Support good cops
A short while ago, one of my longtime Facebook friends criticized the Racket News for a meme that we ran on Facebook and Twitter. The meme, repeated below, was not intended to be offensive. It simply featured the Capitol Police officers who testified before the January 6 commission and stated, “I’m with them.”
The poster was critical of the Racket and asked if we had posted a similar meme in support of police during the BLM riots in the summer of 2020. Well, I have to confess that we actually did not. The Racket debuted on December 7, 2020, so we weren’t around then to post such memes. (To be fair, he did retract this criticism.)
But that doesn’t mean that we didn’t support the police during the riots. Those of you who followed me at The Resurgent may remember that I wrote a number of articles condemning the riots and supporting good cops who opposed them. But I also was openly critical of bad cops like the officers who killed George Floyd and set off the riots.
Now, I’ll agree that police officers deserve some accolades and respect simply for having the courage and dedication to put on the uniform. I’ll even agree that officers deserve some benefit of the doubt since they are often in tough situations that require split-second decisions.
But the flip side is that some cops abuse the power that is delegated to them. Some use their authority to bully citizens and commit crimes. Some just aren’t up to the very difficult task of community policing.
While I strongly opposed the actions of the rioters, I also believe that a police response that was too heavy-handed in some areas was also inappropriate. For example, using tear gas against peaceful demonstrators was both ironic and counterproductive considering the fact that the protests, many of which really were nonviolent, were in opposition to police brutality.
A low point was when police in Buffalo were videotaped roughly pushing a 75-year-old man to the ground. The man was injured in the fall, but assault charges against the cops were ultimately dropped.
This incident was bad, but it was far from the only instance of police brutality across the country last summer. Indianapolis police tear-gassed a peaceful prayer rally in June. This incident led to a lawsuit in which the Indianapolis Metro Police Department changed its policy to prohibit the use of “riot control agents” against passive resistance and peaceful protests.
In another example of what seems to be a clear Fourth Amendment violation, Minneapolis police in riot gear fired paintballs at residents sitting peacefully on the porch of their own home to force them inside. The examples of police heavy-handedness are too numerous to mention, but Greg Doucette collected many of them in a Twitter thread with more than 1,200 comments, many of which are videos of alleged brutality.
There was also good policing last summer. Many police defused potentially explosive situations by showing sympathy for the protesters. Some even marched with them. Sometimes force is needed and sometimes force is counterproductive.
I’m not saying that all cops are bad any more than I’m saying, “Believe all women,” but neither are all cops good. The appropriate way to handle both claims of police brutality and claims of sexual assault is to look at the evidence and decide what the truth is in that particular case.
Cameras help us determine what the truth is. For most of our history, it was the word of police against the word of citizens. Most often the police would win. Now video is an objective measure of who is telling the truth. I’m a firm believer that cops who act reasonably have nothing to fear from cameras. It is the bad cops - or good cops who make bad decisions such as the Minneapolis officer who accidentally shot Daunte Wright - who are being outed by videos.
There were a lot of good cops during the BLM riots, but there were also some really bad ones. The cops who did their jobs honorably deserve to be applauded, but there should be consequences for the ones who stepped over the line. I won’t go into qualified immunity here, but the doctrine is a judge-created travesty that needs to be reformed so that bad officers and departments can be held accountable and a higher standard of behavior can be set.
There were also bad cops on the Capitol Police force on January 6. At least six Capitol Police officers were suspended for their actions during the insurrection. This was not for being too harsh on the rioters but for joining them. These actions included taking selfies with rioters, putting on a MAGA hat, and giving the attackers directions inside the Capitol.
But the four officers who testified before the congressional hearings were good cops. They did their jobs honorably and then were snubbed by the party that claims to “Back the Blue.” This snub wasn’t because they did their jobs poorly but because…
I don’t think there really is one reason. Some of the radical MAGA crowd hate them because they didn’t join the mob. I think a lot of people on the right expected the police to join the revolution. When they failed to do so, the mob became vicious.
Even more than that, however, I think that the Capitol Police who are speaking out about the insurrection are an embarrassment to the Republican Party. They are a reminder that elements of the GOP led by Donald Trump tried to stage a coup and overthrow the constitutional order. Republicans would like to forget about January 6 and the Capitol Police won’t let them.
So, yes. I stand with the Capitol Police and with good cops everywhere. Proudly.
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The interesting thing about the riots, is that the protesting would be peaceful early on. Then you would have a handful of extremists come in and give the peaceful protestors a bad name. I really feel that these rioters hurt the cause they purport to support. The irony is that some of these rioters seemed to be these young woke white college kids that were from affluent and stable households. They would go and destroy many businesses and private property, many which belonged to African Americans. And they ruined the lives of many black Americans, all under the name of "racial justice". I never doubted that anyone at the Racket News were strongly opposed to rioting over the past summer.
The problem is that some people are so partisan/tribal that they push this either/or dichotomy. If you condemn the Capitol Hill lawlessness of 1-6, then you somehow are okay with the riots of the past summer. If you condemned the woke riots in Spring/Summer 2020, then somehow you are okay with storming the Capitol to overthrow an election. While I think the insurrection is significantly worse, due to the greater threat to our elected constitutional republic, it is completely possible to be thoroughly disgusted at both and not have to choose at the either for/against narratives as the fringe left and right would want use to do.
Since you aptly mentioned about the importance of body cameras, we have a way of objectively looking at every deadly or injury causing incident that occurs between civilians and cops. This is where objectivity and nuance are important. Many incidents are close calls, where a split-second meant the difference between a dead law enforcement officer and other innocent civilians, versus the death of the suspect. The slim perception-reaction time that cops face in these situations is what gives me a lot of respect for those had to make these split second decisions. Too often, many people draw conclusions that fit their desired narratives on both ends, when the truth often is a lot more nuanced and complicated. All too often, noncompliance by the apprehended results in unnecessary added duress to the situation, pushing the limit of a cop's perception-reaction time. Emphasizing lawful compliance is also helpful in reducing unnecessary deaths or injury. A combination of better expectations on both the police and civilians can go a long way for improving things.
Obviously, the bad cops should be held fully accountable for their bad deeds. In addition to what you said about qualified immunity, I think public sector unions, such as police unions, must be either done away with, or at the very least, heavily reformed. They are major reason why there are people in the law enforcement profession that don't belong there. A constructive solution would be to heavily boost the pay of law enforcement officers in addition to providing them top level training to give them more resources and know how in dealing with tough situations and close calls. With that higher pay, we can attract more to the profession, which will give more wiggle room to expect more from our good law enforcement officers while letting go of the not so good ones. Pay more, expect more seems like a win-win.
Along those lines, those 4 Capitol Police officers deserve a massive raise in their pay and benefits. They are among our very finest. Those in the MAGA crowd ridiculing and mocking these 4 ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's not "back the blue, no matter who", but more of "back the blue*" with the asterisk meaning "insurrections excepted".