As part of a recent DOJ censure of some of the nation's big city police departments, reviewers assessed cops as too quick to move to force, and determined that when they do use force they use too much. How they arrived at this conclusion no one knows. The DOJ's not saying.
Critics say cops should be more patient. They assert it especially applies when dealing with people who are mentally ill, drunk, or high. Because we all know these groups represent a more mellow and predictable type of person, right? Give me a break. We need to look at some serious ramifications of this assessment. Ramifications that will get cops, citizens, and the criminals they care so much about, hurt.
Most cops I know are very well acquainted with patience. You won't last as on the streets if you can't summon at least a little. Cops understand that patience is necessary in many, actually, most situations. If patience can help to avoid physical action, then by all means, cops should be as patient as safety allows. As safety allows.
However, there comes a time when hesitation can be confused with patience. If the time comes when the officer must act, the action must come swiftly and without hesitation. Could there be a danger that rookies, or even veterans confused about what exactly his or her leaders expect these days, might hesitate in the name of trying to be patient? Is this a risk cops can afford to take? Well, not if officers want to go home safely at the end of their watch. It's actually one of their favorite things in life.
Action oriented professionals such as police officers, firefighters, and those in the military, will tell you hesitation can mean death. To you or someone else. There's a long held tenet that you will be praised for a good decision, forgiven for a bad decision, but you will be condemned for no decision. No decision is the excrement of hesitation.
How can city and police leaders simply roll over and let people who haven't a clue as to how to do real police work on the streets, dictate how police officers do their job? There are random cases of officers over-stepping their bounds, but that doesn't mean the public should buy the radical left's, and as it seems the DOJ's, narrative that we're still living in 1950's Selma, Alabama.
No comments:
Post a Comment