I don’t believe the majority of law enforcement officers are bad people who are prone to violence, brutality, and racism, prone to disregard our constitutional rights. I’ve known too many officers and too many good officers to believe that the majority are like that. We all know there ARE indeed some rotten ones but reasonable people may disagree about how many or what percentage.
I’ve worked in the criminal justice system for 30 years. I’ve worked with, investigated and prosecuted law enforcement officers. I’ve been a defense attorney and have successfully challenged, in court, how particular law enforcement officers conducted themselves in particular cases and the accuracy and credibility of their testimony. And, now I am in my 15th year as a District Court Judge and I’ve had cases, in my courtroom, in which law enforcement officers have made mistakes, have admitted attempting to mislead the court, and have taken actions that were clearly in violation of the law, in violation of a citizen’s constitutional rights and in violation of department protocol.
I’ve also seen law enforcement officers save lives, protect children, and put themselves in harm way in the call of duty. I have been the keynote speaker at a police officers’ memorial service honoring slain officers while their parents, spouses, children, and friends sit in the audience mourning the loss of their loved ones.
I’ve seen officers go to great lengths to avoid making life harder for folks who are already in dire straits; seen them deal with some of the most horrible people and situations; seen them deal with folks when folks are at their worst whether because of mental illness; seen them deal with folks when they are outrageously stressed or pissed beyond reason or feeling they have been treated unfairly by a system they feel is biased against them; folks, whacked out on drugs, or just hated-filled, mean-spirited and ill-intentioned motherfuckers. I’ve seen officers manage, without excessive violence, some of the most difficult and/or most dangerous people while still remembering the humanity of those involved as well as the officers’ own humanity.
Reasonable people can disagree about the number of instances of excessive force, about the number/percentage of law enforcement officers who should not be in that profession. For sure, in a country that has as many law enforcement agencies and law enforcement officers as we have in the U.S., it is impossible for any thinking person to believe that there aren’t ANY officers that are not suited to that difficult and important work. Some of those are decent folks that made a mistake (just like the rest of us) for which they should be held accountable. And some are just rotten folks that should be shunned and outed by their fellow officers and prosecuted for things they have done. But they are not the majority.
All of that being said, it has been concerning and distressing to see the barrage of the stories and videos that appear to show brutality and excessive force and the violations of folks’ constitutional rights. Some of the videos we’ve seen in the last year are horrible and hard to defend: the police officer in North Carolina shooting the man in the back; the 12 year old boy in Cleveland shot less than two seconds after the officer arrived on the scene; the unnecessary force used by a Texas officer on a 14-year old girl at a pool party; the beating of a female bartender by a Chicago police officer; the stomping and beating of a horse thief out west; an officer pummeling a woman on the side of the road; a man shot by a policeman while he reached into his truck to get his driver's license; an officer repeatedly punching a hand-cuffed woman and then macing her; the woman in Texas who was stopped for a minor traffic violation and was later found dead in a jail cell; and, just this week, the Cincinnati man shot in the head and killed after being stopped for a minor traffic violation.
Many of the left-leaning folks I know and hear from are quick to conclude that, every time there is physical interaction between law enforcement and a citizen, the police use excessive force. Many folks come to this conclusion before we have seen and heard of all the evidence or the entire video.
But I am also troubled by the initial reaction of so many right-leaning folks i know and hear from when they see these images/videos: “Just do what the officer tells you. Just cooperate. Don’t break the law and these things won’t happen to you.” Let’s assume that statement is true, that if you cooperate, these things won’t happen to you. Now assume that somehow your friend, father, brother, sister, significant other, teenage daughter, neighbor or son was shot or punched or stomped or otherwise man-handled in circumstances like those I’ve referenced here. If I said to your bloodied, bruised, broken loved one, “Just do what the officer tells you. Just cooperate. Don’t break the law and these things won’t happen to you,” would that satisfy you? Hell motherfucking no!! Be honest! You might disapprove of your loved one’s behavior, might even be pissed about that behavior but you’d also feel that, just as your loved one, the officer should be held accountable for his/her actions.
It is time that we hear loudly and clearly the voices of respectable, professional law enforcement officers who are concerned, if not appalled, by the videos and the anti-law enforcement sentiment being bred in this country now. At least a couple of those good guys are my friends. We need the good officers and good people who support good officers to step up and call out the bad behavior of those other officers. Their silence, your silence, our silence makes us hardly better than those few police officers whose actions lead to distrust of law enforcement, whose actions lead to tragedy, whose actions make law enforcement work more dangerous for good officers and for all citizens.
