Noteworthy News

[Spongebob]

Yes, 'Serve and Protect' is on some law enforcement vehicles.

Comparing the role of the police to the role of parents is not a fair equivalent.  One is a job that a person is paid to do.  The idea that the police are of higher standards that non-police is wishful thinking at best.

Well, I don't agree that this is a bad analogy.  Being a cop is more than just a job.  Cops take oaths to serve and protect and uphold the law.  That makes it more than just a job.  It's also a service to the community.  And parenting is not just about popping out babies.  Both roles are charged with the safety and protection of people, so I maintain that the analogy is just fine though not perfect.  Few analogies are.

A child being abused by someone outside the family is no better or worse than being abused by a parent...unless you take into account the sheer number of hours, days, months, years, a child is subject to whatever a parent decides to dish out.  And parenting isn't a job...no one has to apply, they don't have to pass an interview, they don't have to take courses...it's something that happens and not necessarily to people who ought to be acting as parents.  

I disagree completely.  To the child, abuse is horrible no matter who is doling it out.  But when it is a parent, it's more than just physical because a child trusts and loves parents.  They are supposed to be their protectors.  It can be profoundly damaging to a child, more so than an outsider.  I don't see how this is controversial.  Child abuse is horrible, but it's even more horrible when a parent is guilty of it.  You disagree?

Then you threw in Andrea Yates who wasn't known to be an abusive parent.  She was diagnosed with severe postpartum depression and went into a psychotic break that ended with her killing her children.  She was out of her mind.  

To be fair, I didn't say anything about Yates; that was you.  I referenced a parent drowning their children (go back and read if you don't believe me).  It was meant to be a generic reference.  And I stand by this analogy.  When a child is murdered by someone outside the family, its a tragedy for sure, but in my experience the reaction people have to hearing that a parent has killed their child (for whatever reason) is with far more horror.  I don't understand the disagreement.

Members of law enforcement and parents aren't the same thing...not even close to the same thing.  

Of course I know they aren't the same thing and wasn't not attempting to say they are.  But analogies are used all the time in conversation and it's expected that people understand that no analogy is perfect.  Basically it appears that you just disagree with my analogy.  So noted.  Moving on....

Yes, I think you went off on a 37 tangent that completely failed to prove what was apparently your point that the public expects the police to be ultimate protectors of law-abiding citizens...who happen to pay their salary.

To be fair, I didn't go on a tangent.  I merely used a simple analogy that I maintain is fine.  I'm sorry if this confused you or led to the wrong conclusion, but then again, I would have to ask, are you not accustomed to people using analogies to explain things?  And I also don't agree with your wording that police are the "ultimate protectors" of law abiding citizens.  These are not my words and I wouldn't describe them that way.  It is part of their duty as officers of the law, but this sound exaggerated to me.

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Also, of all the things mentioned on that post, why fixate on the one analogy?