Posted on 04/16/2018 4:58:51 AM PDT by servo1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0chi9zD4Zo
For over 39 years, I was a police officer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For 15 of those years, I was the Sheriff of Milwaukee County. I’ve done everything you can do as cop—from walking the beat, to investigating murder, to running the agency. I’ve met a lot of cops—of every race, ethnicity and background.
Here’s what I can tell you:
Cops are not perfect.
That’s not a news flash. But this might be: They don’t have to be perfect. They have to be excellent.
And most officers reach excellence every single day, and often under very difficult circumstances—circumstances you can’t imagine, and wouldn’t want to if you could.
Perfection is an unattainable goal. Cops are ordinary human beings. Like everyone else—lawyers, surgeons and baseball players—they make mistakes. But no profession works harder to correct its mistakes. You can mark social progress by the improvements made by police departments over the last 50 years. Today, police are more professional, better educated, and better trained than at any time in their history.
You wouldn’t know it, though, if you listened to self-serving, self-righteous politicians and activists. In their version of history, the police are the villains of the story, not its heroes. Like everything else this crowd does, they’ve got it all backwards.
The police aren’t the problem. The politicians and activists are.
The police didn’t create the failed urban policies that have locked people into generational poverty.
The police aren’t responsible for fatherless homes, failing schools, and bad lifestyle choices.
And they sure as hell aren’t responsible for the lack of respect shown to police officers. It is this lack of respect for authority, fostered over decades by the progressive left and its fear-the-police narrative, that has led to the needless deaths of so many young black men.
When Officer Darren Wilson told Michael Brown to get out of the middle of the street in Ferguson, Missouri, did Brown comply? No. When officers in Baltimore told Freddie Gray to stop resisting arrest, did he comply? No. When officers in New York City told Eric Garner to stop resisting arrest, did he comply? No.
Here’s a useful tip—if you want avoid a bad outcome with a police officer, follow this simple rule:
When a cop gives you a lawful command, obey it—even if you disagree. Whatever problem you are experiencing is not going to be settled on the street. People with complaints need to use the process established for that purpose. Though cops don’t have the final say, they do in that moment. How you react can be a matter of life or death.
But the idea that a law-abiding citizen has to fear the police is a terrible and destructive lie. Let’s get some perspective.
In 2014, 990 people were killed in police use-of-force incidents. Does that sound like a lot? Did you know that, according to a Johns Hopkins study, that same year, medical errors killed 250,000 people? Yet activists aren’t marching in the streets, demanding that the medical profession be reformed. Why not?
Why is it that the people who protect you from the bad guys—and I’ve seen these bad guys close up—are the subject of distrust and anger?
Why is it that groups like Black Lives Matter—I call them Black Lies Matter because it’s based on the falsehood that police represent a danger to black people—are celebrated by the media and politicians?
All this is taking its toll on cops and, even more tragically, on the law-abiding citizens in the neighborhoods that most need a strong police presence. The murder rates in these neighborhoods are going up because lawful, aggressive policing is going down.
Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has explained why. She calls it “The Ferguson Effect.” And it’s real. It’s also common sense. Why, police officers reason, put your career at risk, if 30 seconds of smartphone video taken out of context can destroy it?
Here’s the truth: Police aren’t afraid of walking the streets or being shot by random criminals. They’re afraid of being involved in an incident that would label them forever as trigger-happy racists.
Are there bad cops? I know first-hand that there are—I’ve had to fire them.
But the overwhelming majority are good, decent men and women, concerned about the law-abiding citizens in the communities they serve and are willing to put their lives on the line to protect them.
Those who try to convince you, either out of ignorance or out of some ideological agenda, that the police are the enemy—those are the people you should fear.
Run from them.
Not the cops.
I’m Sheriff David Clarke for Prager University.
Cops are people.
There are good cops. I have yet to meet any, especially on duty.
I’ve met retired cops and there are many friends of my family. But when the badge is on, nope.
Its the 90% of them that give the other 10% a bad name.
As if this is news. It's not.
What's news is the utter gutting of standards in the last 30 years, and also that today's officer can kill someone and get away with it.
To not trust the cops does not mean you yourself are a bad person.
Just a careful one.
I’ve said this before on FR and I’ll say it again.
Example: Since I traded in my Honda Civic (With a spoiler, modifications, flashy accessories (Yes, I like that sorta thing)) for my Suburban I stopped getting pulled over daily. My suburban isn’t inspected. No sticker. Cops wave.
I rode a Harley and a Ninja. On the Ninja, I would get pulled over. On the harley ? They wave as I speed by.
It’s not the cop. It’s not the person. It’s the SOP. There are a set of rules that make them evil the moment they check into work. Some of the older guys realise that but the rookies jump right in.
There is an SOP that makes the citizen their enemy. And they behave that way almost all of the time.
#BlueLivesMatter
Dad was a patrolman … NYPD. From the mid 40s till the late 60s. He chose NOT to advance because of more corruption the higher you go.
He was happy to take his pension and go. He was a good cop. Though I’m sure he probably took a corned beef sandwich from a local shop keeper on occasion. They were happy to have cops look in on their businesses.
It was a different time
The few times I bothered calling the police I nearly regret it.
I know what’s coming.
They fill out a report and that’s the end of it.
They could catch the person that robbed me..if they wanted to..but it’s not high enough on their priority list ..if they bother to do anything anyhow.
Just like any other schlub at any other job.
> There is an SOP that makes the citizen their enemy. And they behave that way almost all of the time. <
Lots of truth there. I try to say hello to everyone I pass. Thirty years ago, when I’d say hello to a local cop, I’d get a friendly hello back. Now I usually get a stern, why-are-you-talking-to-me look, and no response.
It’s not the biggest deal in the world, of course. But you betcha, something has changed.
They are only as good as the worst cop they know about and tolerate.
Actually it appears that the opinions are rather uniform
What you said.
I like David Clarke and I agree with MOST of what he says in this article. In six decades on this earth, I’ve come into contact with cops (all misdemeanors). Some were good experiences and some were not good.
But, I’ve also been successfully involved in business along that path and “some” of my associates in business were a good experience and some were VERY, VERY bad.
I think the public in general should just lower their expectations of “COPS”.............some of them, or most of them I think, are good but some of them are VERY bad.
I think they call that “LIFE”.
>>Cops are people.
People who can take lethal action under color of authority. They must be held to very high standards, just as I was when I was a 20 year old nuclear propulsion plant operator in the Navy. I once had to write an essay on Zero Defects to keep from getting written up for accidentally opening the wrong valve becuase with great power comes great responsibility. Cops get the ultimate power so they have to be held to ultimate standards. If they can’t handle that, they need to find safer work.
So the cops who shot up random pickup trucks (of a different color than the perp’s) in CA during a manhunt for a murderous rogue cop were ‘excellent?’
So the cops that shoots family pets just because it is convenient are ‘excellent?’
So the cops that grab people’s money (RICO) because they have ‘too much’ of it are ‘excellent?’
For me, Cops have burned through 40+ years of goodwill.
“For me,Cops have burned through 40+ years of goodwill.”
I’m sure they will be saddened to hear that.
.
No. Sometimes they lie, cheat, and steal. In fact, they're encouraged to lie; it's a trained "interview" technique. Sometimes they break down the wrong door at oh-dark-thirty and then kill innocent people. Sometimes they scream contradictory "orders" and then kill innocent people. Sometimes they scream incomprehensibly and then kill innocent people. Sometimes they kill dogs just for existing. Sometimes they cower in the parking lot while deranged lunatics are killing people in schools.
I suppose we're supposed to forget all that ...
“When a cop gives you a lawful command, obey it”
Fine, Sheriff Clarke. But what about when a cop gives an unlawful command?
What then????
Yup. And I like Clarke.
Yes.
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