Other places

“Behind the Badge”                            Other places

By Joseph Pangaro

Having spent my entire law enforcement career here in New Jersey I always assumed that police work was the same everywhere. I recently went to the state of Florida for a short period of rest and relaxation. I had the opportunity to meet officers from Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Tampa, Orlando, Cape Canaveral and the Highway Patrol.

We talked about their daily work and how they handled things down in paradise. As I thought, most of their job was the same as the work for any officer here in New Jersey. They handle traffic, drunk drivers, domestic violence incidents, robberies, drugs, and all the other aspects of crime in a modern society.

It was inevitable that the topic of citizen’s rights  and other constitutional issues came up. As a resident and police officer in the north east I am accustomed to the thinking that if someone robs you, give them your wallet. If they want your car, give them the keys. What I heard from the officers and residents in Florida was a bit different.

I also spoke to other people that live in various parts of the state about citizens rights, and their attitudes about crime and the ability to protect oneself. I was really surprised by the general atmosphere around the topic. Now to be sure, taking any high profile cases that might be in the news out of the equation, that is not a topic I want to comment on until all the facts are in so let’s not go there.

What I did find was the fact that since the year 2000, there have been over 880,000 concealed carry permits issued by the state of Florida to its residents.  And since that time only 162 of them have been revoked because the person with the permit was involved in some type of criminal action, not necessarily a gun crime.  That’s pretty astounding. When I asked about the process to get a concealed carry permit I was told “It’s simple” you go to a gun range, fill out some forms, test for proficiency on the weapon and if you can handle the gun, you get the permit. That’s it.

I was talking to a young woman, 26 years old who works in a doctors office in Jacksonville. She told me she had a carry permit and showed me the 9mm handgun she had in a holster. I asked her why she thought she needed to carry a gun, had she been the victim of a crime?  “No” she said she had never been victimized “but”, she added “why should I be, with this I can protect myself”.  

Over and over again, from cops to citizens the one common thread in most of their comments was the same; We carry guns because we can and we protect ourselves and our families because we should”. This is very different from the way we do business up here. As a police officer I don’t know how I feel about that, the idea of everyone running around with guns is one I am not accustomed to. As a citizen of the United States I have a deep and abiding love of and dedication to the Constitution and the second amendment, but it just seems like everyone having guns would just mean more gun fights.

When I asked the local cops they said the number of gun fights is very low, while the number of people who protect themselves with their legal guns is very high. The officers said they definitely go to calls for service and other police responses more cautiously knowing that anyone involved in the call could be armed, but since its part of the culture they don’t worry about the good guys with guns. As one officer put it “Down here you have to be careful who you rob, the victim might have a gun and not want to be robbed. That doesn’t usually work out for the robber”.  And in that statement the general attitude was summed up. It seems the populace would prefer the criminals worry about what the good guys might do to them more than what they will do to the good guys.

By the time I was heading home it was clear, people are people everywhere and crime is crime. Cops everywhere face the same enemy; people who what to do bad things to other people. That’s one thing that the same up here in Jersey, and it’s our job everywhere as police officers to protect the innocent, stand up for the weak and do what’s right every time, every day.

Let me know what you think.  Email me at jpanagro194@yahoo.com and read my blog at www.jpangaro.blogspot.com