The War on Police

There have been three incidents in recent months that has triggered a war with police in this country. But other factors have figured into it than just those three incidents.

Michael Brown was the first well known incident. He’s the 18 year old that was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown doesn’t seem to have had a criminal record. However, on that day, he was caught on video stealing cigarellos and pushing a clerk into a display rack. Then he was shot dead after fighting for an officers gun while the officer was in his car and then fled. He turned and charged back at the officer who then opened fire and killed Brown in the street.

A grand jury was convened and heard the case and concluded no charges should be brought against Officer Wilson. The people of Ferguson then started burning down their own town and opportunists took advantage of the melee and looted businesses.

In New York, Eric Garner resisted arrest. He was being arrested for selling individual cigarettes without a tax stamp. Garner, unlike Brown, had an arrest record dating back to 1980 for various crimes such as assault, grand larceny and selling cigarettes. Again, a grand jury was convened and again concluded no charges should be brought.

In Cleveland, Ohio, a twelve year old boy was brandishing a gun, pointing it at people walking by in a park. The police were called and when they pulled up the boy reached for the gun. It did not have the red cap on it to indicate that It was a toy and it looked real enough to the officer who then fired. They boy died later.

In the past two days, there have been three policeman killed. Two in New York and one in Florida. In California, a billboard honoring four policeman who were killed four years ago was vandalized.

Several things have gone into and not created the problem but fueled the flames of the problem

The Media:

Do they ever get anything right? They spend all of their time giving their opinions of the news but never seem to get around to reporting it. On CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the night the Grand Jury evidence was released in Missouri, they learned that Michael Brown had grabbed for the officers gun and was shot in the car. Cooper said “I didn’t know that’. Other news outlets had been reporting it from leaks they’d received but somehow CNN just seemed to miss out on it and were giving opinions mostly leaning towards Hands up don’t shoot . The New York Times had already published the officers address putting the officer and his family at risk.

Al Sharpton:

He inserts himself into every situation where there is a white and a black, but I can’t remember an event where he has been on the right side yet. From Tawana Brawley to these latest incidents. He fuels the fire towards riots rather than away. After the two officers were killed the other day in New York, he wrote a piece for the New York Daily News. He talks about the two officers being killed and says that he spoke to the Brown family and the Garner Family and they said they didn’t want this. They wanted non violent protests. He mentions in writing the Garners and the Brown families but never once in his writing does he name the two officers. Well Mr. Sharpton. I’m going to help you out. The two officers names are Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. They were ambushed. They didn’t have even a fighting chance. Brown and Garner at least got the chance to fight back even though they seem to be guilty of committing crimes. Ramos and Liu were just sitting in their car.

Another officer was killed in Florida. If early reports are correct, he was shot and then run over. His name is Charles Kondeck. In California a billboard honoring four officers slain 4 years ago was vandalized. The four honored officers were Mark Dunakin, Daniel Sakai, Ervin Romans, and John Hege. Mr. Sharpton, before you start talking about these men maybe you should learn their names.

It’s disappointing that there has to be a separation between blacks and whites, but one of the first things that could be done to try to ease conflict is to stop listening to Al Sharpton.

The St. Louis Rams and others sports figures

Four or five of the players on the Rams came out of the tunnel with their hands up as a symbol for Michael Brown. A symbol based on something that was apparently not true. According to witnesses, Brown did not put his hands up and did not say "don't shoot". 

Perhaps the Rams ought to concentrate on football when they are on the field. 

President Obama:

Obama seems to be wrong each time he opens his mouth. Presidents should not insert themselves into local situations. He should know better than to even offer any thoughts on it until after the system has run its’ course. He was supposedly a law professor at one time. I would think he would know this.

Obama inserted himself into a situation at Cambridge within the first months of his presidency, saying the Cambridge police acted “stupidly”. A black professor was breaking into his own home and the police stopped him asking for ID. The professor wasn’t cooperative.

Obama inserted himself into the Trayvon Martin case saying if he had a son, he’d look just like Trayvon. This was before the facts were out showing that Martin was actually the attacker.

Now he doesn’t like the grand jury results in Missouri and inserts himself into that. It wasn’t surprising that as he begins commenting on it, on a split screen they show the rioters starting up their activities by trying to turn over a police car.

A good president….even a bad president, would say something like, “we  have to trust in our judicial system” before the results are out, and when they come out, even if he disagrees with the result, he should be saying “our system has spoken and if one side feels it was wrong, there is an appeals process for people to follow.”

But for a President to undermine the system that he’s supposedly the head of shows at the very least unprofessionalism and much closer to incompetence and bias.

New York Mayor DeBlasio

Like President Obama, the mayors job was to back his police force and back the justice system. He’s just made enemies of the very people that he’s got in charge to serve and protect the citizenry.

New York Gun Laws:

Just one comment here. Guns are outlawed in the city of New York. So how did the shooter get close to the two officers to shoot them? Could it possibly be that criminals don’t respect the laws? Apparently, they don’t have any respect for the laws nor for human life.

There are many more things than just those listed above that fed into this. Parents that don’t take care of the children that they bear. Schools that fail these kids way too often. Human life is not given any worth by some. Those that think the world owes them everything and they have no responsibility for their actions. This is not just a black problem. This is a problem in the human race.

Not all police are innocent and not all of them are guilty. Not all blacks are innocent and not all of them are guilty. But once they break out in a physical confrontation where lives are at stake, who’s right and wrong won’t matter until the bodies are figured out. At that point, it’s too late to say “sorry” because one or more are dead.

If you want to see your children stay out of jail, teach them to not break the law. If you want to stay out of jail, don’t break the law. There is a place for grievances to be heard, but it’s not on a street corner.

If you don’t trust the police, why on earth would you give them reason to distrust you by bringing attention to yourself with your actions or your attitude? Trust is not freely given. It’s earned and once earned can be lost. If you want to keep the trust you’ve earned don’t give reason for it to be removed.

There was somebody, I don’t remember who it was now, that said in Eric Garners case, he was driven to this because of the high taxes on cigarettes in New York. Maybe he was, but he still broke the law. I understand an underground market being created by the ridiculous taxes put on various items, but if you’re actively doing something about it by selling them when it’s illegal, accept your punishment. It’s odd too that the Mayor of New York would have his police on the lookout for someone selling a cigarette. That would seem to me to be more of an incidental discovery rather than a smoke cop being assigned. But it’s still breaking the law.

In each case there was an apparent breaking of the law. Cigarettes being sold illegally, cigarellos being stolen from a store along with an assault and a kid pointing what looked like a real gun at an armed policeman.

Now we are left with a war on the police. That will only make it more difficult to weed out the bad ones and let the good ones continue to do the fine job that most do.

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett