
I never thought I would live to see the day where uniformed police officers performing their duties would not only be doused with buckets of water, but also just walk to their patrol cars and do nothing.
This is not necessarily a testimonial to these officers, but rather a testimonial as to just who is winning in the war on cops. Here are the main weaknesses in our society exploited by anarchists and criminals that have led us down this dangerous road to the point where this is tolerated:
First is biased, one-sided media coverage. It’s the same cycle: an incident is caught on tape. The public becomes outraged. The police department doesn’t comment except to say, “We are investigating.” The media shows it over and over and interviews people who are outraged and don’t understand. By the time the police department makes a finding, nobody cares about it anymore, and instead everyone is outraged about the next incident.
Second is our politicians are more concerned with placating a misinformed public than they are with the rule of law. It seems like every time there is a high profile incident, politicians have a knee-jerk reaction. They comment off the cuff without understanding the incident or police policy, usually just instituting mandatory training for everyone. They put into place new, restricting policies and rules. Politicians are scared to stand up and say, “Yes, that’s what happens when you resist the police.”
Finally, more and more case law and department policies are aimed at restricting police power and discretion. When I was an officer they told us, “Case law says that a police officer’s peace may not be disturbed.” In other words, we couldn’t charge people with disturbing the peace when we were the victim. Why not? It didn’t say that in the statute. In many places including New York, verbal taunting is not against the law. Why not? It should be. There is an explosion of videos from people filming themselves while verbally taunting the police, trying to bait them into taking action. Why is that allowed? Let’s arrest them.
Watch the disgusting news coverage of water being thrown on the cops HERE. Please pay special attention to the reporter’s narration as he notes the actions against the police are sickening, but also unlikely to cause injury. What is really sickening here is the tone of this entire news story and the attitude toward what happened to those officers.
The message police are receiving from the media, their administration, politicians and the public when you read between the lines of what is happening is, “Unless it’s a mass shooting, we would rather you walk away then have to explain and justify your actions.” Basically, do nothing and nothing happens!
Police officers are literally terrified to take action. Who could blame them? Perhaps in the minds of these New York officers was this dilemma, “Either get water thrown on me and walk away OR take action, have the video of that splashed all over the world, lose my job, get put on trial, and have to move away.”
There is something very important we have lost sight of as a country—Use of force NEVER looks good, yet it is sometimes necessary. Yes, even justified use of force looks bad when we watch it, especially when that is all we see.
We need to remember a few things we already agreed upon as a country:
1) The police have the right to use force.
2) The police have the right to win fights decisively.
3) Like it or not, use of force by peace officers is a necessary thing to enforce laws and protect our way of life.
America beware—a culture of lawlessness is right around the corner if we continue down this path. The videos from New York prove the outspoken minority of Americans perpetrating this war on the cops are winning and as a result, the silent majority of people now live in a less safe world.
What would have happened if police would have arrested the water-throwers and ended up having to use force when they resisted? I think it’s a fair assumption that brazen criminals throwing water on the police would not have peacefully submitted to an arrest. There would have been a small minority of people crying out, “The police are racist brutes! It was just a little water. Water can’t injure people! Was it worth injuring people over a little water? They were just kids messing around!!” The media would have showed the use of force video over and over. The department would have said, “We are investigating.” The politicians would have said, “This isn’t right. We are instituting mandatory training and new rules.” The small group of anarchists would then chalk up yet another victory in the war on cops and America would again be a little less safe for the rest of us. Sound familiar? It should.
No. It’s time to stop this momentum the anarchists have built. Let’s get behind NYPD Chief Terence Monahan, who is one of the few to stand up and say there will be consequences for your actions! Let’s find our backbones and say, “Boy did they have that coming!” Next time, let us watch the news coverage of the police using force against resisting anarchists as we, the media, police administrations, politicians and the rest of America (while turning to our children) together all say, “See, that’s what happens to you when you throw water on the police and then resist arrest.”
**Steve Warneke is an Emmy award-winning producer, speaker, police expert, and author of From Boy To Blue. Find more from Steve at www.SteveWarneke.com.
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