PROTESTS AND PROSECUTIONS PUT THE LIVES OF ALL COPS AT GREATER RISK

Because cops are now afraid to shoot someone even if justified, policing has evolved from reactive policing to proactive policing, and now to reluctant policing, thereby placing the lives of cops as well as citizens in jeopardy

I just got through watching Rampart, a film starring Woody Harrelsin as a dirty Los Angeles cop in in the late ‘90s. In one scene he almost beats a man to death by striking him repeatedly with his baton. A bystander filmed the beating and the video was exploited by the media Later, while in the office of a deputy district attorney, his attorney said something like:

“The only thing wrong here is that some guy with a camera caught a cop doing police work.”

Doing police work? With the proliferation of cellphone cameras, them days are gone forever. Everyday somewhere in this country some cop is being indicted for using excessive force. And lately hardly a month goes by without one or more cops being indicted for murder after shooting someone.

The vast majority of police shootings are justified, or to put it bluntly, used to be justified if a police officer believed that his life was in imminent jeopardy. Whether the person shot was armed or not made no difference as long as the officer believed he was about to be killed. With the ‘Ferguson Effect,’ them days too are gone forever.

Nowadays just about every police action is cought on cellphone cameras, in some cases by three or more cameras. Those videos go viral on the internet and are then exploited by the media. When it’s a white cop using excessive force on or shooting a black man, groups like Black Lives Matter create a shitstorm of protests not only where the incident took place, but also in other cities across the country. And if a black man was shot by a white cop while unarmed, riots are liable to occur in several cities.

President Obama has publicly voiced his concern about the number of black men shot by the police. He and other politicians have politicized police shootings. Police and city officials are now scared shitless by possible repercussions to the use of force by police officers. Police administrators are now throwing their officers under the bus and prosecutors are quick to seek indictments of officers for using excessive force, and if it was a deadly police shooting, an indictment for murder.

Of course, there are a few police shootings that are not justified.

The shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014 by Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke just cannot be justified in that McDonald was walking away, thereby posing no threat to any officers, and as shown in a video, was about 10 feet away when Van Dyke shot him 16 times.

The shooting last April of 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott in North Charleston, S.C. by officer Michael Thomas Slager is another shooting that clearly does not appear justified in that Slager took careful aim and shot Scott in the back as the man was fleeing on foot following a traffic stop.

But as I said before, the vast majority of police shootings are justified even if the person shot was unarmed. Cops don’t get up in the morning and look in the mirror while asking themselves, “I wonder how many assholes can I shoot today?” They do not want to shoot anyone, even the assholes. But they also want to return safely to their families.

So, if an officer believes that an adversary is about to seriously injure or snuff him, he is justified in shooting that person dead. But it appears them days are gone forever too.

Because they fear getting fired and prosecuted, cops are now afraid to shoot anyone, even when justified. And that is putting their lives at even greater risk, and the lives of citizens as well. An officer who hesitates to shoot could become a casket case in the blink of an eye by getting beaten, stabbed or shot to death.

This brings up the matter of some unarmed powerful dirtbag physically assaulting a police officer. Why should a cop allow himself to be seriously injured by getting beat up? The answer is simple – he shouldn’t! But if that is a white cop and his assailant is black, Black Lives Matter will be up in arms if he shoots that 'unarmed' black man. And then the brass will likely drop that poor cop in the grease.

Policing has evolved from reactive policing to proactive policing, and now to reluctant policing. And in some cases, reluctant policing amounts to no policing.