Perception of MP’s by other Military Members?

[CorporalMajor]

I'm a junior NCO with only four years in.

The perception among my peers is that MPs are only there to ruin their fun, make things more difficult on their already "tough" lives  : by enforcing speeding laws, noise laws (i.e. DOING THEIR JOB) and otherwise.  Once they grow up some,  they will realize that rules put in place & enforced for a reason.  I haven't heard of someone getting injured in a speeding incident on base, and I appreciate my peace and quiet, so good job MPs. 

On a personal level.  I've met some of them in the shacks while doing courses in Borden.  Some of the junior ones do have Chipontheirshoulderitis, as well as Douchebagitis, but even they get humbled eventually, and the rest of them are still decent folks.  You should also realize there are unlikeable people in any trade. 

I've seen civi cops be slack and idle.  I haven't seen MPs be anything BUT professional.  I've been pulled over, and been told to stop the loud music while on course, but I know they got a job to do and they generally do it fine.  So I decide to follow lawful authority, which itself is part of what you agree to when you swear-in.

Best of luck in the CF.  Keep our people safe. 

 

[Klinkaroo]

With what CorporalMajor was saying, I also see that alot from peers, these peers tend to be the ones in the Shacks that like to have blasting music until 2 in the morning and the MPs shut them down. What alot of these people don't get is there are other people in the building who like there peace and quiet. The MPs don't stop you from doing anything legal. If they are stopping you from doing something is because someone somewhere said that you can't do it. Stop being a whinny ***** and grow up, if you are going to party, party downtown then come home quietly and go to bed.

Having also shared barracks and spoken with a few of the junior MPs, I have seen some that get a little "I'm a Police Officer, I Can Tell You What To Do" attitude which hopefully I think get's quickly rectified. What they have to understand, if it's not a police matter you are not my boss or in my chain command.

I have always received respect from the MPs that have stopped me for minor things (haven't we all done a rolling stop...) and have been let off with a warning. Thing to understand here, if you respect him, he will respect you. I think being a Police Officer, especially a Military Police is a tough job, with a special note to the guys dealing with detainees and the such in Afghanistan. Good Job.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Lets not confuse Military Police with Military Police Officers. 

MPs are not Officers. 

 

[CorporalMajor]

With what CorporalMajor was saying, I also see that alot from peers, these peers tend to be the ones in the Shacks that like to have blasting music until 2 in the morning and the MPs shut them down. What alot of these people don't get is there are other people in the building who like there peace and quiet.

UYeah  it's also us CFSAL students who are drinking outside  :nod:  also a no-no.

Usually it's people crying about being pulled over.  Bunch of god damn whiners.  :crybaby:

I like to party like anyone else, but people forget there are folks who do shiftwork or trying to sleep.  You want your kegger, do it on your own property, the base does not belong to you. 

 

[Trueblue]

I realize I am bringing up a dead thread here but I thought I'd touch on something really quick in here I would like to see others opinions on.

In my very short time in the CF I have never had a run-in with MP's that has ended badly for me, but that being said I have had to deal with them FAR to often.

I have been at Borden now for about 2 years and I've seen and noticed quite a few things.

In this thread I've seen quite a bit of "MP's can be good guys, they let people off quite often etc.", one thing I've seen here is for privates or student cpls, this never happens. I have seen guys get thrown in the drunk tank for the night for simply walking home from the Jr. Ranks drunk and stumbling a bit, guys getting written up for speed tickets for doing 10 over etc.

My father has been in the military 33 years and I have lived on bases for most of that, and I have seen older members get away with much worse... seemingly because of their age.

In Borden the MP's regularly do checkpoints on weekends at night to check for drunk drivers, but they will ALWAYS be outside the students shacks, god forbid they catch a major or a chief driving after having a few too many (which now a days is basically nothing).

So that being said, I think the reason you hear a lot of young guys complaining about MP's is that I have seen they are quite a bit harder on the young privates... who knows maybe it's easier for a 23 year old MP to ticket a guy just starting off in his career than it is for him to ticket someone who's old enough to be his dad?

Just my 2 cents.

 

[George Wallace]

In Borden the MP's regularly do checkpoints on weekends at night to check for drunk drivers, but they will ALWAYS be outside the students shacks, god forbid they catch a major or a chief driving after having a few too many (which now a days is basically nothing).

Hate to say it, but this is wrong and has been brought up before in the CF.  It is a Human Rights Complaint of sorts.  The same thing used to happen in CFE where the Snr NCOs and WOs Mess was in a compound outside of the Airfield, and the Officers Mess was on the other side of the city.  The MPs would only do RIDE programs at the Jnr NCO Mess.  Some "Legal Beagle" caught up on this and the MPs were given a very serious slap on the wrists.  If this is what the MP School is teaching their students, to ignore all the Messes except the JRs and the JR Shacks, then they are WRONG.   

 

[mover1]

Borden...harumph...listen you got a lot of bored people on pat platoon or whatever making a bad name for everyone on that base. Stop crying about the MP's giving you a hard time.

As for MP's. I don't trust any of them. I might be paranoid but it seems like they are always trying to cop you when you have a conversation with them. Always trying to get an angle on some wrong doing.
But...(which meas disregard everything I said until now.) I have met a few of them that are really bang on. A couple of them I would even go so far as calling friends.

But like like that lot in PAT platoon causing trouble. It only take one or two to make a bad name for everyone.

 

[Nauticus]

MPs, in my experience, have been nothing short of excellent at their jobs. Considering the environment of their profession, and the profession they work, I think they go beyond just doing a fine job.

 

[Kat Stevens]

We had MPs in Chilliwack in the early 80s whose sole reason for living was to ruin the careers of young Sappers on TQ3 & 5A courses.  I learned not to trust them very early on, and my opinion did not improve greatly over the years.

 

[chrisf]

While I've met and dealt with a few good military police men and women, I have to say, overall, I have had several very negative experience with meatheads and their arrogance souring the lot of them for me...

One particular incident in Gagetown springs to mind... we had a student who'd been knocked unconcious after a fall... I was stabilizing her head/shoulders, while emergency services personnel were preparing a spine board... a meathead who appeared on the scene literally shoved me out of the way, and began to attempt to take a statement from the injured party (I did mention that said injured party was unconcious and I was in the middle of stabilizing her head/shoulders?)

I'll be the first to admit, that it's a minority ruining the image of the majority... but one of the major issues that I've always had is that there's very little recourse when absurd situations such as the above happen...

 

[George Wallace]

Makes you wonder what course we can take to get rid of these "Meatheads" who are nothing more than buffoons who make a mockery of any professionalism that they are supposed to have?  Who outside the MP Trade has the power to give their superiors a proper evaluation of their work........Towards PDR, PER, Recorded Warning, C&P, and Release as an Administrative Burden?  These cowboys are the buffoons giving the MPs a bad name.

 

[ballz]

I always thought the whole anti-MP thing was just the same kind of punks that are all "cops are pigs dude" in the civie world. I was pretty confident that MPs were probably well-trained and professional just like our other trades.

However, I've had a few small incidents now in a relatively short time in the CF (stayed on a base now for a grand total 25 weeks) where I just felt like we were being harassed by bored MPs. One of which I was actually quite scared I was going to get thrown in jail over for a piece of heavy equipment that I knew damn well I hadn't commandeered 5 minutes prior to the MPs showing up.

Since the couple incidents I have started to wonder if they were just bored...

 

[xo31@711ret]

About 1991, a couple of years after I had LOTPed I was posted to Chatham. Myself & a couple of other buddies were heading to the winter carnival on a saturday afternoon. We were on the stairway in the guy's single quarters heading down laughing & giving each other a nudge & the elbow.  I stumbled & hit the concrete wall (didn't fall or anything). Just basically stumbled against the wall. One of the young pte MP's, a casual friend, was coming into the shacks. We all said hey, & where was he coming from, etc.
Monday morning I was doing sick parade & the sgt, the hospital warrent officier calls me into his office saying the MP's want to see me right this instant. I ask why, the sarg doesn't know. I head over thinking WTF?? Has there been a death in the family?? etc. I meet my other two buddies on the way over; wer'e trying to figure what the hell is going on. We get there & are brought in back one by one. There's two cpl MP's questioning me playing 'good cop, bad cop'; I sh*t you not. I finally ask (after I piece together they yapping about some barrack damages). They finally tell me the time, date, what, where etc & they have a 'witness' about a humongous crack in the starwell wall. After all is said & down I am told to sign a piece of paper. I said no; I'm basically threatened to sign. I say & released. After work my buddies & I get together. The same crap happened to all of us. We go back to our shack to look at the damage. We look & look. All we can find is an old hairline crack about 25 feet up by the top of the building in a +50 year old shack!! Un-freakin'-believable....needless to say our old 'friend' the meat-head is no longer 'our friend'.  A Couple mondays later, I'm back at the MP's by myself because I'm accused of more damages. Thank God I have my leave-pass, witnesses, and bus ticket stubs to & from Moncton for that long weekend at my girlfriends place who had gotten posted to Moncton a few months previously...so, can't say my self I havemuch respect for young meat heads...

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Enough of this.

Milnet.ca Staff