As a night auditor at a popular hotel brand, and one that used to be a place where cops frequented for coffee and perhaps something from our breakfast items, I have gotten to know quite a few cops. Nowadays, they do not come in much, since most of them do not like my liberal views. Oh Well!
Most cops are conservative, and if they’re not – at least in Oklahoma City where I live – they would be ostracized by their fellow cops. Fox News is popular with them and often, I would be watching MSNBC – which most of them hate – and one of them would switch the channel on me, very impolite to say the least.
Don’t get me wrong, most of them are decent people who care about their jobs and care about serving their community. The problem lies in the culture that they sign onto when they become cops. Cynicism runs rampant within the ranks of law enforcement across the nation because cops deal with the worse people on a daily basis. Every call they get, and every situation they come across when they’re on patrol, puts them in a mindset that expects the worse scenario. It is a tough job, believe me, and they never know when it is going to be a life and death situation.
Some things cannot change; cops are always going to be cynical because it comes with the job. What can change is how they’re trained. Cops are trained to shoot when their life or someone else’s life is threatened. Not only are they trained to shoot, but also they’re trained to shoot to kill. Much of this has to do with America’s gun culture. A cop’s main weapon is a gun and the first thing they do when confronted with a threat is pull their gun.
Most cops nowadays have other means to stop a suspect, such as tasers, and there are rubber bullets instead of metal bullets, thought those alternatives do not get used much it would seem by what we all hear on the news. A gun could also be used in a less lethal manner, such as shooting a suspect in the leg, which would stop them from moving forward at least.
There have been numerous incidents in the past where cops shot a mentally ill individual, who was armed with nothing but a knife or a hammer. The question in my mind when I hear about such incidents is why the cop didn’t shoot the individual in the leg or use a taser instead. Does a knife or a hammer pose such a danger to a cop that the only means he or she saw available to them was to draw their gun and shoot them several times in the chest?
The protests that have been going on for the last few months over the deaths of several unarmed black men have brought the actions of police, and a consistent underlying sense of racism, to the forefront. These protests are going to continue until something changes within police departments across the nation. This has to come down from the federal level because this is a national problem, not just isolated incidents.
First, I suggest a commission sanctioned by Congress through the Justice Department, to find blanket rules, not just recommendations, for all police departments across the country, to insure that all individuals who are confronted with police are treated equally and fairly.
A majority of Americans already support the idea of cops wearing cameras. Surely, that would bring about a much higher level of accountability. It would not only serve to protect citizens but law enforcement officers when they’re accused of police brutality or other complaints, in which they’re innocent. It would also bring about a change in how cops treat those they deal with on the job.
I understand that cameras is not the cure-all for all the problems that exist with the way cops deal with suspects, but it certainly would bring and improvement across the nation.
An incident in New York involving a man named Eric Garner, who was selling individual cigarettes on the street, was filmed all the way through, but still, a grand jury did not find enough evidence to charge the cop who put a stranglehold on Mr. Garner, which caused his death.
That incident, as surely many more, could have been dealt with entirely differently by the cops at the scene. First, the crime that Mr. Garner was allegedly committing was a non-violent misdemeanor. A simple ticket would have been more appropriate. Secondly, Mr. Garner was a large man and to drag a large man like that to the ground was unnecessary and hazardous to his health. There was a wall directly behind him, and if the cops felt they had to arrest him, asking him or even forcing him to turn around and face the wall would have been a much better alternative. There was no need to force him into a position that caused him to lose his ability to breathe. Then, when Mr. Garner tried repeatedly to inform the cops, who had piled onto him – and there were several – that he could not breath, they all ignored him and continued to hold him down.
Then cops wonder why they have lost not only the trust of the communities they serve but also respect. Always, cops need to listen to what is being said to them and to always give a benefit of a doubt that their actions might be causing serious harm to the individual.
I have heard the argument from some cops and their supporters that if the individual who is being arrested will just do what they’re told, then there won’t be a problem. That is simply wrong, because in some cases, to do as you’re told can put you in a life and death situation, as the Garner incident surely indicates.
Cops need to establish trust in their communities and one way to do that is to listen to what their communities are telling them. There is also a time to use a heavy hand and there is a time to be merciful.
The example of Eric Garner is a good place to start. Here was a man who was simply trying to make some extra money; not stealing, not threatening anyone, just breaking a law that says you cannot sell individual cigarettes on the street, for whatever reasons. Here was an excellent opportunity for a cop to show a little mercy instead of making a mountain out of a molehill by having several cops come onto the scene and drag this man to the ground like a calf they needed to brand, and they all – the cops that is – are cowboys.
A simple ticket or even a warning to Mr. Garner not to be caught selling cigarettes again would have been sufficient, not a pile on of cops as though Eric Garner had just robbed some liquor store.
There are a few good cops and there are a few bad cops, but most cops are somewhere in the middle, who want to do a good job but they’re playing follow the leader in what they’re taught to do. Bad cops lead other cops into bad scenarios that cost lives and lose trust with those they supposed to serve. Good cops lead other cops to be better cops, and it is those cops who should be leading, not the bad cops.
Change the culture and give cops better and less lethal ways to deal with what they are confronted with doing their jobs every day, and perhaps then, we will receive in return, a breed of better cops, something we surely are in sorely in need of in this day and age.
This is a republish from my website: Fidlerten Place