A Seattle police officer is under investigation over comments captured by his bodycam after another officer fatally struck a pedestrian. KING's Sebastian Rob...
Doesn’t matter man. I don’t expect them to go home and cry themselves to sleep at night every night for what they see out there. They need to make dark jokes about junkies, criminals, whatever, I get it, if that’s what it takes to not blow your brains out while you’re out there dealing with the underbelly. But a cop negligently killed a woman and they’re acting like it’s NBD. The hit and this show a culture within this particular department of callous disregard for human life.
Like many jobs, you need empathy in order to do your job well, but you also need to remain detached for the sake of your mental well being. How do you balance those two things? Clearly, this officer hasn’t figured it out, but how? (That’s a rhetorical question. I’m just wondering how it’s done in an effective and healthy way, I’m not asking you specifically.)
You confide in your peers. Hopefully you have some who can be trusted to understand you feel too emotionally invested, and need to develop some emotional detachment. You confide in them, they confide in you, and neither of you believes the other is a psychopath, even though you’re saying every intrusive thought that comes into your head, without trying to filter it out first.
And if you’re real lucky, you do that without recording it for the whole fucking world to judge you.
They need to make dark jokes about junkies, criminals, whatever, I get it, if that’s what it takes to not blow your brains out while you’re out there dealing with the underbelly.
That’s exactly what this officer is doing here: making dark jokes about a terrible situation he seems to have witnessed. He’s not acting like it’s NBD. He’s clearly trying to cope, to come to grips with what happened, rather than blowing his brains out.
If that isn’t clear to you, you either didn’t watch the video, or you have a problem with empathy. If you don’t recognize this behavior, you have never worked in medicine, emergency services, military, or any other field regularly exposed to death and trauma.
This is coping behavior. What he saw fucked him up emotionally, and he is doing what he can to stay in control of his emotions.
Doesn’t matter man. I don’t expect them to go home and cry themselves to sleep at night every night for what they see out there. They need to make dark jokes about junkies, criminals, whatever, I get it, if that’s what it takes to not blow your brains out while you’re out there dealing with the underbelly. But a cop negligently killed a woman and they’re acting like it’s NBD. The hit and this show a culture within this particular department of callous disregard for human life.
Like many jobs, you need empathy in order to do your job well, but you also need to remain detached for the sake of your mental well being. How do you balance those two things? Clearly, this officer hasn’t figured it out, but how? (That’s a rhetorical question. I’m just wondering how it’s done in an effective and healthy way, I’m not asking you specifically.)
You confide in your peers. Hopefully you have some who can be trusted to understand you feel too emotionally invested, and need to develop some emotional detachment. You confide in them, they confide in you, and neither of you believes the other is a psychopath, even though you’re saying every intrusive thought that comes into your head, without trying to filter it out first.
And if you’re real lucky, you do that without recording it for the whole fucking world to judge you.
That’s exactly what this officer is doing here: making dark jokes about a terrible situation he seems to have witnessed. He’s not acting like it’s NBD. He’s clearly trying to cope, to come to grips with what happened, rather than blowing his brains out.
No, not clearly. It’s not clear that’s what he is doing at all.
If that isn’t clear to you, you either didn’t watch the video, or you have a problem with empathy. If you don’t recognize this behavior, you have never worked in medicine, emergency services, military, or any other field regularly exposed to death and trauma.
This is coping behavior. What he saw fucked him up emotionally, and he is doing what he can to stay in control of his emotions.