Cop told not to wear uniform at daughter's school, gun and uniform concerned people

[The Straight Story]

The officer was shocked when his daughter's school principal said his gun and uniform concerned people

By PoliceOne Staff

MESA, Ariz. — An officer received a call from his daughter’s principal asking that he never again come to campus in his police uniform.

Other parents who had seen Officer Scott Urkov at Entz Elementary School wearing his police uniform and carrying his service weapon apparently felt uncomfortable and spoke with the principal, according to My Fox Phoenix.

Urkov, who was shocked by the request, took to Facebook, saying, “Nothing like your kids school calling and asking if I could not come to pick up my daughter in uniform cause parents were concerned when their kids came home telling them there was a man at school with a gun. Are you freaking kidding me?”

Other parents believed children should feel safer with a cop present.

“Even if my kids saw that, I think they’d feel more protected to see a man in uniform at their school,” said parent Blaine Spencer.

http://www.policeone.com/media-relations/articles/6493331-Cop-told-not-to-wear-uniform-at-daughters-school/

[gopiscrap]

1. can't say I blame them in this gun nut environment

[MicaelS]

13. I can...

These people are a bunch of frightened rabbits.

[gopiscrap]

16. Maybe not lots of people have visceral reaction to just seeing a cop

so many of them are prejudiced, over aggressive, power hungry, steroid fed assholes. I am sure many have had bad encounters with fucking cops that were not at all their fault!

[Decaffeinated]

73. I absolutely blame them...

Idiots and morons...

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

85. What a surprise.

[TransitJohn]

2. Good. The double standard cops hold themselves to is fucked up.

Maybe this will make them think.

[name not needed]

37. Seriously. How dare the police wear uniforms in public.

[delta17]

55. Lots of people treat cops like plumbers or garbagemen.

They don't want to be exposed to them until they really need them. Then, of course, they need to be there ASAP.

[RedCappedBandit]

3. Newsflash: not everyone feels more protected when they see a "man in uniform"

[seabeyond]

4. my kids probably would not have thought much of it either way, and probably knows it is a dad

the dad probably know a lot of the kids. it is not like all the kids dont know the others business. hm... silly

[Jefferson23]

5. The respones to the OP are interesting, this one caught my eye.

Another example of liberalism that needs to be removed from existence. I would demand to know which parent complained. I doubt ANY did, probably just a libtard principal crapping in his panties because he saw a gun. The ignorance is his alone, no need to make others sit through a class for his education.

Unreal, good luck Mesa, Arizona.

[Niceguy1]

6. that's crszy

I would make it a point to do exactly that.

[winter is coming]

7. He's not supposed to come to school in his work clothes?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

30. Denny's waitresses too.

Might make people think they're going to get crappy service.*




* -- apologies to Denny's waitresses. I know you ladies work hard for little reward; but the joke was there.

[Politicalboi]

8. As anti-gun as I am

I find nothing wrong with a cop in uniform at a school. He's a fucking cop, not some nut showing the rest of the parents that they have a gun.

[Mike Nelson]

9. How sad...

...school children should feel comfortable with police officers.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

32. I doubt it was the kids.

[cali]

72. In what world do you live? too many cops in this country

are completely out of control and a threat to the very people they're sworn to protect. alas.

that said, the school and these parents are being ridiculous.

[JonLP24]

77. Especially Mesa ones

I've rarely had a good experience with them.

[lynne]

10. The final paragraph turns the entire story around -

- "The school district has since called the incident a “teachable moment” and invited the officer to come to the school to talk about what police do for the community, according to the report."

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. Come to school in his street clothes and talk about what police do for the community?

Yeah... This whole thing bothers me. Teaching kids to fear police isn't in their best interest if you ask me.

[gollygee]

19. Are they teaching kids to fear the police? Or do kids already fear the police

and they're trying to figure out how to deal with that.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

34. Or maybe

the person who started this mess is just trying to cover their tracks without admitting they overreacted.

[1000words]

33. Too many are already taught to fear them by the actions of the police.

Cause/effect

(Personally, the militarization of this country's law enforcement agencies scares the shit out of me.)

[lynne]

69. I didn't read it that he was coming in street clothes -

- as he's coming to teach them what police do for the community, I took it that he'd be in uniform.

[bigwillq]

11. I agree with Mr. Urkov in this instance (nt)

[Tien1985]

12. I sympathize with them all

The police aren't everyone's friend. On the other hand, those are his work clothes. Sucky situation.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

35. What sucky situation?

It's very easy to say, "I once saw a video of four white cops clubbing a minority." Okay, but was it THIS cop? Whatever happened to judging people based on their own personal actions rather than the prejudice of group condemnation?

[Tien1985]

49. How about

"I once saw my father being clubbed by four white police men." Police are not always good people, and they aren't all bad either.

People may have experience outside of yours, "watching a video". Same with it just being "a minority". I don't walk around thinking, "oh there goes all the normal folks and here I am the minority."

[Nuclear Unicorn]

51. And we know this to be the case or it is so frequent we can safely assume?

[Tien1985]

54. So your saying you

Know it's the case that these kids just saw a video, or is that just a dismissive assumption of other people's lived experience?

If you just want to sit around and argue, go somewhere else. I feel for the police dad, I'd give him the same benefit of the doubt as most strangers that he's a decent guy. I also understand that children may be afraid of people in uniform and with a gun depending on what they have lived or come to believe from their experiences.

We can agree to disagree or you can keep being obnoxious.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

57. I'm curious to know how you came to the assumption the child of the complaining parent

had reason to be reflexively frightened of police officers. Certainly unjust police shootings occur but why acy as of they happen with such frequency that we can safely assume the complainants in this story had cause to complain on those grounds? I'm not arguing to argue, I'm arguing because it seems a wholly biased assumption without foundation, i.e. prejudice.

[Tien1985]

61. I think it's mostly because

It's a lot more than shootings. It can be intimidation, beatings, unjust strip searches or roadside cavity sexual assault. I do know a good number of people who have been treated poorly by police in my own life. Generally I feel it's more about a particular force rather than all cops everywhere. A force from one place or another may be rotten, and that can hurt many people, even if most police are good people (or as good as the next person, anyway).

I honestly think it's just a matter of lived experience.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

62. How do you leap from those things to this particular complainant?

[Tien1985]

65. Leap from some police

Acting wrongly to kids being afraid of them when they see them? Easily, kids have a very limited range of experience, and are quick to make links between things whether they are accurate or not. Aka, a kid gets bitten by a dog, ends up fearing all dogs for the rest of their life. Some people will overcome it and move on, some wont. And some will end up bitten over and over again and never experience a reasonable and loving dog.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

67. So, in other words, as far as this story is concerned, it's just assumptions. n/t

[Tien1985]

71. As far as this

Story is concerned, I dot think I'm making any more assumptions than you are.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

74. That would imply there are even odds for what you describe. I call that baseless nonsense.

[Tien1985]

75. Okay then

There is no possible way that we can find common ground on this issue.

So the only option is to agree to disagree and leave it there.

You can keep assuming whatever you want about me. To continue on at this point is not only pointless, but also rude.

[MicaelS]

14. Disgusting.

People is this country are turning into a bunch of frightened lemmings. They'd be the first ones to call 911 when they needed "help".

[gollygee]

17. The story comes originally from a story from My Fox Mesa

As in Mesa Arizona. He was a SWAT officer so I don't know just what his uniform looks like. The fact is that not all people in this country have the same experience with the police. The police are friendly and make you feel secure if you're white, but there could be kids in that community who have seen their parents questioned by the police and were afraid, particularly when you consider anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona. Between that and the look of a SWAT uniform, I can imagine some kids being scared. We aren't concerned about why some kids are afraid of the police. No, we're worried about the poor persecuted police officer who can't bring his gun into the school.

[Jenoch]

22. It's highly unlikely that the cop was wearing any of his SWAT gear when

picking up his kids from school. The SWAT teams do not regularly wear all of that gear and equipment. They only wear it for training and for incidents that require the SWAT team to respond. After either the training or the incident, they put the gear away.

I understand that some people have fear of police officers, but that is no reason to teach the kids of an elementary school to be afraid of cops. I don't actually think it was the children who had the fear, it was a parent who called the principal with their fears.

[gollygee]

24. A parent who called the principal

because their child was afraid.

[Jenoch]

27. From where did you get that information?

[gollygee]

29. Where did you get your information?

I don't assume everyone is out to get police officers. My assumption is based on my experience with my kids and how I get information about what happened in school.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

36. You explicitly said --

A parent who called the principal because their child was afraid.

And when questioned for a source for this assertion you immediately turned it on the questioner. Why? And, to the original questioner's point, how did you come to this conclusion?

[Jenoch]

56. I have two brothers who are cops and

one of them is on his department's SWAT Team. That is hard evidence about policy and procedures and not emotion. Youwere speaking in possibilities about the uniform and then you wrote something as a fact when, apparently it is not.

[kiva]

46. The article cited by the OP says

"Other parents who had seen Officer Scott Urkov at Entz Elementary School wearing his police uniform and carrying his service weapon apparently felt uncomfortable and spoke with the principal." I haven't heard more about this - do you have another article that says this happened because a child was afraid. I really does sound like a parent thing.

[Gravitycollapse]

18. Seeing a cop on campus generally makes me feel anxious. So, I understand.

The more officers I see, the less safe I feel. Precisely because cops only tend to show up when something bad is happening.

[JI7]

20. because they are scared of the cop or because they will think a cop being there means something

bad is happeing (sandy hook) and they don't want kids to feel that ?

[The Straight Story]

25. From a wider perspective

I suppose that would depend on each person and their personal experience.

Don't think I remember a time in the US where so many we so afraid of so many things. Terrorism, bombings, each other, guns, government, muslims, christians, jews, cops, lotion on planes, cupcakes in class brought in by a parent, and the list goes on and on.

[JI7]

31. i mention sandy hook because it's the thing which has made young kids afraid

bad things happen before, and older people are able to understand these things.

but young minds are different. and kids should not have to feel scared of someone coming into their classroom to shoot them.

[aikoaiko]

21. Another success story from the anti-gun nuts.

It is what it is.

[Skip Intro]

23. Insanity. Principle should apologize publicly.

Fucking ridiculous.

[Jenoch]

26. I heard story about a similar situation in Gilbert, which is a few miles

straight south of this elementary school. There was a customer at a restaurant who asked the restaurant manager to ask the cop who was there eating, if he would remove his gun and put in the squad car because the sight of it made her feel uncomfortable.

[Eleanors38]

70. My...my Feelings. Yes, my Feelings. I feel for my Feelings & I feel them feeling around.

[Seeking Serenity]

28. He's a cop! He works with and around guns! He should have his kids taken away!!

Oh, noez!!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

39. More specifically: "assault rifles" with 30-round "clips" that have no use except for mass killing

Would you want YOUR child around such people?

[Seeking Serenity]

53. My son's baseball coach is a policeman.

So, yeah, I'm good with it.

[ZombieHorde]

38. Cops are scary people.

We see video after video of police acting violent for no good reason, and none of the other cops at the scene seem to do anything about it.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

40. And if you watch the right news stations you'll see story after story of

minorities acting violent for no good reason. Prejudice is prejudice. We should judge each individual as that -- an individual.

[ZombieHorde]

43. Cops are racists too.

Sociologists have demonstrated this over and over again.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

44. All cops? Has this particular one been "tested"?

[ZombieHorde]

45. No. There are some exceptions.

Just like Republicans.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

47. "There are some exceptions" but a majority enough to justify "Cops are scary" without qualifier?

Prejudice harms.

[ZombieHorde]

48. "but a majority enough to justify "Cops are scary" without qualifier"

Yes. Cops are scary. Just look at the OWS videos.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

50. The ones with the sectarian anti-government terrorist woshipping masks?

What an odd exhortation.

[ZombieHorde]

52. Yes, the peaceful people in masks were less scary to me than the violent people

in uniform. I think violence is more scary than peace.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

58. People in masks who idolize terrorism should never be trusted.

And they were so peaceful all those liberal mayors in Oakland, etc. had to forcibly eject them.

[ZombieHorde]

63. Just so I am not misunderstanding your position, you're saying

1. OWS folks idolize terrorism
and
2. OWS folks are not peaceful.

Is that correct?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

66. The character V is a terrosist.

He's an anti-government nut case who appoints himself to solely dispense "justice" without due process, democratic foundation, opposing counsel or counter argument. He tortures Evee to brainwash her into believing his unsupported claims. Violence is his sole remedy for the ravings in his mind.

And what was his 1 redeeming quality? He could string a lot of words beginning with the letter V into a semi-but-not-completely-coherent sentence.

Better still, he's based on a white-washed revisionist ideal of a real world sectarian terrorist.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Dumbest. Story. Ever. They might as well have made a movie of The Turner Diaries.

I'd be equally disdainful of nut jobs running around wearing Tim McVeigh masks.

[Seeking Serenity]

68. FTW! (n/t)

[Boom Sound 416]

80. So video is reality

And if we don't see video after video of cops being good cops, then what?

[ZombieHorde]

81. Videos showing a cop doing "bad things" wouldn't mean anything to me.

However, videos of every police officer who shows up to a situation either helping with the violence or turning a blind eye to the violence has to be more than coincidence. The videos of groups of cops are the most telling to me. When this is coupled with sociological reports, some which point out the racism and some which point out how this kind of power corrupts people, it paints a picture we would be foolhardy to ignore, in my opinion.

[Boom Sound 416]

82. I think you just described humanity

[Adam-Bomb]

41. This won the most "ignorant story of the day"

award from me when I heard it earlier.

"OMG! a cop with a GUN!!!!!"

Derp.

[ScreamingMeemie]

42. Insanity.

I am guessing one or more of the parents have an issue with Urkov outside of the school. (Being a parent myself and seeing many outside of school issues being taken to the school office).

I wonder if he's a little league coach.

[Dash87]

59. Does having a cop around really make you safer? Not all of the time. Sometimes the exact opposite.

[LeftyMom]

60. This website needs more clueless white people.

Why on earth would kids in a poorer, browner part of Maricopa goddamn County possibly find the presence of an armed police officer distracting?!?!?? Truly, it is a mystery! :eyeroll:

[1000words]

64. The cop's reaction is priceless, too.

Shocked ... Just can't figure out why folks might feel that way.

[gollygee]

84. +1

[JonLP24]

76. Kind of funny

since most Junior Highs and High Schools in Mesa have on-campus police. However, those are primarily for the students to bust them with drugs or something. Not a big concern at elementary schools.

[Boom Sound 416]

78. So what if he refuses?

What are the right of the school?

What are the consequences if the cop refuses?

Many schools have cops on campus after school. I suppose this one doesn't.

[alarimer]

79. That's idiotic.

He's a freaking cop. Not (presumably) some whiny paranoid freak who LIKES to open carry because it intimidates people.

Yes, cops can and frequently do act like trigger-happy morons, but not typically when they are picking up their kids from school.

These people need to take a chill pill.

[Taitertots]

83. Obvious blow back from police abusing people

"Should feel safer"....
But anyone with an internet connection can watch thousands of videos of the Police abusing people with impunity