LOLOLOL!! A Christmas bonus?!?! For a cop? Uh, no. I am fortunate not have had my pay CUT this year. Our city can build a new library (when we had a perfectly good old one) and host four expensive "festivals" a year, but we have not had raises or increased benefits in three years for any of us.

All that is ok, but *nothing* makes me madder than to have some person that I have pulled over for speeding or whatever use the tired old argument, "yeah, you know, my taxes pay your salary." AGH! Do they think I DON'T pay taxes?

It's not being underpaid/overworked....we chose this profession and the hours involved and knew the pay going in. It is being whacked over the head with statements like this time and time again. I actually had some guy who got out of his car the other day to yell at me. I was directing traffic in icy slippery conditions and had essentially closed the road while we pulled a car out of the ditch...it had slid in. I had been out there, wet and cold, for over an hour, my feet and hands were frozen, my lips were blue, and there was no end in sight. This doofus stomped down the hill I had trudged up and down to tell me he was missing the GAME. God give me patience. I told him to toddle back to his warm vehicle and turn the radio on because he would be there awhile. He told me that I should be flipping burgers somewhere for all the thought I had put in to how I was conducting the roadway. I lost my patience and told him if he didn't get back to his vehicle in the next 30 seconds, I was going to arrest him on a parking violation (yes, I can do this), obstructing the roadway, and impeding an investigation. This made him no end of unhappy, I will tell you. He tried to turn around on the two lane road, slid into the ditch and had to wait there...for me. He was waiting awhile. A long, long while.

So no raise. But sometimes fate (God, kharma) makes for moments that are worth more than money.