Posted on 11/26/2014 7:02:36 AM PST by shortstop
Every cop in America knows one thing – it could have been him.
Or her.
It could have been him or her, instead of Darren Wilson, who pulled that trigger on Michael Brown.
Or some such similar young man.
Every cop in America knows that, in return for choosing a career in law enforcement, the rules of the road are now that, at any minute, it all could be over and you could become hated and condemned all across the country.
No one would have your back, even the president could denounce you.
Because you defended yourself.
In a twist on biting the hand that feeds you, we are instead tying the hand that defends us. We are sending them out, and waiting for the first chance to gut them.
It is an incomprehensible act of ingratitude.
All across American law enforcement, officers know that the new reality facing them when they pull their guns is: By defending myself, I could be condemning myself.
Take Darren Wilson.
A good cop on routine patrol. He’s coming back from a call and has brief contact with two individuals. Nothing comes of it until he moves a ways down the block and gets a radio description of a wanted individual matching one of the young men he’s just seen.
Rolling back up on the two individuals, the larger of them – Michael Brown – lunges into the driver’s window of the squad car and begins assaulting Darren Wilson. Michael Brown then tries to take away the officer’s gun.
The officer gets off a round, Michael Brown attempts to flee, and then charges at the officer, twice, before being shot to death.
In the mind of witnesses and Darren Wilson, Michael Brown was set to attack and was an immediate threat to the life of Officer Wilson.
So Officer Wilson did what his training taught him to do. He did what instinct, morality and the laws of men command him to do – he defended himself.
And his life is ruined.
His career is over, his family is threatened, his name is destroyed, he has been vilified across the country and by the nation’s most prominent voices.
People have rioted demanding imprisonment for him, and there have been countless threats on his life.
His life, as he knew it, is over.
Because he was a cop and he defended himself.
An entire society has forgotten that Darren Wilson is not the perpetrator of a crime, he is the victim of a crime.
Likewise, it has been forgotten that Darren Wilson was an officer of the law with a duty to act, and that he was on patrol that day in the name and service of the people.
And it is dispiriting to see how instantly the people have turned on him and his profession.
You get up in the morning and put on a uniform that carries with it the obligation to potentially die in the service of your community, to put yourself between the good people and whatever species of hell pops up, and then, when you are literally fighting for your life and the community’s protection, nobody has your back.
Everybody curses your name.
Millions hate you.
Much of the nation turns against you.
In the matter of some 20 seconds.
Damned if you do, dead if you don't.Every cop in America wakes up every day knowing that that could be his fate. By the happenstance of random probability, the unpredictability of criminality, some wild hare seizing upon who knows what thug, and that could be you.
And it wouldn’t matter who you were, or what good you had done, or how many years you had served, or what you had made of your life and to what good cause you had dedicated it.
Al Sharpton would be yelling your name, mobs would be burning your effigy, and the president would be undercutting your profession.
And who wants that?
What kind of person, having seen on the nation’s newscasts the destruction of Darren Wilson, wants to risk that?
How many law enforcement officers will think of the danger associated with their thankless job, see the risk facing themselves and their family, recognize that it is completely unfair and wrong, and quit?
How many will lay down their badge and their career and walk away?
Probably none.
Because that’s the kind of people most of them are. They press on. They do their duty. They don’t quit.
That’s who they are.
More at issue is: Who are we?
Are we the kind of society that looks on and does nothing, or are we the kind of society that values law enforcement and what it does, and has its back?
Are we the kind of society that can look at the matter in Ferguson and push back the anti-cop prejudices and honestly consider the situation of Darren Wilson? Can we recognize the injustice of his situation?
Not that he wasn’t prosecuted, but that he was ever suspected. That an officer of the law, the victim of a violent and felonious attack, can be forced into a fight for his life, and then be condemned for winning.
Would society have preferred he die?
We all know that if the cop had died, instead of the guy who attacked him, that none of us would have ever heard of this. The president wouldn’t have commented, the nation wouldn’t have noticed, nobody would have given a damn.
Dead cop, no problem.
Dead thug, raise holy hell.
And every cop knows that.
And carries that sad realization 24 hours a day.
The president said we need to train our police better. Maybe we need to train our society better.
Maybe we should train the Michael Browns of the world to respect the law, and maybe we should train the rest of us to respect the law enforcers.
And have their backs.
Or at least understand the horrible risk and reality Ferguson creates for them.
Because every cop knows today could be his day.
no camera can ever function to depict reality
the camera will likely just introduce more controversy over what is actually being shown
” This would also
provide two police witnesses to each
encounter.”
Nope. No credability. Innocent or guilty, the assumption would be they are circling the wagons around their own. Problem is,that assumption is correct.
There was a time when a cop’s word was gold. Now? Not so much. And the shame is cops are the ones responsible for that.
Well said.
Maybe so but you’d still have two witnesses, credible or not. And better numbers if bullets start flying.
Changes nothing. This is the sequel to Rodney King.
” You are setting a high bar indeed.
Hesitation can cost you your life. You
literally have seconds or fractions of
seconds to react. Have you ever been in a
life or death situation?”
I’ve been on both sides of a gun greeting. Waiting prevented a tragic event both times. And my only bar is that the fear needs to be reasonable. There are a lot of shootings, like the Dorner hunt, that aren’t reasonable and didn’t get punished.
Whatever cops want, people will only put up with so many mistakes before returning fire, figuratively and literally. That is the plain blunt truth.
Well, video of the actual shooting would never be shown, but events leading up to it would be.
The problem then is interpretation, and no matter how definitive the footage is, there will be something that the perps supporters will use. Or they’ll dismiss it entirely. Do you actually believe the likes of Sharpton, Nancy Grace or their cohorts care about credibility?
They’ll just switch their narrative to some other absurdity.
Once law enforcement (the rule of law being respected) is null and void which the likes of Holder, Obama, are doing a role in crumpling that every day and the Sharptons alike; who use these incidences for profit; the country will truly be gone. Law enforcement is the only barrier to keeping any society maintained and safe. Remember, before opening mouth, those who trash all police officers, you are helping to make a narrative that ALL cops are bad..as... why do we need cops anyway, they carry guns.
The blacks involved in the riots do not certainly want to respect authority. Many who are protesting are anti Second Amendment, so they see a cause that they can pounce on. Be wise out there and know what you say will come back in a possible way you will not like on this situation. These protesters are truly ignorant if they deny accepting reality that this officer had the right to defend himself or they don’t care in the first place which goes back into an agenda.
Holder and Obama are anti police. So, in the beginning it was all about manipulating and removing power from the local police. Why, so the feds can control the authority over the people. You have a mindset of those who want more government control (Obama supporters and his party’s agenda) and those who want limited government control.
The police know what they’re up against and it puts them in more danger than ever on all fronts, support your local law enforcement men and women because we can see by whats going on in ferguson that they are our front line if this ever comes to your town
Reasonable is a subjective judgment. In the case of law enforcement, such judgments must be made within seconds or fractions thereof. We have internal police investigations and the courts to hold them accountable.
You continue to generalize about a "lot of shootings that aren't reasonable and didn't get punished." How do you define "a lot"? How widespread is this and what percentage of total police shootings fit your categorization? In sum, what are you basing your assertions on?
Hyperbolic, for sure. We have our share of cop haters even here on FR, but it is a bit much to say that everyone hates Darren Wilson, or any other policeman.
But I agree with his basic premise.
His life, as he knew it, is over.
Because he was a cop and he defended himself.
NOPE.
It is because PC lies were mouthed and saluted for 2 generations by many otherwise God fearing Americans.
The Brown case moved back 50 years but with all the same evidence video and otherwise could not POSSIBLY have happened as it has today. St. Skittles as well.
When I heard $harpton — or some other race-baiter — mention the body camera thing recently, I immediately got the the distinct feeling that we have another crony deal coming. Someone needs to follow the money, and it will lead to some friend of the administration who is manufacturing or about to manufacture body cameras.
Interestingly, there was recently a vote in the Baltimore City Council regarding providing all policemen with body cameras. I am willing to bet that the same crony is looking to benefit in that deal, as well.
” We have internal
police investigations and the courts to
hold them accountable.”
Hahaha. What a joke. Internal investigation is an oxymoron. Those same entities gave the shooters in the Dorner hunt a complete pass. In what world were their actions reasonable?
I’m using my phone, so I can’t type out the ones I know of right now. I’ll try and get back to you on them.
But the truth remains the same. The public will accept only so much. You might notice that people are getting angry.
Obama and Holder declarations from the first day of the death of the young Black killed by white cop were directed to incite the racial riots. Upon their conscience, or lack of it, rest the main responsibility for the Ferguson riots.
The people who are in the streets of Ferguson are angry. They also ignore the facts and rely on myth and lies to form their opinion.
Estimates on the number of people killed by the police annually range from 400 to 1,000. 27 police officers were killed in 2013 in the line of duty.
The US homicide rate, which has declined substantially since 1992 from a rate per 100,000 persons of 9.8 to 4.8 in 2010, is still among the highest in the industrialized world. There were 14,748 homicides in the United States in 2010, including non-negligent manslaughter. In 14% of all murders, the victim and the offender were strangers.
Do we really have a major problem with police shooting innocent people, especially minorities? I don't think so. Do we have a problem with violent crime? Yes, compared to most of the developed world. Who is responsible? Certainly not the police.
I agree that body cams will help some of the problem faced by good cops wrongfully accused of crimes against citizens. It may help get rid of truly bad cops.
Stupid people blame police officers for obeying laws citizens don’t like. Like forfeiture laws are being abused and end up stealing from innocent citizens to fund police activities. These citizens then stupidly blame police officers for stealing from them rather than changing the laws that are flawed and being exploited by crooked politicans.
I knew the left would end up exploiting the public’s knowledge of the few incidents of bad cops against all cops. It’s what they do. They are lawless. That is why I said the unity of cops has to break when there is truly a bad one among them or truly unprofessional or extreme practices are being adopted by the profession. They need to weed out the bad and stupid and give the left no ground to stand on for their hate and lies.
I hope the left gets unseated quickly - before they end up killing a bunch of innocent police officers and citizens with total fabrications of race hate like the Brown and Martin cases.
Cameras are getting better and cheaper all the time. There’s no excuse for police not to have them. Like it or not, it’s an idea whose time has come.
Quit policing black communities
...better yet, have black only cops in black communities...no chance of political manipulation if only blacks are killing other blacks...
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