New Point of View

We arrived yesterday to meet our new instructor for the next couple of weeks, a retired cop. I must say it is an interesting experience. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for peace officers. I have never been in trouble with the law. In fact, I've never had so much as a speeding ticket in 20+ years of driving. However, I have had few pleasant experiences with cops. The one exception is an OPP officer who interviewed me following a serious multiple vehicle accident. I was in tremendous shock (though uninjured), and he showed a great amount of compassion and reassured me that I was not at fault. I made a point of thanking him for his kindness and told him he was my first positive encounter with the law. Still have his card in my wallet.

Our regular instructor is a retired paralegal, and her great passion is for righting wrongs and studying wrongful convictions. Our primary focus has always been 'the client' in the classroom, in sharp contrast to the cop's viewpoint that all defence attorneys should be taken out and shot, they are not to be trusted, etc. He made several cracks about 'when we get to defend scumbags'. He's a nice man, but rather cynical and lacks compassion. Class was frustrating yesterday, because we are used to working independently, and the lectures are usually limited to 3-6 hours of rapid-fire transcription. His method involves repeating phrases from the textbook ad nauseam, interspersed with gory, shocking, and shameful tales about suicides, child molesters, murders, or techniques for sleeping on the job... all delivered in a facetious manner.

I understand that being a cop is a difficult job... believe me, I do. I've seen enough of human nature in my 36 years of life to know that it's not a pretty job, and to survive it you must detach and harden yourself in order to continue to function. It's probably a good experience for us to hear about the darker side of the law, and to try and see the realities of law from a law enforcement point of view, but I'm not enjoying it. He asked how many of us would be interested in working for a prosecutor, and not one hand was raised. The day was spent being interrupted by a couple of other students who felt a need to drone on about their own experiences with cops and the law, which irritates me to no end. I'd rather be working from home and getting things done than listening to people BS in class about personal issues. Not to mention, he's used to teaching beginning students who are enrolled in the police program, so everything is so pre-digested and dumbed down that it's insulting to our intelligence.

Ah well, the plan is to turn all the project assignments in a week early and keep my mouth shut. Pig noises are absolutely forbidden. Vacation countdown commencing......

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