Police as Thugs

The most recent graduation class of the Idaho Police Officers Standards and Training class had as their graduation motto "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it". Not only is this disrespectful of all the service people who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder but is a symptom of an even bigger problem for society. The police are more and more acting as if they are a large very organized street gang. They are becoming thugs.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is caused by seeing or being a victim of violence or some other atrocity. The members of this class don't want to see themselves as victims of stress but the inflicter of the pain or stress. I can think of no more terrifying police officer to meet in any situation than one of these thugs. This mind set shows a total lack of self control or respect for the very ideals and laws that all police officers are sworn to uphold.
The people of the United States have given up many rights to be protected by law and the police as the sworn upholders of those laws. We have every right to expect firm but respectful enforcement of those laws. Encounters with the police are rarely because something positive has happening in your life. While the officers have very little control of the circumstances of the reason for the contact they do have control over the outcome. If the officer is going into the contact with the mind set of being an inflicter of PTSD we know that the contact will be less than respectful or helpful for the citizen.
What surprises me the most is that these officers were allowed to graduate and that the POST Administration seemed to know nothing about this motto that was printed in the program for the graduating class. These officers need to go back into training and learn that they are the upholders of the law. They are not the LAW. They need to be re-screened to see if they are mentally fit to be officers. They need to spend time at the VA working with and talking to victims of PTSD. We need to ask some very tough questions of our police chiefs and elected sheriffs to make sure that this is not the mind set of their departments. We need to demand that our city and county officials are setting standards that preclude that people like these are ever hired and are identified in present employees and steps taken to correct their attitudes about law enforcement and their role in it.