Only once in my career has someone attempted to take my
gun. It was in the middle of a
street where I was struggling to place a man in handcuffs who was under the
influence of cocaine and had just smashed the picture window in the home he
shared with his wife and kids. He
was larger than me and during the grapple, I felt my weapon being tugged and
realized he was attempting to disarm me.
Fortunately, I was not alone and my partner and I were able to subdue
the offender and place him in handcuffs.
The bad guy wasn’t able to retrieve my pistol but I shudder at the
consequences if he had.
I tell you that story so you understand that an unarmed person
can pose just as much of a threat and I’m getting a bit tired of the headlines
that are painting the picture of police officers going around killing people
who don’t have guns. In fact, I’ll
give you 3 minutes with someone who is beating you with their fists and you
tell me if you feel as though your life is threatened.
Last year, 10 police officers were shot and killed in the
United States after a suspect managed to get control of an officer’s weapon.
Nearly one in five officers killed as part of a crime last year were shot with
their own (or a partner’s) weapon, according to the National Center for Law
Enforcement Technology - the highest number of such deaths in 18 years.
Because I write this column, I’ve been bombarded with
inquiries about the events in Ferguson from people wanting to know what I
think.
The truth is, it keeps me
up at night because I have an internal tug of war between what I have experienced
on the street and what I know about the men and women who wear a uniform and
risk their lives every day in the simple act of going to work. These police officers have dedicated
their existence to putting their lives on the line for people they’ve never
even met. It takes a special kind
of person to be spit on, screamed at and even harmed by those people in the
community who have made it their mission to prey upon others for their own
gratification and without empathy for their victims.
And yet these officers get up, gear up and do it all over
again day in and day out.
The conflict I feel arises because I know there are police
officers who get it wrong. When a
police officer acts with a willful and wanton disregard for the law and life, I
will not stand with them as there is no such thing as blind loyalty. We have fired police officers for
excessive force where it wasn’t justified and I don’t lose a shred of sleep over
an officer who violates policy and/or law.
Then there are those officers who act with the best of
intentions and still err in judgment.
Human beings are fallible and even though they are entrusted with powers
to enforce laws, some don’t get it right.
The difference is that the mistakes made in law enforcement
are not the same as in other professions.
I’m not on the street anymore so when I make an error, it’s typically involving
policy or decision-making. I can
usually right my wrong after careful contemplation and with little consequence. When a front line officer makes an
extreme mistake and takes a life when it wasn’t justified, this isn’t just an
error. It is a grave aberration
that accounts for a human life being erased from existence. I can think of no greater burden than a
well-intending person to have to carry with them nor can I begin to contemplate the unspeakable grief of the family who has suffered the loss. This is why our training is so intensive and why we are
held to a higher standard and why any use of force incident is dissected and scrutinized. It should be.
What happened in Ferguson on that fateful day that divided
our nation and the public from the police is bigger than police policy. We know that a police officer
confronted a strong-armed robber and the physical evidence is pretty clear
about what happened inside the officer’s squad car. By virtue of the law, the officer acted justly. The witness accounts are on the spectrum
of polarization about the events that unfolded that lead to the fatal shots. Unlike the proclaimed “experts” that will
not hesitate to tell you their opinion, I’m smart enough to say that I’m not
sure if something different could have been done. I wasn’t there to experience it.
A grand jury didn’t indict the officer and some think our
justice system worked while others say it failed. This alone tells you that the answer is not easy.
The only thing I know with vehement confidence is that the
police are not the bad guys. There
are bad cops out there who do our profession a disservice (just like any
profession) and we must constantly hold them accountable.
Police officers are the good guys and I boldly proclaim that
the aftermath of looting and violence in Ferguson would be far more commonplace
but for the police officers who act as guardians of our communities every day.
It is easy to choose between right and wrong when there is a
glaring line between the two extremes.
But life doesn’t often provide us with such simplistic scenarios and
instead, we are faced with multiple facets of truth sprinkled with perceptions
and judgments.
