Feredir -
Sorry it took me a bit to get back to you. Of course, I would hope that you do realize how much power and authority you can weild in your position. It sounds like you have a very sane perspective on it. I live in a community that for some reason took it upon itself (it is a very wealthy one, and also is smack dab in the middle of the most conservative county in the state of Wisconsin) to start zealously enforcing certain typse of laws that mainly deal with disputes, even those that are basically non-threatening, but because of a law on Wisconsin books, it basically states that even the mention of a threat of violence requires one party to be arrested. A very good friend of mine, albeit a bit younger, recently got charged under this statute for pounding on the hood of the car of her ex-husband, who had deliberately provoked her by showing up in her driveway with his girlfriend in the front seat of the car when he was dropping off their two kids, aged 5 and 9. When she asked to talk to her ex privately away from the girlfriend and the kids, the GF started verbally assaulting her, and then things escalated. No blows were exchanged, but she (my friend) did end up pounding on the hood of the car, demanding that the kids be let out and that the ex and the gf leave. The gf called the police, my friend was arrested with disorderly conduct, and now she, on top of everything else, needs to go through anger management classes and parenting classes, since the divorce was not final, plus whatever court costs are incurred. And the sad thing is, she still has primary placement of the kids, but the ex still gets to pick them up and flaunts his new gf in the children's faces, and apparantly, him doing this is in no way prohibited.
I also have had numerous experiences with our local finest due to my oldest daughter, now 20 and thankfully out of the house. They NEVER helped me with the situation when she lived here, she was disruptive, refused to go to school many days, would sneak her boyfriend in through the windows at all hours of the night, physically assaulted me several times, and all my pleas to the local police went in vain. She shoplifted, she stole my credit and debit cards and checks, she used them to order things off of the internet, it never ceased to amaze me what she would do. this started when she was sixteen at the time, and all they would do was tell me to call the county. The county told me to call the local police. When she was 18, all they would do is make her leave for one night. It finally came to blows one night when I told her to get out and threw an empty plastic laundry basket at her. I had already called the cops to make her leave, but when they came, since I had thrown the basket, they took me into custody. The charges were all dropped, but it was so unfair and so completely wrong. Ever since then, I basically do not trust our local or county law enforcement people farther than I can spit. I am glad that you are of a different breed.
BTW, it was interesting when I got my "charges" from our county DA. Only my daughter's version was in the complaint, not mine nor her brother who was there at the time and aged 16. When we introduced THAT side of the equation, as I said, the charges were dropped, and their advice to supposedly help me? File for a formal eviction and pay for it. This for an adult kid who paid no rent. It cost me $300 plus some minor court costs to kick out a kid who had no legal right to be staying there free to begin with, and was the one starting the havoc for which they tried to charge me.
So, like I say, even my most conservative and Republican father thinks that the politics and the law enforcement in our neck of the woods (city and county) stink. I am glad to see that it is not so in other places. Please forgive me if I sounded like I was ranting or bitter, I am not. We have a very contentious mayoral election coming up next week, and there are further allegations of idiotic and poor performance not to mention corruption and insider dealing on the part of our county elected officials. I hope that this bodes for better choices all around going forward here. But charges ever being filed or an investigation? HAHAHAHAHAHA!
If you want to know what county I reside in, just remember the travesty of a case that we had here several years ago when Mark Chmura (the GB Packer player) was charged with sexual misconduct and statutory rape for his hot tub accusations. The idiot leading the prosecution is the same idiot county DA still in charge. The only reason he never gets booted out is that noone will run against him, the county is that tied together politically - a basically inpenatrable shield. Most of the time during elections, there is only one name on the ballot with the choice "none" being the alternative. We have not had a Democrat or Independant hold office here for at least fifty years (county, city) and we are one county removed from Milwaukee, the most liberal next to Dane (the county seat of Madison) in the state.
Rant over!! I am sure things are MUCH better where you are!! Even my BIL works as a senior police officer in a different county, he also said he would not want to work in most municipalities here, even though he lives in the same county as I do.
And, just to add to my recollection, the average ages of the local police persons employed here is in the younger twenties. The last yahoo that we had over here due to my daughter did not even know what county this city is located in - he told me I needed to call Milwaukee County to get my requested assistance.