. He figured that he got a couple of shots off before the Cadillac sped off down the road, leaving McGillum flat on his back with a bullet hole in his right shoulder.

 

It was the first time that McGillum had been shot at; much less hit…..and it would be his last day as a Missouri State Trooper. McGillum reasoned that there had to be a better way to make a living then get shot at by either street punks or a couple of people out drinking and partying on a Saturday night.

 

McGillum’s pay at the time of the shooting…..$49,218 a year plus benefits. He’d started out three years earlier at $34,452 per year. Of course there the usual benefits that all Missouri state employees are entitled to, but for McGillum the string had run out. He had a wife and two kids and wanted to see them grow-up.

 

The above is a fictional story of a make-believe police officer living and working as a cop in Missouri. I used it to illustrate what might happen to a state trooper in any state in the union, or in any city on any given night.

 

It ain’t easy to be a peace officer in the 21^st century; it’s a job that I never even considered during my youth. I don’t believe that there’s a cop out there that didn’t actually feel some sort of calling for the profession. I think for the vast majority of cops throughout the United States today, their original feeling was that they wanted to make a difference.

 

I can tell you this without an ounce of trepidation, most are a better man and person then I was or am. I’m a passionate person, but I draw the line at people shooting at me, or wanting to harm me because I represent authority and the law.

 

BUT…..THAT SAID

But there is a plan afoot here in Wisconsin by Governor Scott Walker to raise Wisconsin State Troopers pay by 17%. This guy (Walker) is the same guy whose middle name is “cut it”, I’ve read the article that was penned by Patrick Marley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel frontwards and backwards and can’t understand the meaning of the words in the article.

 

State Troopers haven’t had a raise since 2009 and that is shameful, but one of the only unions that has backed the governor throughout his stent in office has been the cop union. Is this payback, I don’t think that the answer to the question needs a Rhodes Scholar to answer…..OF COURSE ITS PAYBACK!

 

I would hate to think that the state’s top law enforcement organization is living in a bubble, however reading some of the responses would seem as if they do. A Wisconsin legislature talked about a 17% raise as “intolerable”. One trooper responded…..”I think that it’s intolerable that the proposed raise isn’t higher.”

 

It seems to me as if both the pros and the cons of this issue are missing the reality of how the real world operates in the 21^st century. I call it the “garbage collector’s syndrome”, garbage collector’s jobs in the public sector were never meant to be $40 something dollar jobs. Believe it or not there isn’t a college degree connected with either driving a garbage truck, or throwing refuse into the truck…..but that’s what the job pays here in Green Bay.

 

People talk about the benefits connected with a public sector job, and how valuable those benefits are, and it’s true. My wife worked for the City of Green Bay, was retired almost three years ago and both her and I are reaping some of the cities medical benefits. She also has a nice pension courtesy of the city…..so Mr. State Trooper don’t waste my time crying about no raise in the past whatever years, maybe you should be counting your blessings instead.

 

I don’t have a hard spot for law enforcement, quite the contrary, I appreciate their efforts with regards to law enforcement and to being there during a personal accident, or a major disaster, it’s really when they are needed.

 

But I also know the other side of the coin, their brotherhood mentality, the prevailing attitude of never being questioned, and their cynical demeanor. I also view a cop as a man with a gun who can commit human atrocities against the general public in a random fashion.

 

In short I simply do not trust the law, any branch of the law, local, regional, state or federal. To my way of thinking these guys aren’t to be trusted. Police bring but two things to the table, and one of those things is bad, it can be incarceration at best, and physical harm at the worst.

 

How do I know about the bad side of policing, well how many of you has been roughed up when you were taken into custody for driving while intoxicated, or know of somebody who has? I could care less what the bozo boozer says or does short of a physical confrontation, to ring somebody’s bell while in custody because he’s drunk is a blatant abuse of authority. People can die from these kinds of games.

 

Now I’m not saying that there is any kind of shenanigans going on with the Wisconsin State Troopers just because they want a raise. Hell they can take a bullet, get hit with a fist, spit at and missed and pissed on and hit. Many, many times Troopers have a thankless job plus they deal with some of the scum of the earth on pretty much a daily basis.

 

The way I look at a police officer on any level is that they are a necessary evil, it’s the damned if you do and damned if you don’t syndrome. If we, as the states citizenry could simply learn to curb our inhibitions, and treat people the same way we want to be treated, the need for law enforcement would go down exponentially. But I don’t look for that to happen any time soon, so I guess we’re saddled with the silly system that’s in place.

 

ONE PARTING SHOT

This may not be germane to this article, but I simply can’t let it pass by without bringing up the topic of who is leading the Wisconsin State Patrol. State Patrol superintendent Stephen Fitzgerald, either 72, or about to turn 72 years of age has been the top state trooper since the early spring of 2011. Appointed by the then new Governor Scott Walker, Fitzgerald just happens to be the father of Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

 

The elder Fitzgerald zoomed over the heads of other candidates, acting Superintendent David Collins, Col. Ben Mendez, Maj. Sandra Huxtable, Maj. Darren Price, and Maj. Daniel Lonsdorf. Nepotism…..absolutely not was the reaction at the top of the appointment by Glen Jones, president of the Wisconsin State Troopers Association.

 

The appointment was made by Department of Transportation Secretary Mark Gottieb, but Governor had heavy input on the decision. Steven Fitzgerald had, at the time more than 40 years of experience in the policing industry.

 

I raise this issue for one simple reason, between the Fitzgerald brothers wages, combined more than $112,000 per year, and per diem, $184 per day times 100 days…..and daddy’s $105,700 per year and the benefit package that’s got to be worth more than $50,000 combined, the state of Wisconsin taxpayers are shelling out a total of  $236,100.

 

Now that’s what I call a slice of heaven that I’d love to be involved in…..do I sound jealous, I sure hope so, I’m piling on pretty heavy in hopes of convincing you readers just how I feel about the non-nepotism position of the elder Fitzgerald. Do you think that the Fitzgerald brothers will be lobbying for daddy’s raise????????

HAVE A NICE DAY!