🚀 go-pugleaf

In ca.general Dick <tjdick@my-deja.com> wrote:
: Oops!  Forgot to answer your question, Merlin:

: DICK:
:> : 84% of line officers (the ones who do the work, not the chiefs)
: favor
:> : private ownership of firearms.
:>

: MERLIN:
:>      I have to question that statistic...and wonder why the brass
:> would have an opinion so different from the guys in the trenches...
:> which used to include said brass.  (There are very few political
:> appointments of police chiefs, etc., who were never "line
:> officers" themselves.)

: As I mentioned, the San Diego County Police Officers Association did a
: study two years ago and that is where that figure comes from.

     Like all surveys, if not repeated/repeatable, one has to 
wonder about the agenda of those who ran it.  (You do question
surveys run by NOW, for instance, don't you?)
     After all, officers "in the trenches" are much more likely
to be shot by armed citizens than chiefs are.

: I don't know that the brass would necessarily have a different opinion,
: but suspect those who do have higher aspirations for politics or the
: lecture circuit, and adapt a "politically correct" answer, i.e., an
: answer they suppose will be more easily heard.

    Do police chiefs "moderate" their views to appeal to liberal
voters if they are essentially conservative??