Thursday, June 18, 2020

Commitment

The Atlanta Police Department is in serious trouble.
Hours after a fired police officer was charged with felony murder for fatally shooting a man in the back, Atlanta police officers are not responding to calls in three of the department's six zones, multiple sources within the Atlanta Police Department told CNN on Wednesday evening.
I'm surprised that Atlanta has only six zones.  A police zone is an area in which officers are assigned for patrol and other purposes.  You learn your zone like the back of your hand, and  work within that zone to keep the peace.  I know many small towns of less than 100K populatio who have more than six zones, but that is police trivia.  What is more troubling is that half of the zones aren't answering calls.
"There's a lot happening in our cities and our police officers are receiving the brunt of it, quite frankly," Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN's Chris Cuomo. She said the city has committed to the officers through a big pay raise, and "we expect that our officers will keep their commitment to our communities."
Police work isn't about the pay.  I don't know any police officer, ever, who got into the service for the money.  It's nice to get a paycheck and everyone has to make a living, but the money is not the reason why a person puts on the badge.  The mayor should understand that.

And, it's not about the fact that an officer was charged with murder.  During my career, I was involved in the arrest of several officers who tarnished the badge.  We were doing our ob, policing ourselves as we policed the city.

It's about respect, and knowing that whatever happens on the street, that the supervisors will stand up and do the right thing.  If the rank-and-file officers thought that the charge was  righteous, they'd be at work.   Evidently, they believe that the charge is a knee-jerk reaction designed to calm the outraged, without a serious, sober review of the facts.

Police work is hard.  Sometimes an officer has to make a decision based on the facts on the ground without full knowledge of what might happen in the next second, or the next day.  That officer has to know that his actions will be judged solely on what is happening at that instant based on his training and understanding of the law.  Monday morning quarterbacking is not allowed.

The commitment runs both ways.  When the Mayor, or Chief of Police does not support the officers, the best paycheck in the region won't keep officers on the force.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

After 39 years in the job, I thank God I'm now retired. Law Enforcement is not now a career I could steer anyone to. I'm worried that we will see cities degrade severely as we suffer what appears to me to be a Marxist/Communist revolution.

Retired Cop

Sabre22 said...

She throws the ENTIRE Department UNDER the bus and now SHE? is COMPLAINING That they are not doing their jobs. They should give her THE NYPD was giving Deblasio That being turning their back on her. I would find me a Hidy Hole and only respond to an Officer in trouble call. For a year or so and see what happens to Atlanta then.

Dave said...

APD officers are angry because the officer was fired before any investigation was completed. Then the DA piles on by charging him with murder. GBI even announced that they hadn't finished the investigation.

I'll add that every cop I know who's watched the video thinks it was justified. Brooks stole a weapon (Taser) and then was shot after he fired it at the officers chasing him.

I've also seen speculation that the DA might have personal political motives, beyond trying to appease the mob. He apparently came in second in the primary election, and there will be a run off, which he looks likely to lose. So he's leaving this as a flaming turd F-You lose/lose to his probable successor.

Mike said...

I do forensic work (document, crime-scene tracking, and latent image), and have a good amount of contact with sworn officers. My brother retired from 36 years Border Patrol.
This is a very succinct and clearly-expressed explanation of what I think, or at least hope, describes the motivation and mission of the vast majority of police officers.
Well put.

dogsledder said...

This is a symptom of the fall of civilization and we had better take this seriously. We must choose if we want to save our civilization, or let chaos and the devil rule us. No one is perfect, especially the police, but we are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Do we want to live in a MAD MAX world or worse, or will we stand up and protect our society and help those who are protecting us ?

Termite said...

Couple of interesting articles:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/06/where_are_all_the_guns_and_ammo_purchased_under_obama.html

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/06/how_to_fight_the_wokeand_win.html