Justin King
January 7, 2015

(ANTIMEDIA) Two cops, not alike in dignity is where we lay our scene. One police chief wrote a 750-word essay filled with pro-cop propaganda, which is aimed at lessening criticism of police for killing unarmed citizens. The other indicated he would work to end racism. Guess which one is being attacked by their fellow officers.

“I have sat by quietly for weeks now and listened to or read posts of people that I genuinely consider friends, speak so ill of my fellow law enforcement officers.

I told myself repeatedly that it is simply because they do not have a true understanding and that all of their opinions are based upon the negative incidents that are portrayed by the national media.”

It should be noted that the national media wouldn’t have been able to talk about those “negative incidents” if they hadn’t happened. Let’s be clear about what we’re talking about, a “negative incident” sounds like something a that Kindergarten teacher would say. The “negative incidents” she is referring to have names, they had families, they had lives, and the one thing they didn’t have were weapons. They had all of those things until the police officers she is attempting to defend killed them.

“I acknowledge that there are some officers who should not be police officers and that our criminal justice system does not always get it right.”

Well, isn’t that the understatement of the year?

“I think that it’s time that I give my friends my perspective.

I am a police officer, it’s not just a job; I am just as much a police officer as I am a mother, I am just as much a police officer as I am a daughter, a sister, a cousin and a friend.

It is not just a job to me and it’s not just a job to most of my fellow brothers and sisters who wear the badge with pride.”

No, it is just a job. Wearing a badge does not make you special. You go to work, go home, and collect a paycheck. It’s a job. You aren’t superheroes. You aren’t “brothers and sisters” in some special fraternity. It’s a job, and the people to whom you are condescendingly addressing are your bosses. This sense of superiority you are reinforcing is what leads those that share your noble profession to believe they can rape and kill without consequence.

“It was not a job that caused Officer Bo Sauls to buy the baby formula that his suspect was trying to steal to feed her baby, instead of taking her to jail. That selfless act was due to him being just as much a police officer as he is a son and a father.

It was not the job that caused Officer Richard Ernest to go home and take an air conditioner from his garage and go back to a ladies house and install it for her after he had responded there for something else but noticed she had no air.

 

It was not a job that caused my officers to go out and find furniture for a family that had none so that they would no longer have to sleep on the floor; they did this because they are police officers.

It was not the job that caused Cpl. Brad Thompson to not stop until he found the suspect that stole an elderly ladies appliances and made the suspect load them back up on his pick up truck and return them to the victim before he took him to jail, he did this because he is just as much a police officer as he is a grandson.

It was not a job that caused Detective Heather Brummett’s life to be changed forever as she was forced to shoot and kill a suspect that was trying to kill another officer; it was her devotion to the life that she chose and that choice of being there to arrest a suspect has caused her to never be the same person that she was before.

Finally, it was not a job that made all of my officers leave their families on Christmas Day to search for a missing 4 year old autistic boy who had wandered away from his family’s vacation home.

It was not the job that made them willingly walk through mud, woods and water searching every nook and cranny for young Jayden.

It was not the job that caused me to watch as this baby was pulled from the water, nor was it the job that caused me to hold his father’s hand as he kissed his baby goodbye for the last time and to hold that mother and not be able to offer an explanation of why bad things happen to good people.

No it was not a job that caused me to hold in my emotions and to be strong for people that I had never met before, knowing that young Jayden reminded me so much of my own “grand baby” Zaevion and that all I wanted to do was to get home to him and hear him yell out for his mema.”

Yes, that is the job. It’s the profession you chose. More importantly, it doesn’t matter what other things a person may have done in their life, if they support, excuse, or try to downplay the murder of unarmed and sometimes completely innocent people, that person is a horrible human being. This whole letter is designed to draw attention away from the murders of unarmed people. Understand that no matter what PR technique you attempt to employ, we will not let the story deviate from the fact that way too many unarmed people are being killed by your “brothers and sisters.” Shame on you for trying to excuse murder.

“It was not a job that caused me to be strong for this family although I wanted to fall apart and cry with them.

We are police officers, we are willing to head towards the gunfire when everyone else is running away.

We are police officers, we are the ones who tell parents that their child is dead and then hold them as long as necessary as they cry out in sorrow.”

What about the parents of all of the dead who were killed by your “brothers and sisters” all across the country. Are you willing to hold them as long as necessary? Obviously not. You sit there and make snide remarks about the glory of the badge while militarizing your own department with vehicles straight from the battlefield in Iraq. When you attempt to defend murder, you will have to do better than a few anecdotal stories about your officers.

“We are police officers, we are the ones who respond when a husband is beating his wife and then take the hits from her as she tries to prevent us from taking him to jail.”

Are we talking about the case involving Detective Gonska’s girlfriend? He allegedly beat her because she took his beer away. When the other officers arrived there was blood on her face and clothes and she told the story of Gonska beating her. Is that one of your honorable “brothers?” Whatever happened to that case? Was it inexplicably dropped? I notice he wasn’t one of the officers you chose to highlight above.

In fact, according to the National Center for Women and Policing, multiple studies show that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population.

“We are police officers, we are the ones who will listen to you call us pigs, pieces of crap and murderers; yet will head your direction with lights and siren the minute that you need us, because ……… We are police officers.”

If you don’t want to be called murderers, the solution is simple and it isn’t writing poetic little tributes to law enforcement. If you don’t want to be called murderers, stop killing unarmed people. It’s that simple. You will not change the topic of this national debate.

In a further display of utter arrogance, this department just acquired an MRAP, the local media avoided using the dreaded term and instead chose to call it a Caiman. Caiman is the brand name of the vehicle the department obtained from the Department of Defense after it was used on battlefields overseas. The Chief says the vehicle will be used in rescues, hostage negotiations, and active shooter scenarios.

This further shows that the Chief is in a position above her skill level. During a hostage or barricade situation the idea is defuse to the situation. Typically, rolling out a 60,000lb armored vehicle increases tensions a tad. If it was intended for dynamic entry, it’s too loud and you’re going to get your officers killed because you lost the element of surprise. If you ever attended a course on hostage rescues you should remember the three things needed to achieve victory: speed, surprise, and violence of action. A 60,000lb vehicle will cost you speed and surprise.

Active shooter scenarios typically occur within buildings. Does the department plan on crashing the MRAP through the wall Waco-style? Otherwise it just delivers them to the scene and then is left behind. If it was driven up to make the assault the same rules above apply and the officers are in greater danger having lost speed and surprise.

This letter fooled no one. It was a very transparent attempt at distracting people from the increasing number of citizens who have died at the hands of your “brothers and sisters.”

Pittsburgh’s new police chief, Cameron McLay held a sign saying that he was fighting to end racism at work and end white silence. Seems like a pretty simple statement. Who wouldn’t want to end racism in a police department? Apparently, the Fraternal Order of Police in Pittsburgh isn’t too fond of the idea. Howard McQuillan said:

“by Mayor Peduto labeling us ‘corrupt and mediocre’ and now our current Chief insinuating that we are now racist, merely by the color of our skin and the nature of our profession, I say enough is enough!”

Maybe McQuillan is unaware that the last chief of police went to jail for corruption. Homicide and rape incidents are on the rise, and there is racism resulting in violence inside the department. So, corrupt, mediocre, and racist seems a pretty fair generalization. As head of the Fraternal Order of Police, there’s something McQuillan can do to change it: stop defending corrupt, mediocre, and racist officers. Cameron McLay held a sign saying he wanted to end racism in his department. If there were more chiefs like him, maybe officers wouldn’t be getting killed while they sat in their patrol cars and cities wouldn’t be burning to the ground.

This country needs more like McLay.