In my previous blog post I talked about the Interim Report filed by Obama’s COPS program, specifically the President’sTask Force on 21st Century Policing. As described yesterday, the report is broken down into six “pillars” (yes, “pillars” like the “5 Pillars of Islam”). Yesterday I covered Pillar One, today we’re going to cover Pillar Two: Policy & Oversight. While reading the introduction to this section one statement stood out and I had to go back and re-read it. I tried to read past it again and I just couldn’t do it.
Members of the Division of Policing of the American Society of Criminology recently wrote, “While the United States presently employs a broad array of social and economic indicators in order to gauge the overall ‘health’ of the nation, it has a much more limited set of indicators concerning the behavior of the police and the quality of law enforcement.”
“The behavior of the police and the quality of law enforcement”……..
Maybe I’m wrong on this one, but it seems to me that before we start talking about criticizing the behavior of the police we should start looking at the behavior of the people they’re policing. Where does it cover that? Where does it talk about the teenagers that are so out of control that a mob – 900 strong – storm a movie theater?¹ Where does it mention dealing with people like the dad who threw his 5-year old daughter over the side of a bridge?² I think before the government starts putting the police under a microscope they should first look at the condition of society overall. Right now I can tell you that we have a generation of youth who are out of control, entire populations who think the rules don’t apply to them, the national perspective that you can’t criticize anyone who isn’t white because if you do you’re racist, and we’re not allowed to exercise our Constitutional rights if it hurts someone’s feelings. Oh – and my personal favorite – we’re being limited in our ability to defend ourselves with firearms while in this very report they’re also trying to restrict those who they claim are responsible for protecting us – bottom line here being that we’re left unprotected.
All of that being said, let’s try to move forward into Pillar Two of the report.
Reading through this section I will have to admit that there are several good ideas about improving police departments’ transparency to the community. Seeking the community’s feedback, making policy and procedure available to the public, and compiling more detailed crime data are all really positive things. I began to think that maybe this “pillar” wouldn’t be so bad, but then a simple matter of wording made me pause. Check out 2.7 Recommendation….
2.7 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should create policies and procedures for policing mass demonstrations that employ a continuum of managed tactical resources that are designed to minimize the appearance of a military operation and avoid using provocative tactics and equipment that undermine civilian trust.
Anyone who has been following the Obamacare debacle in the Supreme Court knows that wording matters. One wrong word, or one omitted word for that matter, can make the difference between a fact and an intention. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look – a very close look- at the wording that was chosen for this.
“…a continuum of managed tactical resources that are designed to minimize the appearance of a military operation……”. Minimize the appearance of a military operation. Folks, what this report has just implied, through the use of very specific wording, is that every time there is a mass demonstration it is responded to with a military operation, not police crowd control. Minimize the appearance. Avoid using provocative tactics and equipment. Translation: During a mass protest make it look like it’s just regular police out there instead of the military so we don’t further piss anybody off. Oh, and don’t pepper spray them because that makes us look bad when it shows up on YouTube.”
The action item that followed this recommendation almost made me laugh because it entirely supported my translation.
2.7.1. ACTION ITEM: Law enforcement agency policies should address procedures for implementing a layered response to mass demonstrations that prioritize de-escalation and a guardian mindset. These policies could include plans to minimize confrontation by using “soft look” uniforms, having officers remove riot gear as soon as practical, and maintaining open postures. “When officers line up in a military formation while wearing full protective gear, their visual appearance may have a dramatic influence on how the crowd perceives them and how the event ends.”
“….their visual appearance may have a dramatic influence on how the crowd perceives them and how the event ends.” You think?! I hope the government didn’t spend too much of my tax money on this elementary school logic. Egad. Moving on…..
2.11 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should establish search and seizure procedures related to LGBTQ and transgender populations and adopt as policy the recommendation from the President’s HIV/AIDS Task Force to cease using the possession of condoms as the sole evidence of vice.
Okay, I had serious issues with this one. Why should the LGBTQ community need different search/seizure procedures? They’re so demanding of equal rights we should give them to them – apply the same procedures to them that would be applied to a heterosexual individual. Their sexual orientation should be irrelevant and singling it out like this only creates or increases bias. I have the same opinion about scholarship forms, job applications, anything like that. There shouldn’t be any place on any formal document that asks your age, gender, race, or sexual orientation. Just saying.
2.12 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should adopt and enforce policies prohibiting profiling and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, housing status, occupation, and/or language fluency.
Alright, I had serious issues with this one too. This one is going to make me sound hypocritical, but I promise I have a valid reason for my statement. I believe that police should be able to use profiling for the purposes of public safety if that profiling is supported by factual evidence. The TSA’s use of airport security is a great example of failed profiling. They have no problems patting down terrified children and strip-searching disabled individuals but wouldn’t stop a Middle Easterner if they had to because, oh no, that might be considered profiling! Who gives a rat’s ass if it’s profiling if it prevents another 9/11?! If a child goes missing should the police first search the convicted sexual offenders living in the area or would that be discriminatory? If you have a serial killer on the loose are you going to walk blindly into the investigation so that no one is profiled, or are you going to look at the characteristics of past serial killers to see if there’s a pattern? I think this is one of those “if the shoe fits” scenarios. If factual data dictates that this population is more often responsible for this action, then that’s the population you check first when that action has been committed. And don’t give me the argument that the population is being unfairly targeted. The police only make the arrest – a judge and jury are responsible for handing down a guilty verdict. To claim that there are more of a specific population incarcerated because of discrimination is stating that the police were discriminating, the judge was racist, and the jury of peers were all biased too. Sorry, but that dog don’t hunt. And don’t even get me started on the whole issue of immigration status. Every individual that is here illegally is a slap in the face of every legal emigrant.
2.14 RECOMMENDATION: The U.S. Department of Justice, through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, should partner with the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) to expand its National Decertification Index to serve as the National Register of Decertified Officers with the goal of covering all agencies within the United States and its territories. The National Decertification Index is an aggregation of information that allows hiring agencies to identify officers who have had their license or certification revoked for misconduct. It was designed as an answer to the problem “wherein a police officer is discharged for improper conduct and loses his/her certification in that state . . . [only to relocate] to another state and hire on with another police department.”
Let’s talk about being hypocritical. I personally don’t have an issue with this recommendation. In fact, I think it’s a great idea. I also think it is grossly hypocritical being filed in the same report as the recommendation that immigration status be removed from the FBI criminal database (read yesterday’s blog for details if you haven’t already). If an illegal immigrant’s actions can’t follow them to another state then why should a cop’s? Don’t get me wrong – I think both of these populations should be nationally monitored. I’m just trying to point out how unfair and discriminating it is that the report says that one shouldn’t be monitored and the other one should. Either monitor them both or monitor neither because in my mind they’re both equally a threat to public safety.
Wrapping up…..”Pillar” Two was mercifully short compared to the first one. I learn fast and didn’t try to drink anything while reading the report this time. I’m still trying to clean the soda out of my computer from yesterday. This report still brings up grave concerns, though, about the federal over-reach into local law enforcement. The fact that this is all being done by a task force that was created through executive order makes me even more distrustful of it. As I said before, this administration only investigates something when it wants to take it over. The last thing we want is Big Brother breathing down the necks of our police officers. I think that the mere fact that Attorney General Eric Holder demanded federal investigations into both the Ferguson and Trayvon Martin incidents did more to worsen race relations in this nation than anything else. The message that he sent loud and clear is that our administration does not trust the police and did not trust the court system in their handling of the cases. When you consider that this administration is actively being investigated for the cover up of the deaths of 4 Americans in Benghazi, the blatant refusal to act against ISIS, the snubbing of Israel, the illegal targeting and misuse of power by the IRS, the complete clustermuck that Obamacare has become, the Fast & Furious debacle, and the plethora of other Obama scandals it’s no wonder I’m more than a little suspicious of anything that comes from Obama’s pen and phone. And I hope you are too.
This country didn’t get stupid overnight….it took decades of people willing to be compliant little sheeple…of people who just didn’t want to “get political”….of people who didn’t think it involved them. Educate yourselves. Do your own research. Don’t buy into what the media spoon-feeds you or what the White House press secretary tells you to believe. It does involve you and you should “get political” because the very politics you don’t want to get into are going to determine how you live your life. Obama has a pen and a phone….you have a brain and a vote. Use yours more than he uses his and we may still be able to turn this country around.
To read the report for yourself, you can find it here at the DOJ’s COPS website. I’ll post Part Three tomorrow where I discuss “Pillar Three: Technology & Social Media”.
¹ Curfew implemented after nearly 900 teens storm movie theater – Ocoee, FL – reported by WKMG Local 6
Realizations, Ruminations, and Life 