Why is it wise to support your local law enforcement (even if you have issues)?
By Greg ‘Gadfly’ Doyle
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
May 29, 2015
The backlash against the Baltimore, Maryland police department in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death while in police custody has had a chilling effect on police response within the community. Prior to the riots and indictments handed down against six police officers, Baltimore PD conducted proactive policing on the mean streets of that city.
Now policing in Baltimore has been reduced to strictly handling calls for service. And the citizens of Baltimore are suffering as a result.
Proactive policing means the police actively engage criminals in their own neighborhoods to disrupt and suppress their illegal enterprises. By doing so, criminals are generally forced to operate under cover of darkness and take greater efforts to avoid detection.
Reactive policing generally happens in more rural areas where their are fewer law enforcement personnel to cover vast areas of land in sparsely populated areas.
One of the first signs that the shift in policing strategy has changed in Baltimore is the rapid spike in violent crime. Police are armed, trained, and equipped to apprehend violent offenders. In high crime areas, proactive policing has proven to reduce violent crimes.
So what is happening in Baltimore since the riots subsided and the have police backed down due to public vilification?
Here are some of the news headlines:
Violence Spikes in Baltimore; 29 Shot, 9 Dead Just Over the Weekend Holiday (for story read http://tinyurl.com/pxywp29.)
Baltimore’s deadliest month: Can the community still find peace? (for story read http://tinyurl.com/ncslqrl.)
Deadly month sees 35 killings in Baltimore (for story read http://tinyurl.com/paa6dzc.)
Woman, boy most recent homicides in Baltimore as city sees deadliest month in years (for story read http://tinyurl.com/o6u9wcd.)
The point of this article is not about the merits of Freddie Gray ‘s death in police custody. After all the smoke has cleared and the dust has settled, someone will determine in a court of law if anything criminal occurred causing Mr. Gray’s death, or if negligence was the main culprit. In order to attain any measure of justice, we must trust our justice system.
The alternative, of course, is community instability and utter anarchy as witnessed in the Ferguson, Missouri riots and the recent Baltimore conflagration.
As I have expressed previously in my 2010 article called Mob Rule,
“Once a crowd becomes a mob, the rule of law is suspended until authority can dispel and disperse the malcontents, and this usually by force, to establish and maintain order. Rioting, looting, violence, and vandalism are the forefathers of mob rule and anarchy.”
In both the Ferguson and Baltimore cases, mob rule resulted in major destruction of property, multiple injuries, and some fatalities. Were the police responsible for the riots?
No. Angry mobs were the culprits. Militant, unthinking mobs demanded justice in the streets without waiting for an official outcome in the courts. As unruly mobs almost always do, they took the law into their own hands and destroyed everything within arms reach, including their own communities.
Street justice is no justice.
Who was charged with quelling the riots? The very police that the mobs were angry at. How would you like to be a Ferguson or Baltimore police officer under those conditions?
As much as the media would like us to all believe that the police were responsible for the devastation based upon a history of systemic racism (triggered by two incidents), I would suggest that this assertion is specious.
I would assert that hatred of the law (by specific segments of our society)—that which defines acceptable and unacceptable behavior—is at the root of the problem; not racism.
As a retired police sergeant, I can attest to the fact that I have encountered many individuals (of all colors, shapes, and sizes) who hated the police because those persons have no respect for the law, little concern for following rules, or any desire to have their illegal activities interrupted.
Since when is it acceptable in ANY community, within any ethnicity, among any cultural group to address an injustice by assaulting the police, rioting in the streets, burning City and private property, and looting local businesses?
Nothing can justify such a response to an injustice. Civilized people do not undo civilization by becoming uncivilized in order to address an injustice. And that is just what the mobs in Ferguson and Baltimore did—unraveled and burned whole communities—without effectively addressing their perceived injustices.
And what will those who riot, burn, and pillage in the same instances get for all their efforts? Nothing.
They will never be satisfied with any legal outcome, because they have no understanding of, or respect for, the law in the first place.
Mob rule flies in the face of logic, reason, and civility.
Why is it wise to support your local law enforcement (even if you have issues)? Because the police are the second line of defense for the citizenry (the first is being constitutionally armed to protect yourself.) Without the police, you go it alone. And if your State or community restricts your right to keep and bear firearms, you are doubly screwed.
Take a real hard look at the numbers in Baltimore and tell me the police were not doing a better job against the criminal element than an unarmed citizenry.
Whose side are you on: the law-abiders or law-breakers?
Let the courts decide, not the angry mob, decide the outcome and abide by it. That is the rule of law.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Like it or not, mob rule works. Just look at the rushed indictments of the six cops handed down in Baltimore. And the driver of the paddy wagon containing Freddie Gray is charged with murder. Without the burning and looting that would not have happened.
By the way, I have looked carefully and closely at the pictures of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstrations from the East Coast to the West. In all of those demonstrations there were a lot of whites participating. Most of those whites, both men and women, appeared to be in their early to mid 20s. This leads me to suspect they were college students or recent (unemployed) graduates influenced (if not indoctrinated) by the Marxist and other far-left professors that have infested our colleges and universities.
The far-left professors constantly criticize our criminal justice system as being racist, our police officers for being brutal and racist, our government for favoring the rich over the poor (blacks), etc. They encourage their students to participate in the demonstrations and often give extra credit to those that do.
I believe that were it not for those far-left professors, there would be few whites participating in the ‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstrations.
By the way, when you look at the few demonstrations in support of the police, you see mostly the middle-aged and seniors participating. No college students there!
1 comment:
The recent war between criminals and cops didn’t really start in Ferguson, Mo. It began in Florida with a neighborhood watch guy who fought with a guy and ultimately killed him. The state brought in special prosecutors and called for the head of the so called attacker. The President of the United States of America became involved and said the criminal would look like his own son if he had one. Professional agitators became involved and bused in protesters. Then the unthinkable happened.
The jury acquitted the neighborhood watch guy. People are mad.
Then in Ferguson, Mo. A police officer killed a strong armed robber who had attacked the police officer attempting to arrest him. The criminal’s family said he was a good boy and offered up a picture of him taken several years earlier before he began committing crimes and using drugs. The city exploded. The criminal’s step father yelled to a crowd, “Burn this Mother F—ker Down! Activists bused in paid protestors and the criminals burned their own neighborhoods. Once again the President of the United States of America, the most powerful person on earth became involved. The Justice Department rolled in and investigated the officer, the city and the city leaders. What they found was a couple of distasteful emails and recommended the City of Ferguson institute programs to address their problems under the watch of the Justice Department. The criminal’s family was later arrested because they were assaulting each other over the rights to sell his image on a t-shirt as street vendors. Money is being raised to build a memorial for this criminal in his burned out neighborhood. I think it should be built right in the middle of the rubble.
The officer was no-billed by a grand jury. His career was ruined and he resigned for the good of the city. The Justice Department cleared him. He did nothing wrong. In fact, he upheld his oath of office to protect and serve.
If you noticed, I haven’t mentioned race. I will now.
The black culture has legitimized crime. Dealing drugs is fine and if you go to jail? So be it. That builds street credibility. Stealing and robbing is fine. Just be sure to bring your Mama some money. That’s right their mother’s know that they don’t have a legitimate job. They stand on a street corner all day and they have a roll of cash to help support the family. They victimize their own race. This started with heroin in the 60’s and evolved into cheap crack cocaine in the 80’s until now. They sell to the same people who attended Head Start with them. They use them up until they are forced to rob and steal to support their habit. Crime increases. The neighborhood becomes a ghetto and a war zone. The whites flee to the suburbs.
New York, Chicago, Detroit and Baltimore. They all have recent stories of cops making arrests of blacks who are involved in what they feel are legitimized crime. When cops do their jobs, they are sacrificed by prosecutors in an attempt to stop mob riots. The media is to blame in a lot of cases and so is President Obama. Race relations have deteriorated dramatically since he took office. The result is being played out across the country. Cops will not be pro-active in the black neighborhoods and criminals, the media, activists and our President are to blame. Shame on them.
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