(this is a long story) I was in the shoppette this morning while on duty, getting my usual healthy breakfast (a creampuff and large coffee) when there was a little fellow about 5 or 6 scream holy terror through the store. His mother ( i'm assuming, yes I know about assuming) stopped him picked him up brought him over to me and said " If you don't behave yourself, i am going to have this Mp here arrest you and throw you in jail with all the other bad little boy" :evil: . Well of course the little boy immediately stopped being a child...opps I mean stopped running and yelling. I than knelt done and told the little " What your mother just told you was a lie I would never arrest you for that, you were just being a kid. I am here for when ever you need help or anything" . The mother need less to say promptly showed me here ID card and stated she was so and so and I shouldn't have told him that. I came back with this "Okay so now when ever you son is hurt, scared, lost or afraid he will know not to run to an MP for help is that what you want your son to think?" at this point she left and I later got called into my PM's office and told my story and was told I need to use more tack (something about those IPC skills we are all suppose to get issued) . What do you all think was I wrong in this instance or what :?: ? would really like ya'all feed back. thanks :lol:

O.K. I know exactly where you are coming form with this one. But from ther MPI side of the house it is more tactful with a child that age, especially with the Mother right there. When you do need to intervene is when they are in the 8-12 yr range, but then again, I worked the steets of Baltimore and the 4-7 yr olds loved cops, we carried candy with us and gave to them when we rolled through the neighborhoods'. The problem is when they hit middle school and they are around all their "bad-ass" friends. That s when they start gettting the attitude of not respecting law enforcement. Usually with a kid in your situation, it stems from weak parenting.... and I have seen my fair share of kids who I have to advise for different things and they sit there and lie to their parents.. and then try to lie to me. Then when you have the kid leave the room and speak with the parents, "Oh, my son or daughter would never do something like that!" And they really do have a hard time beleiving me, when I lay the evidence out that their kid really did these things. In my opinion it starts ith the parents. In your case though it might have been a bad idea to do that in front of his mother, because then you are questioning her parental skills..... like she was being challenged. Just have to watch the situations in which you find yourself and know who and when you can say certain things to. Otherwise you will find yourself explaining your actions again. Been there and done that many, many times. :lol:

Hell Yeah you were right! Sure you could have used a little more tact but hey so could the the little hyperactive hellion's maternal unit. Mom should learn how to control her brat better. I'm not saying that I was a perfect little angel (I was a hyperactive hellion too) but when I did get out of line mom and dad brought the hammer down and I'm a better person for it! If someone had brought a complaint against one of my people like that I would probably tried to explain the two way street of community policing and respect and essentially told her to get bent.

I hear what you both are saying but my main issue is having that little boy believe that I am a bad guy and being used as a displine threat. I mean really if You can't raise your kids don't think for a minute that we (MP) want to.

There was another thing about this incident that just bugged me, :? but I coulldn't put my finger on it till just now. We as MPs and our "civilian" counterparts do not directly determine who goes to jail/prison. We enforce the law we don't interpret thats why we got the guy with the funky robe called a judge. This lady (I'll use the term loosely here) can't separate one branch of government from the other(Executive and judicial). She obviosly wasn't paying attention in civics class or she didn't grasp the concept (and God help us she reproduced :cry: ).

okay the story gets better, Yesterday I was running RADAR with my buddy and he got "HER" got 15 kpm over the speed limit and her son was in the front seat without a safety belt on, so we 9 me and my partner wrote her for the 2 violations. Now she is saying I am profiling. which is total crap because I give everyone tickets, hell i even gave my own Mom one back at Lee. and my PM knows this and told her she has an open door policy, If she has to open her vehicle door and get out, than you are getting a ticket. Now this situation really got my hairs up, now I have been accused of profiling, entrapment and everything else Mp usually get accused of in the performance of their duties but this is twice in as many weeks that I have had complaints on me. :x :evil: I miss the days when you had a problem with a soldier you just went to their 1SG and let them handle it. thanks for hearing me out, so should I avoid her or throw out those tickets or what I am getting ready to leave for school I can't have any hold ups now.
Miller

You were completely correct in what you did. It isn't your fault that the mother had such piss-poor parenting skills that the only way she could make her child obey was to scare the crap out of him. She should look at herself as her childs form of authority and not you.

Like you said, you are there to protect them, not to hurt him, and more importantly, not to act as his parent when clearly the mother wasn't. As far as her throwing her ID in your face, yeah, I suppose if I had no other leg to stand on, I would pull that crap too. Im sure you have probably pulled over your fair share of people who have tried that " Do you know who I am/who my husband is?"scheme. It's pathetic and Im glad that you set her straight.

Edie,

You wrote your mom a ticket :shock: ?! My mom would kick my ass if I did that. Nevermind the fact that I'm a good 6" taller and outweigh her by 80lbs she still scares the piss out of me. She didn't need a cop to scare me. Please don't tell her I said piss by the way if any of you ever meet her(small world you never know)

yeah my mom is 2" taller than me, and when I got home for dinner that night I got a TV dinner, and She ask me "Are you you still feeling like a bad ass?" yeah At that moment I knew I was pretty much screwed. NOTE TO ALL MPS NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING DON"T WRITE YOUR MOM A TICKET even if it is only a 1408.
Edie

Yeah in high school Mom served as my substitute teacher on a couple occasions. I zonked while reading "the Scarlet Letter". She walks up behind me slaps me upside the back of the head. She earned the moniker "Bitch Sub from Hell". In a fairness though she didn't mess with anyone til they gave her reason then "pity the fool" who gave her grief. Mom was kind enough to tell me when she was subbing at the High School and what class so I could give them fair warning.

You were absolutely right in what you did. We need to maintain a positive image with the children for many reasons. Most importantly the one you were promoting, so the children will not see us as a threat. We need to maintain the "officer friendly" image with the children more than anyone else. All the adults see us as tools for lack of a better word, and like us or not they will not hesitate to call us for help. You stand your ground, you did the right thing, which is not always the same thing as the politically sound thing. It doesn't matter who the hell she is, her husband wears the rank, not her.

SGT B

[quote:be9a47e94c="7-0"]All the adults see us as tools for lack of a better word

SGT B[/quote:be9a47e94c]

Hopefully not a wedge(simplest form aof a tool)

I am not a mother nore a MP nore am i one to talk about being a perfect little angel child. But I can deffintly say that some parents need to think about what they say before they say it. One example I was givin when i was a little kid when my father told me to get good grades or i would end up a garbage man. Well so I worked the hardest I could just so I did not become a sanitation department person, so what am i a diesel shop parts person, but that made me frown apon the people that pick up our trash, well now i told my dad if i would have not studied maybe i could be making the bigger money than what i am making now being a parts person.