I skipped the steps of the application process that would have clued the agency in on my lack of fitness for the position. I made no effort to hide my public loathing of the agency, what it stands for, and the administration that runs it. And they offered me the job anyway.
I found this bit very telling:
“Don’t expect to be beating heads on day one. But if beating heads isn’t what you’re signing up for, you’re probably not who we want.”
This also stood out to me. People ive had discussions with have often tried to argue that the military is not as bad and that ACAB doesnt apply to military veterans. Fuck no. Active military deployment turns people into fucking ghouls that are incompatible with society. Some people turning out well (like the author) is just the exception to the rule.
Pig farmers and tailors.
2x Combat vet here. Yeah, you’re not wrong. I have grown to despise many of the guys I’ve deployed with. I see their posts on FB and am to the point I really want to call them out and publicly shame them. I feel like I’m a unicorn, I’ve gotten more and more leftie as I get older and have shunned my military past. Just my two cents. Fuck trump and fuck ICE.
I’ve noticed it seems to polarize people. A lot of the best (and worst) people I deal with are ex-military or convicts. Wake or break type deal, they seem to come out hardened and inspired to resist or broken enough to fit the mold perfectly. Sorry about your service.
They aren’t ghouls, they’re victims. They can be, and often are, victimizers as well. Most people join the military because they’re broke and desperate. Have some class solidarity.
Now the people who join the military just to go shoot someone in the Middle East (or soon South America maybe), yeah, they can get thrown into the meat grinder.
I agree, that they are also victims. Ideally they would get the help they need, but realistically thats not happening so we have no choice but distance us from them, lest we become victims too.
That’s an insane and inhumane stance which could be equally applied to mentally ill / developmentally challenged people in many cases. The price of community is inconvenience.
Now if we’re talking about living with someone with PTSD who waves a gun at you or hits you, for sure, get yourself out of that situation for your own wellbeing. But there’s a lot of room between “Calling them ghouls and exiling them from polite society” versus “Avoiding becoming a victim of their violence”, especially when they aren’t all violent.
Comparing vets to involuntarily disabled people is big stretch. Most vets alive today are people who knowingly decided to go kill people for oil money. Dont bullshit me with “they didnt know better”. Nobody goes to afghanistan without knowing about the atrocities that the US has comitted there. Being poor and needing the money doesnt justify being a murderer. If you applied the same logic to ICE people here would be apalled.
As staggering quantity of American teenagers, at least the majority, are truly that ignorant. They didn’t have a real education and their pastor told them that brown people fuck goats and kids and the US army will help stop that.
Have you ever read Of Mice and Men?
Sometimes we have to do hard things.
I tend to place human compassion as a higher priority than morals derived from novels.
Having said that, people leave our police force either mentally damaged or suicidal from the PTSD, physically broken or killed, or angry at the entire force at how they treat their resources (ie people). The goal is to retire-out, right around when you really hate the job, and have the body and mind to never look back.