The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #3 is pleased to announce and support the1st Annual “Ed Norris Bike Ride” Fundraiser to be held on Saturday, March 28th, that will support the newly established Baltimore Metropolitan FOP Police Widows and Children’s Fund.
How can this be? I’m all for bike rides and raising money for good causes, but I don’t get it. My buddy Ed Norris is a convicted felon. Police are forbidden to associate with felons.
Granted, in Baltimore it’s hard to go out and not to associate with some felons. A nice guy who served me beer was a felon. Now I pretended I didn’t know that, but I always assumed that if the powers that were came down and tole me I couldn’t drink there, I would have found a new bar.
Anyway, if you’re not a police officer, by all means ride and raise money. If you are a police officer or a representative of the FOP, can you explain to me why Ed Norris is an A-OK felon but other felons aren’t?
I guess this is what’s on my mind: if you don’t have sympathy for police officers hanging out with familymembers who are felons, why do you think it’s OK for you to chooseto hang out with felon Ed Norris?
“How can this be?”
What, Gordon Liddy wasn’t available?
It seems that police who do wrong are considered to be higher class felons, vicitms of the “liberal media” or martyrs for some nebulous “cause” (ie. “street justice”). Ordinary felons, in contrast, are just scumbags, assholes, perps, or whatever term is used in that particular region.
If the police continue to act as if they are a separate class, the level of cooperation will continue to dip, even in stable, middle-class communities. Now is the time for police to take to heart the following idea expressed by Sir Robert Peel: “the police are the public and the public are the police.”
Well said, Dave.
Norris did bad things. He did illegal things. And he got caught.
He tarnished the badge. Plus he was an a**hole to me.
“Plus he was an a**hole to me.”
Yes, I remember that sordid affair. See, you think to much, professor. To some in policing, that be a character flaw. I found this out when I was doing a ride-along w/ my dad before I went off to college, and his Lt. made sure to warn me about the “liberal brainwashing” that I would face at the university. Sheeeeeiiiit, whatever, Lt. I had me a good ole’ time and learned to think critically about my field.