Saturday, June 13, 2020

Open letter to the police

The police have no one to blame but themselves for the situation that they find themselves in right now. For years, instead of calling out the bad cops in their midst, they actively shielded and protected them. This created a real PR problem for the cops.

I generally support the police, but there are times when that support gets tested. I have had a few interactions with police officers in my life, not counting ones directly related to my job as a paramedic. I am a law abiding citizen, and the majority of those interactions were not positive ones.

In 2005, I had someone steal a check for over $200 from my mailbox, forge my name and deposit that check into his bank account. The number of the account that the check was deposited in to was printed on the back of the check, right below my forged signature, and right above the signature of the account holder. I went to the station to report the crime. I had a copy of the check. All the cop had to do was go to the bank, get the name of the account owner, and make the arrest. Anyone could have done it, it wasn't a hard crime to solve. The cops told me that they didn't have the manpower to solve a crime for such a small amount of money. On the way home, I passed 6 cops with cars pulled over, writing traffic tickets. So much for lack of manpower.

In 2001, I was pulled over for running a red light. When I informed the cop I was carrying, he threatened to kill me.

In 2000, my car was broken into: my stereo, radar detector, cash, and other items totaling about $600 were stolen. The crime scene investigator came out and took fingerprints. They got a hit, gave me the name of the person and asked me to sign a paper saying that this man did not have permission to be in my vehicle. A month later, I was told that the criminal would not be arrested because the crime was too minor to waste resources on.

I once had a police supervisor tell me that silencers and machine guns were illegal. I offered to bring in NFA items and the proper paperwork, so the cops could be trained to recognize and know the law. They refused.

At the same time, we hear of cops having traffic citation quotas that they need to meet in order to get raises. Cops are the collections department of a $10 billion industry whose job it is to extort money from the public.

We hear of cops getting out of DUI arrests, even while driving department issued vehicles.

We hear of retired cops getting in arguments with people for using cell phones in a movie theater, killing the other person, and getting away with the murder.

On duty cops murdering handcuffed prisoners by putting a gun to their head and pulling the trigger and getting away with it.

There are the bad cops who are caught on video threatening to plant evidence on,  kill people, or simply like to harass people.

Gaming the constitution and using DUI checkpoints as an excuse to springboard into other searches.

The public watched as cops took cover behind housewives and their children during a shootout just six months ago. When called out on this, the reply is: "You’re demanding perfection in an imperfect world. Where should the cops have stood in that situation, right out in the open where they would have been shot? You’re confusing prudent behavior with suicide." Then they demand that we call them "heroes."

The cops have lied, planted evidence, killed people's dogs, police snipers have sniped people's wives and taunted them about it, shot victims who were seeking help, framed people, shot innocents, and have been caught framing and arresting black people, drop grenades into baby cribs and happily say that they would do it again, all the while they expect no one to be angry about that.

The police have had a real image problem for years. It is no surprise that when the crap hits the fan, many people are willing to watch them fry. What is happening right now is a direct result of the mindset that police have had- the US-versus-THEM, "thin blue line" horseshit that they have been following. Now they are paying for it, and the law abiding citizens will, too. You have lost the support of much of the public, and you have no one to blame but yourselves.

I have been saying for years that police need to police their own. They didn't. So now we are all going to pay for that. The first thing the police need to do is what they should have been doing all along- getting rid of the douchebags within your own ranks. Prove to us that police deserve the powers they have been given. If you don't, then there will continue to be a massacre of police department budgets nationwide.



7 comments:

TCK said...

Murder, he threatened to MURDER you.
And those jack-booted scumbags actually wonder why no one trusts or respects them anymore.

Jonathan H said...

I fully agree. While there are SOME good cops, there should be ONLY good cops; they have too much power to allow ANY problem officers.

While I rarely interact with officers, I have still had unpleasant encounters with 3 of the 4 police forces in my area... and even many of the good cops have flawed training that puts them at odds with civilians.

Wayne said...

Do away with judge-made qualified immunity. While police do at times need to use force, up to and including lethal force, they must be at least as accountable as normal citizens.

If the police are going to have immunity, it should be enacted through the legislative process by those who are accountable to the voters.

FredLewers said...

There are NO good cops. All LEOs takean oath to uphold and enforce the law. All of the law...
There are many laws that are unconstitutional. Some laws are just evil ways for powerful people to plunder the people outside the power structure. The cops swore an oath to uphold those laws too...
Tell me again how darkness can have anything to do with light??? Nobody can serve two masters. jjs

Kim said...

Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing, circa 1847:

1) The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.

2) The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.

3) Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.

4) The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.

5) Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.

6) Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.

7) Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

8) Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.

9) The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

Andy in San Diego and Elsewhere said...

You forgot rape. Cops are notorious rapists (especially of sex workers), Maggie McNeill has tons of reports on her blog https://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/

RandyGC said...

Where should the cops have stood in that situation, right out in the open where they would have been shot?

Yes, because putting yourself between the bad guys and innocent citizens is YOUR FREAKING JOB!

If you don't believe or understand that, please do everyone a favor and find another line of work. Buy hey, if Soccer mom and kids take a few rounds so you can go home at the end of your shift, it's all good, right?

LE has been adopting a lot of attitudes and optics of being military for years without understanding that taking bullets so our citizens behind us don't is the essence of why the military exists. (hopefully we are putting the bullets into the other side's troops, but Murphy rules and somedays it sucks to be us)