HI EVERYONE
HERE'S MY THOUGHTS ON THIS TOPIC::: COPS ARE PEOPLE TOO. THERE ARE GOOD ONES AND THERE ARE NOT SO GOOD ONES. IT'S JUST TOO BAD THE BAD ONES MAKE IT WORSE FOR THE GOOD ONES. I KNOW HERE IN INDY, MOST OF THEM I HAVE BEEN AROUND SEEM OK. I DON'T PERSONALLY KNOW ANY OF THEM. BUT, LIKE I SAID THEY ARE PEOPLE TOO. AND AS FAR AS THAT TROOPER GETTING KILLED, THAT BOY WAS JUST CRAZY. HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO WHAT HE DID. MY HEART GOES OUT TO THE FAMILY OF THE TROOPER

i dont think that anyone has the right to kill another. it is interesting, however, that we arnt hearing any details, just the fact that an officer was shot. mabe the shoter thought that all cops are bad as he may have dealt with michigans famous police state before. i travel around a lot, and it is my read that the police here in michigan are several orders of magnitude worse than other places in the country.
it does make it xtra hard on the good ones when there are so many stories about police corruption. people just hate the police anymore, and it effects them of course. also, undrestand that they do deal with really bad people on a daily basis, and after a while they can begin to think everyones up to something bad.

WABASH, Ind. (AP) - A state trooper who had stopped to help who he thought was a stranded motorist was shot and killed Thursday by the man, who then reloaded the shotgun and killed himself, state police said.

Master Trooper David Rich was shot in the chest by Joseph M. Vultaggio Jr., 21, of Gaylord, Mich., on U.S. 24 in northern Indiana, state police Sgt. Tony Slocum said.

Slocum said Vultaggio was driving a sport-utility vehicle that his father had reported stolen on Wednesday.

Rich, 41, was an 18-year veteran of the state police. He was married with a 7-year-old daughter and twin 3-year-old sons, Slocum said.

"If that guy needed help, he would have gave him his shoes, his pants," Slocum said. "He would have done anything to help him, just as he's done here on many occasions at the post."

I hope that answered your question Rambill. There really is no more to tell since both men died!

...and that info was from the cops. whats the rest of the story? the truth will be somewhere in between them both. i dont have enough info to make any kind of opinion here. on its face it sounds logical but we really dont know the whole truth yet im sure.

i feel for the family...losing a father and husband must suck.

i've seen...well...too much. i've known some police officers that were absolutely beautiful people, and others that made me sick. i've been on the receiving end of both.

my step-father was a deputy sheriff...a better man would have been hard to find. my mother was a reserve deputy, and a member of the fbi in hostage negotiations.
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i do remember my cousin being arrested, and having the living **** beaten out of him. i filed a complaint against the officer, against the recommendations of other police that were present at the station. i never dreamed of the ramifications...

i was once hauled into the station by this officer, and forced to look at pictures of mutilated bodies. headless, fingerless, disemboweled...pictures that will stay with me for the rest of my life. he had on his marker-board a list of my friends and our so-called roles in the "meth cult" that he claimed was responsible for the murders. my name was listed as a "meth witch", and my husband was a dealer.

said officer was later arrested by the fbi and taken away for three months...for this very crime. he was released, so i suppose that they didn't have enough to convict...

yup. they operate without any recourse against them for the most part, and that is a recipe for abuse.

The majority of the police which I personally know (not many, but enough) are -really good people-. They are doing their job to the best of their ability, and I constantly see/hear people saying awful unjustified things about police, in circumstances where those people saying those things clearly don't understand where the police are coming from, what they -need- to do for their own protection, and sometimes things they are -required- to do as a matter of policy in certain situations.

Having said that, CORRUPTION EXISTS, and when it happens in the police force, i find it one of the most disgusting things. Its not so simple as filing a lawsuit to protect your rights. Experienced, corrupt officers know just which kinds of lies to tell, just how to twist things.

Just last year, in Texas, I was conned by a criminal who was aided by some buddies in the police force. They were very careful about what they said, and how involved they got, but they definitely, deliberately facilitated his con.

A friend of mine was put in jail on false drug charges, which were dropped the next morning, because the cop wanted to show his 'authority'. My friend did try to file a lawsuit, but several lawyers said "Well, thats what they can do. They don't need proof, theres not much of a procedure, they can just -say- you appear to be on drugs and take you in for the night."

I have had repeated false citations from an officer who refuses to show in court and be exposed in his lies - but even though the charges keep getting dropped, this still costs me money and time. Each time I document it as well as I can, and may eventually file a lawsuit, but I can't afford legal counsel.

The last time I was harassed by bouncers and would not back down, the cops who showed up tried to convince me (deliberately lying!) that -I- was the one breaking the law, they threatened me with falsified charges, they suggested I might find myself a victim of violence if I didn't let the matter drop, and tried to deny me information about how the incident was being reported. Fortunately, my friends happened by and had digital cameras, but the matter never went to court.

I wrote 3 carefully crafted letters to 3 Captains in different parts of the police force, and the matter was resolved to my satisfaction within a week. But I wonder - what happens to people who don't know their legal rights? To people who cannot write such letters? What happens to people who are (understandably) afraid to get a roughed up for doing what is right?

They keep their mouth shut, and **** like this continues.

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To my mind, this whole conversation about police corruption has nothing to do with what the officer who was shot - we have no reason to believe that officer was corrupt, and if he was he would not deserve to be murdered!!! That was probably a vicious, senseless act of violence against an victim chosen for his uniform.

you're absolutely right. he may have pulled over...and the guy could have been out of his mind. he might have not even realized it WAS an officer...

it's horrible, it's sad...and even worse, it's a fact of life. being a cop isn't exactly a safe occupation.

Yes, Lulu, thats possible too. We don't really know anything about the situation.


Rambill said: "they operate without any recourse against them for the most part, and that is a recipe for abuse."

And the smart corrupt ones know how to thwart the limited recourses we do have. They know what they can get away with, in different situations.

writing letters just made my situation worse. here, the entire court system is dirty, including the local FBI, WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO investigate such matters.

Isn't that sad, he stopped to help a stranded motorist and look how everyone reacts?
May prayers are with his family..may God look after all the Police officers that put their lives in danger to protect us. This includes my little brother!!

yah its sad if that is what really happened.

there was a case here a few years bach where the police shot thier own man and blamed it on the civilian. they were called to his house by a neighbor who reported him mowing his lawn with a pistol on him. that seems like unusual mowing practice to me but its not illegal. the first cop was an older gentleman who saw that nothing was wrong and left. The neighbor called again and this time a younger officer came, and escalated the whole situation to the point that there was over 100 police aroud this guys house demanding that he surrender his weapon, which he would not do, as he was not doing anything wrong. finally he went into his house, and when a female officer sweet talked him into comming out, he was shot in the stomach. he retreated into the house, and an officer followed him in, then came back out. when he cameout the door he was almost cut in half by the other officers. there are so many things about this case that are wrong, including the guy who went to prison for murder, which he did not and could not have committed. The autopsy showed 28 .223 rounds in the officer, and the civillian had a ,45 auto, a pistol. hmmm also the cops made a huge deal about naming the courthouse the robert finch law enforcement center. when the jury was in trial, they paraded them all under the big sign . after the trial, they took the sign down. press reports ststed that he had plastic explosives in his basement and an illegal arsenal, which was never mentioned in the trial.... because it just wasent true. it took the police 3 days to convince the jury to convict even though they knew he was innocent. i know all this because i followed the case on the scanner the day it happened, and went to the entire trial.
my point here is that you never know the truth of the situation expecially if you go by the police version.
The police at the trial didnt even have the same story and none of thier stories made any sense. it was a case of badly trained over zealos officers killing thier own man and blaming an innocent civillian. if you listened to the news reports, however it was an entirely different story which is expecially strange as it was the news footage that showed the whole deal at the trial. there were 3 cameras running at the time recording the whole mess, the three local television channels.

some cops aren't against breaking the law, just other people.

a couple years ago a amn in detroit was shot in his front yard and the cops swore up and down he had a gun but he was deaf and was standing on his porch with a rake. too bad they don't go after criminal cops with the same eagerness that they go after everyone else.

yah and thers my point again... how can i believe anything that they say? my personal saga is far too depressing for me to go into but it was a big mess thanks to the michigan police state, a judge, the county persecutor and a school counsler. if they think you cant fight back(have money) they will frame you for sport. i can guarantee that there are lots of people in prison today who are innocent because they couldent afford a big gun attorney like i was able to do. (54,000 in my case)Oh and i was found Innocent,as opposed to not guilty, after being splattered al over the news for 7 months.

Well i'm sure the widow and the kids would be real comforted by the"it must of been his fault"attitude on this panel.My prayers are for them and the killers family.

im not saying its his fault. im saying we dont know the facts.

I have nothing but respect for the honest police who -put their lives on the line- to help keep us a bit less un-civilized. The corrupt cops make the job of the honest cops that much harder.

In this case, I see no reason to suspect foul play on the part of the officer. In my experience, minimally honest cops far outnumber criminally-minded cops.

my expierence is quite the opposite. i can only hope that this is not the case in other areas of the country, but the cops are the worst criminals of all here. theres even a saying for it...
come on vacation.... leave on probation.

I'm sorry rambill if i misunderstood you.