William N. Grigg
Blueprivilege means that every gust of official halitosis from a cop is a "lawful command" -- and refusal to comply is a capital offense. The problem is always insufficient submissiveness, not abuse of "authority."
This is the opening bid on the part of the Regime's enforcement caste. They will neither reform, nor relent. They will escalate. They will lose, eventually, but horrible things are going to happen en route to that outcome.
Op-ed: It’s society, not police, who need to change
By B.L. Smith
Dec 06 2014
Are 45 deaths at hands of police cause for alarm?" (Tribune, Nov. 23)
You bet. It is alarming that society has lost respect for law enforcement to the point that some believe they can pick and choose what lawful commands from law enforcement they wish to comply with. Since Aug. 9 (the date of the Ferguson officer-involved shooting) to this writing, at least 37 law enforcement officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. More than 15 were murdered with guns.
In 2012, FBI statistics (not every agency in the country reports their stats to the FBI) showed that 52,901 officers were assaulted in our country. This is of 520,047 officers serving over 247 million people. The term "use of force" is a misnomer. Police respond to the use of force or threat of force against themselves or the public. Law enforcement uses that force which is reasonable and necessary to stop the threat (not shoot to kill).
My career in law enforcement started in 1970. I retired in 1998 to take a position as a training coordinator for another law enforcement agency, where I have been since. Forty-four years in law enforcement full time. I currently come up with a minimum of 10 hours of training a month for 110 officers. There is annual use of force training at the same training in which officers annually recertify with their TASERs. They receive use of force training when they train on defensive tactics. They receive use of force training when they annually qualify with their department weapon(s). Use of force is a high-risk, low-frequency issue.
This hue and cry over police militarization and officer-involved shootings is detrimental to our society. The finger should not be pointed at law enforcement. It should be pointed at our society as a whole. There is an ‘R’ rated You Tube video from Chris Rock that is many years old. He titled this video, "How not to get your ass kicked by the police!" The very first item on his list is obey the law! Failure to obey the law puts you at risk of law enforcement intervention. Do not argue with society’s (not law enforcement’s) laws. If you disagree, there are many avenues after the situation stabilizes to address any concerns.
For more than 20 years I have hosted training not only for the officers on my department but for officers around the state on an annual basis. This training brings in local law enforcement officers who have been in shootings, been stabbed, injured or taken a life. They speak to officers about how it affects them, their family, their marriage, their work. I have brought in their spouses to speak about how it affected them and their children. (One officer’s child was told by a classmate that his dad was a murderer.) Never in all the years of this training have these officers been anything but hopeful that their story may help another officer from going through what they went through.
Any use of force is reported to that officer’s agency (most agencies follow this procedure) via police reports. Each use of force is reviewed by supervisors to ensure department policy and state law was followed. Annually our use of force reports are reviewed to see if there is a spike in any one form of force used. If so, increased training in that area is scheduled for our department.
In all of my years in law enforcement, I have met maybe a half-dozen law enforcement officers that were mentally not fit (prone to violent tendencies) to be officers. These individuals were investigated by their own agency and fired. Nationally, agencies do the same. Los Angeles Police fired Chris Dorner and criminally charged Raphael Perez. Miami Police investigated and arrested what was known as the "Miami River Cops."
So are 45 deaths at the hands of police a cause for alarm? Yes. It is a wake-up call for society.
B.L. Smith retired from the Salt Lake City Police Department and is now training coordinator for the Sandy City Police Department.
http://www.sltrib.com/…/19…/op-ed-its-society-not-police-who
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