What Our Nation Needs Today

For an awful long time, the United States of America has had the profession of law enforcement as part of our day to day life. Even in the early colonies before there WAS a United States of America, there was a Chire Reeve: the man designated as responsible for safety and security (and common law obedience) in the “chire.” The modern day word SHERIFF has grown from that old term, Chire Reeve. After more than four hundred years of the existence of this profession in America, it boggles the mind to think that we have a growing number of citizens who demonstrate against law enforcement and specifically target law enforcement professionals simply for their mere being. Why is that?

Well, some would give the canned response that this is what we get when police officers over-reach their authority and exercise power they don’t legally have. As a man who feels we’ve got a government with an overactive legislative branch, seemingly driven to create new (and largely useless) laws to justify their paycheck, I can agree that the legal system can seem to be out of control. However, an out of control legal system that is creating unnecessary laws IS NOT the same as a police officer or police profession that is enforcing day to day laws necessary to keep the public safe. What do I mean?

Think about it for a minute. The police officer or deputy sheriff out patrolling and answering calls for service isn’t the person enforcing ridiculous government (especially federal) laws. S/He’s not writing infractions for unlicensed water reservoirs (rain barrels) or hunting deer a day out of season or with the wrong weapon. Yes, there are game wardens who may do that (the hunting violation) and some EPA person who might cite you for having unlicensed rain barrels (the ultimate in stupidity in my opinion), but what does either on have to do with the average beat cop? NOTHING.

So, for those who use an overgrown, power hungry government as their excuse to protest against the police: take a deep breath, look in the mirror, recognize that WHAT you want to protest against doesn’t jive with WHO you are protesting against and give it a rest. Go hold a sign in front of the Capital Building in Washington DC and let your elected representatives know you think they’ve grown too big for their britches.

If your answer to why you are protesting against law enforcement is you feel that they unnecessarily target minorities, let me ask you something: What are the demographics of your community? Now one of the times I got in big trouble as a police officer was when I made the statement that any community’s crime rate is directly related to its demographics. Several citizens who heard me make the statement complained because they felt it was a racist statement. I was a white cop who made that statement in a community that was over 97% black (not Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian or other). The people who heard me make the statement assumed that I meant all black communities had high crime rates. When they heard “demographics” the ONLY demographic they thought was RACE. Their ignorance is not my fault but it limited how they could perceive my statement and, as a result, they seemingly all filed complaints against me for making a racist statement. I had to explain to the Chief and Mayor that I never said a community’s crime rate depended on its racial makeup. Then I had to explain to them all of the various factors measured in “demographics,” and why my statement was both true and not racist. Ultimately I was vindicated but holy cow it was a pain in the butt.

I share all that so you can realize two things: first, there are some truly imbalanced communities when you look at the demographics of the residents versus the demographics of the government employees, including public safety; second, no matter what the demographics balance might be, being offended is a function of the individual’s perception and understanding, not the statements or actions of the police officer involved.

Now before I get accused of blindly backing every police officer and assuming every citizen is always wrong, let me reassure you of the opposite: While I DO give every officer the benefit of the doubt, I FIRMLY believe that we are all capable of making mistakes; we are, after all, human and therefore imperfect. That said, I don’t believe that we should be punished for making honest, understandable mistakes. The trick to that is layered:

First, what WE view as an understandable and honest mistake might not be viewed the same way by others, most especially if the “others” know nothing about law enforcement and are prejudiced toward the profession anyway.

Second, even our brother and sister officers may not fully understand our decision, action or honest mistake. Let’s be real: If you didn’t see exactly what I saw, hear exactly what I heard, experience exactly what I experienced, and have my exact background, training and knowledge, then it’s impossible for you to perceive anything exactly as I do.

Third, in a society where any profession exists under a microscope of criticism, even the smallest and usually understandable/excusable mistakes are going to be held up as examples of police misconduct. That never helps and every new example/mistake magnifies and perpetuates the “all cops are power hungry and abusive” stereotype.

So what are some of the potential solutions to bring society and the law enforcement professionals serving it back into harmony?

Well, if all citizens would quit committing crimes, then there would be no negative interaction between society and the police. Think that will happen? Me neither.

All police and sheriffs’ departments nationwide could be disbanded and we could let anarchy reign – but there’d be no discord between criminals and cops. I don’t view this as a viable solution either. (and if we did away with all of the state, county, city and town cops all that would be left would be federal forces and we WOULD be getting close to a “police state.”)

We could prohibit the mainstream media from “reporting” on carefully edited and sensationalized events that they leverage to sell more ad space for bigger dollars. As nice of a dream as that might be, it would violate the First Amendment so I’m afraid we’re stuck with what amounts to them MISreporting events in a way carefully planned to maximize their financial benefit.

We could turn to our civil, societal and governmental leaders to use their voice in a responsible, practical and impartial manner to support calm, promote peace and help insure not only the function of justice but the realistic perception of it. How about that? Think we have any hope? I don’t think so either, but that’s truly what we need.

We need a President who steps up, sets race aside, and calls for peaceful protests held in compliance with local laws and permitting regulations; protests that DO NOT include any criminal acts, nor acts of violence, theft, destruction, etc. We need a President who calls for increased police/community communications and who stresses that nothing can be achieved through the criminal acts of rioting and looting. We need a President who publicly and repeatedly condemns any acts of violence committed toward law enforcement professionals and equally condemns those who commit such acts, calling for quick, strict and severe punishment for such violent acts via our legal system.

We need an Attorney General (AG) who stands behind and supports the legal system of a given area, and reminds everyone that all such legal systems are an intricate part of our nation’s legal system as a whole. We need an AG who voices his confidence in our law enforcement professionals instead of voicing platitudes about race and trying to find mistakes, or even implying there have been some, in incidents where the only mistake identified was the criminal act committed and then the violent criminal resisting arrest by trying to murder a police officer.

We need Governors who speak out publicly on their support for peaceful protest AFTER they’ve spoken about the great good our law enforcement professionals do every minute of every hour of every day. We need Governors who condemn acts of civil disobedience, condemn acts of crime, and support the impartial enforcement of the law. We need Governors who make it clear that while they support the protection of every citizen’s civil rights, under no circumstances will committing crime in the name of civil rights be tolerated. Criminals will be arrested.

We need Mayors who actively work with, backup and stand behind their law enforcement professionals. We need Mayors – most especially in the big cities which are under such a spotlight and often used as examples of how law enforcement should be – who voice their pride in the law enforcement professionals providing safety to their city; sacrificing to work rotating shifts, holidays and more, to help insure a peaceful place where citizens can go about their daily business without fear and where tourists can enjoy visiting/viewing a place they’ve only previously read about.

In short, we need leaders who are LEADERS – not politicians paying lip service to whatever and whomever they think will help get them or their party reelected next term. We need Chiefs of Police who stand up for their officers and require such support from the “leaders.” We need to start pushing society steadily back toward respecting law enforcement and highlighting all the good we do, instead of protesting us for doing our jobs and criticizing the LEGAL manner in which we do it.

In the meantime… we need to be careful; stay safe; be professional; be courteous; BUT GO HOME at the end of every shift.

Keep your focus on that in the new year.