Being Unemployed Isn’t Sexy

“What do you do for work?”

“I’m a police officer”.

“What agency are you with?”

“None at the moment.”

Sounds attractive, doesn’t it?  Not really.

It’s actually quite embarrassing and humiliating, but I know I am not alone.  I know many of us don’t have jobs right now.  That is just wrong and I am very sorry for all of you who are struggling right now.

I have applied with police departments since the shooting at new life church, but they won’t even background me.  I cannot tell you how this makes me feel.  I don’t know why they won’t even give me a chance, but I do know I have a lot to offer them.  The fact that my own kind won’t let me back in to the career I love with a passion absolutely devastates me-and it’s wrong of them.  What more must I do to prove that I am a good cop?  Many of my police officer friends have told me that a high-profile incident like mine is a career-ender.  Why?

Why does someone like Elliott Spitzer, who paid high dollar for prostitutes, get a fantastic job with CNN when others of us who have broken no laws get no job offers?

After the news of the shooting came out, some reporter from the Gazette quickly dug up some very false dirt on me from my 5 years working for the Minneapolis Police Department.  Minneapolis fired me after I allegedly called a bus driver an asshole after he deliberately blocked me in in my squad car-while I was on a call.  I did not call him an asshole to his face as alleged, but rather, I muttered it to myself after I had spoken with him.  This whole incident was captured on videotape, proving my innocence, yet they still fired me.

The only thing the reporters wrote in the paper was that I “lied during an investigation”.  No, I did not lie.  I am not a liar.  I am not a perfect person, but I do have  integrity.

I get the message; don’t apply to anymore police departments because they are simply not interested in me.  But I have no idea what else I can do for a living.  I have invested so much in my beloved career.  I even earned my degree in college in criminal justice with a minor in psychology.  I have also worked as a parole officer and a criminal investigator, both for the State of Colorado.  I wrote a book.  I’m a nice person.  Geesh….

The gunman in my incident gave me no choice but to take his life.  I wish no people had to die that day, but they did.

Honestly, sometimes it feels as if my life was also taken that day.  And I have a right to feel what I feel.