Life before you became a cop?

[Joel876]

whatw as your life like before you became a cop? did you partied alot ? had alot of girl friends ?:p lol...or was it just schooling and working?

[furetto7]

For several years before I was sworn in I was a lot more concerned about not getting killed than I was about partying or chasing girls.

[CityOfChicago]

I started playing in bands in bars and clubs when I was 15. Played all the way through college. Punk rock mostly, stuff like the Misfits and Black Flag. I also was in an industrial mand for a while - a conglomerate of friends from other bands that wanted to do something different as a group for fun. Stuff like Ministry, Front 242, and Kevorkian Death Cycle. I probably drank much less than you would expect for living that lifestyle, but late nights and parties, bars and women, women, women were the norm. Somehow I managed to finish school AND grad school. After grad school I worked in management for a couple different companies, including medically based fitness and hotel management. I still played, but I had to get a haircut. My resume was strong, though, with education and experience, when I got hired. Never had any arrests on my record.

[pac201]

I don't remember; I've been a cop 9 years longer than I haven't...:eek:

[Safety Steve]

State job 7 to 4. Did football and basketball officiating. I miss being on the field on Friday nights.:(. Be Safe.

[retdetsgt]

I partied more after I became a cop than I did before for the most part.

Went to college for a year on a couple of scholarships, but really wasn't interested in school at that point so I went in the Army in July 1964, a month before the Gulf of Tonkin incident....:rolleyes: Ended up doing 6 years instead of four. Because of the jobs I had in the Army, partying wasn't a good idea and they more or less helped me keep my nose clean. I admit that when I did get a chance to party, I did a superb job of it, but it wasn't often I got the chance.

Went back to school while I was a cop and completed my bachelors and got a graduate degree. Pretty hard to do much other than work, go to school, study, go to court and sleep when possible...... That took nearly 6 years to do.

Cops are pretty much a slice of society. Some were hell raisers, most weren't. But even the hell raisers didn't cross the line.

[CityOfChicago]

"School sucks....I know - I'll go in the Army! What could happen?"

Gulf of Tonkin......Domino Theory.....Ia Drang.....

[retdetsgt]

"School sucks....I know - I'll go in the Army! What could happen?"

Gulf of Tonkin......Domino Theory.....Ia Drang.....

Pretty much it...... But Vietnam went on so long I'd have been drafted anyway at some point. Different world back then.

[CityOfChicago]

Yeah but opinion of the military was still pretty good when you went in, yeah? Everyone's dad was a vet of WWII or had an uncle who was in Korea. My old man went in the Marines in '66, opinion was still pretty solid then.

[retdetsgt]

Yeah but opinion of the military was still pretty good when you went in, yeah? Everyone's dad was a vet of WWII or had an uncle who was in Korea. My old man went in the Marines in '66, opinion was still pretty solid then.

I sure didn't get the welcome home the guys get now coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan..... The words "baby killer" were thrown out a lot.:rolleyes: I had to get out of my uniform as soon as I could. Instead of yellow ribbons, it was bottles of urine....

At the time I signed up, I never thought about Vietnam escalating. I went in because they promised to teach me electronics, which was the rage back then. It was drummed into our heads as kids that if we knew electronics, we'd be set for life.... Hell, I could be a TV repairman!!!!

Got in, scored pretty well on my tests so they offered me OCS. My big mistake was taking it because I thought I could be a career officer. I was too naive and dumb to realize they only wanted more 2nd Lts to be cannon fodder in the infantry. A significant number of my classmates didn't survive, I was lucky.

When our time was up, people like me were told that they didn't need us as captains so either get out or go back to being enlisted. If I hadn't been greedy, I could have probably done my initial three year enlistment stateside or in Europe and been done with it.

The GI Bill was better then though. I got paid as much going to college than I got paid while I was serving.... And a lot more than when I was enlisted.

I left college probably because I didn't come from an environment where education was particularly highly regarded, at least after high school. I'm the only one in my generation to attend college, much less graduate with a masters.