Quote:
Originally Posted by Sedan_Clan
Not at all bro! Let me explain this “Deputy Gang” nonsense to you.
Every station on the department has a stylized logo - so to speak - and it was/is just a way to differentiate from each other and build morale. Industry’s logo is a downward facing arrowhead [which means “peace”] with a “14” in the center because Industry is station number fourteen in the county. I believe we have a total of 29 stations. It’s similar to the sub-cliques in the military or fire department; think of it as “teams” competing against each other. I mean that literally and figuratively. The purpose of these station monikers is simply that: team/morale building. The idea that it ultimately means it’s a gang is so ridiculous. We are our own support system; anybody working or who has worked in law enforcement will agree with that. We have to find some way to function and keep putting on the damn uniform day in & day out in a largely thankless career field. Sometimes knuckleheads do stupid stuff and it garners media attention, but the intention is not for the station identities to be some gang related criminal enterprise. We compete for stats (…e.g…who gets more gun arrests, drug arrests, etc., etc.) and it’s more of an internal thing. Stations have A LOT of pride in their policing of their respective areas and this gang thing is just another way to demonize the department. Nobody calls the military guys who get the same tattoos as a symbol of brotherhood a “gang”, but when we do it the action is labeled as such.
LAPD has a similar culture where the different patrol areas/stations differentiate themselves and it’s largely a morale thing. We find ways to try and make the job “fun” despite the state, the anti-LEO sentiment, etc. taking the wind out of our sails. Every year the state passes more pro-criminal legislation and/or reduces penalties for crimes. We’re at a junction in time where it’s almost pointless to be proactive at all.
|
I suspect this is universal. I worked in a number of stations/divisions/units. It's about esprit d' corp. 12 Division was the Hotel California, 51 Division had a number of names Fort Apache, Regent Park, 52 Division was Hollywood (we had the Entertainment District which got 50-75K people come in every Friday-Sunday night). 14 Division was the Flagship. It was competitive but also about team building, pride in the job and getting sticking together when it seemed that everyone was against us.