In the first case, when it comes to robbery, etc., I think it's a good idea to scare the crap out of kids when they're young. It might prevent them from escalating.

The second two had nothing to do with cops, but leftists in our schools.

Things like this, on the other hand, in which cops are turned into revenue collectors, pisses everyone off, including the cops on the beat. Going after dangerous criminals should be priority #1, not writing tickets.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/11285330/

What irritates me? The police station in Sandy Hook was supposedly two miles from the school, yet it took them 20 minutes to get officers there. So what exactly were they doing, that was so pressing, it took them that long - writing parking tickets?

Just further proof that, "in a matter of seconds the cops are only minutes away"

The town was that small, yet it took the police that ling to get there? Newton is all of 59 square miles. What is that - about 7 miles by 8 miles? Even if they were all the way at the other end of town, they were still only 8 miles away. That's about 24mph.

Not necessarily...7 miles by 8 miles would be geographic straight line miles...not road miles.  In addition did the Newtown PD have an ETJ that they also had to patrol.  Finally, if the officers were already engaged in another call that call had to be completed prior to responding to the school.

Wearing a badge for 25 + years I understand that cops ae never gonna be our favorite people. But you have to udnerstand that there is so much on the Police Dept that polarizes the cops themselves into several factions.

Faction 1 is the guy who LOVES to put bad guys away, going after the worst criminals they can find and hunting them down is what they live for. Actually, they are a minority, they tend to rub the top brass the wrong way and tend to band together to give upper management fits
they look with contempt on Factions #2 and three as follows.

Faction 2 is the guys who sort of go out there wearing a shiny uniform and write tickets and enforce petty stuff all day long on normal citizens and property owners, garbage codes and stuff like that that just irritates people. They answer calls and are diligent but they don't really go out of their way to go after the real crooks and dislike making arrests unless forced into it....then they try to pawn it off on Faction#1

Faction#3 is ladder climbers and do nothings. These are the ones who serve a minimum time on the street, perform like Faction#2 except they avoid doing serious police work at all costs. IE DON:T MAKE WAVES, Their main goal is to get off the street into "the back office" and admin and get promoted.

Unfortunately these are the ones who usually get promoted and get APPOINTED by some weenie city council committee above the rank of Captain on most police depts ....and the band plays on.