Nashville Cop Recounts Confronting the Transgender School Shooter

Recommendable! Great professionalism on display given such a situation! Just imagine you had been the police officer on call on that day!

4th Police Officer Who Was at Jan. 6 Capitol Breach Dies by Suicide

This seems to be an unusual development! What is behind these suicides?

Apparently, this police officer was not part of the U.S. Capitol police. He was only present at the the January 6th protests. How many police officers do commit suicide during their careers?

"A fourth police officer who was present at the grounds of the Capitol building when it was breached on Jan. 6 has died by suicide, according to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD).

Metropolitan Police Officer Kyle DeFreytag, 26, was found dead on July 10 from suicide, an MPD spokeswoman told The Epoch Times via email.

DeFreytag was assigned to the Fifth District and had been with the police department since November 2016. ..."

4th Police Officer Who Was at Jan. 6 Capitol Breach Dies by Suicide (behind paywall)

511 Police Officers 'Feloniously Killed' on Duty in Last 10 Years on Record in the United States

Very recommendable! Let the truth be told! Every time a police officers confronts an offender, the officer risks his/her life!

This article does not even include all those brave police officers, who loose their lives or are severely injured in pursuit of offenders/criminals! It also raises questions about the death sentence for cop killers!

"... 56 law enforcement officers “feloniously killed” in the United States in 2018. ... 
A felonious killing, according to the FBI, is an “[i]ncident type in which an officer, while engaged in or on account of the performance of their official duties, was fatally injured as a direct result of a willful and intentional act by an offender.”

In the 10 most recent years for which the FBI has published numbers (2010 through 2019), 511 law enforcement officers have been the victims of felonious killings.

That is almost one a week—over the span of a decade. ...

In 2019, 48 law enforcement officers were victims of felonious killings. ..."

Compare this to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: TABLE A-5. Fatal occupational injuries by occupation and event or exposure, all United States, 2019

Accross all of the U.S. and across all occupations a total of 841 died on the job due to "Violence and other injuries by persons or animals" of which where 43 police officers (or about 5% of all). Thus police officer is easily among the most hazardous jobs in the United States! Remember that!

511 Police Officers 'Feloniously Killed' on Duty in Last 10 Years on Record

Robert Peel's 9 Principles Of Collaborative Policing

Posted: 8/28/2014; Updated: 8/28/2014

Triggered

I have recently read about them and was again reminded today (8/28/2014) of these principles by following article “Are Police More Damned Trouble Than They're Worth?\Modern police forces have become little more than a new set of predators from which the public needs protection.”

In the beginning of this article, the author refers to Sir Robert Peel's (who established the London Metropolitan Police) principles as presented by the current New York city police commissioner William J. Bratton on his blog post.

The New York Times in this article casts doubt that Sir Robert Peel ever enunciated such, but admits it could have been the first two commissioners of the London Metropolitan Police.

The Nine Principles

These principles are excerpted from Mr. Bratton’s blog post (emphasis added):

Principle 1 - “The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.”

Principle 2 - “The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.”

Principle 3 - “Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.”

Principle 4 - “The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.”

Principle 5 - “Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to the public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.”

Principle 6 - “Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.”

Principle 7 - “Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public  who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”

Principle 8 - “Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.”

Principle 9 - “The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.”

I think, this should be taught in every high school!

Some Notes

We have recently witnessed several instances of excessive use of lethal force against unarmed citizens or mentally ill citizens by police officers that were prominently featured in the news.

I remember that e.g. in Germany police officers were trained to shoot first in the legs or arms of a suspect in an effort to immobilize a threatening suspect, in particular if the suspect is wielding a weapon of any sort (e.g. hammer, knife), but a gun.

I also sense from past news reports that police officers too often use Tasers to deal with fairly harmless suspects.

The Unarmed British Bobby

It would probably not hurt to learn that most British police officers were unarmed most of the times during most of modern history. There are some lessons learnt for the U.S. police departments.

This should in no way be construed to suggest that police officers in the U.S. should be unarmed, but the use of lethal force should be the ultima ratio and every police officer who uses lethal force should be held fully accountable for its use.

See e.g. Wikipedia article about this subject.

Stop Reflexively Praising Police Officers As Heroes

Posted: 8/15/2014

Trigger

I was very surprised to read this article “It’s Time for Conservatives to Stop Defending Police There is nothing conservative about government violating the rights of citizens.” in the National Review.

Don’t get me wrong: Individual police officers have become true heroes through their actions!

The Police Department

The police officers are carefully crafted as first responders, heroes, putting their life on the line every minute of their duty; we are left to believe that many of them die every year in the line of duty in a shooting with criminals etc.

This contrasts clearly with the power that police officer labor unions wield and with the intensified militarization of police forces across the country latest since the 1980s, when the Reagan Administration upped the fight against drugs.

SWAT Teams

It seems now almost every police department in the country no matter how small has one of those teams plus the military gear. As NPR reported today, if a county has a SWAT team, the smallest town in that county wants to have one too.

Perhaps, in the beginning SWAT teams were strictly limited to counteract armed hostage taking or other, very severe offenses by armed criminals. However, now that there are so many SWAT teams, they have to be used whenever possible. Not least, once you have a SWAT team at your disposal and you don’t use it in an incident, the police department will be sued for negligence. Catch-22!

Dash & Body Cameras

From a technology standpoint it should be quite feasible today to equip every police car and police officer with such cameras that record their duty activities from beginning to end.

I would say, it should be done! If the powerful police labor unions object so be it! Police officers have such powers as no one else, they should be held accountable for what they are doing.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis is often quoted as saying:

“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman."” (Source; emphasis added)

Let’s add to that cameras that record the actions of police officers.

Such cameras would also allow to record offenses committed by criminals to be recorded more often in the act or to easily reveal the lies offered by criminals when caught.

Few Examples Of How Arizona High Way Patrol Officers Waste Tax Payers' Money

Parking On The Sideline

Quite often during rush hour you see a highway patrol car parked highly visible next to the shoulder like a scare crow. All of a sudden traffic slows down in fear of this one vehicle. What a costly nonsense!

Not only does this cause ripple effects, as I surmise, but it makes driving on the highways more dangerous since this contributes to those dreaded, irrational sudden stops on the highways during rush hour.

Reporting A Low Impact, No Casualty Accident

How long does it take a highway patrol officer to write-up a traffic accident of two vehicles involved in a slow speed, little damage, and no casualties accident? More than 30 minutes, despite the fact that this officer is equipped with a tough notebook.

Do you think in the 21^st century, the highway patrol officer would take any digital pictures of the accident or digitally record the statements made by the persons involved in the accident? Are you kidding! The least you would expect is that the highway patrol officer takes digital pictures of the scene and persons.

Why did this highway patrol officer feel obliged to officially report this accident? Because the estimated damage of this accident was above $1,000. If this is the official threshold for reporting an accident by highway police, then that means almost every accident a highway police officer encounters need to be reported. Is that right?

Receiving A Copy Takes A Minimum Of 15 Days

One of the notes at the bottom of the “Arizona Department Of Public Safety – Collision Exchange Slip” says “Please allow for 15 days before requesting a copy of your collision report.” This “Slip” is not to be confused with the “report”. E.g. it does not contain any details about the collision.

Is this the 21^st century and it takes the police 15 or more days to furnish a collision report? The police must be seriously understaffed or …

President Obama And His Nutty Professor

The Private Sector Is Doing Fine, The Public Sector Is Suffering

Recently, President Obama embarrassed himself when he announced that the private sector was doing fine, but the public sector was suffering. How did he come up with this incredible statement?

They have said that the Obama Administration is unique in that there are barely any business people on board, but plenty of brainy so called intellectuals.

Meet One Of Obama’s Nutty Advisors

The Opinion page of the US Edition of the Wall Street Journal on 6/22/2012, published a third of a page article titled “Republicans Are Blocking Obama’s Jobs Plan”  written by Jeffrey Liebman, public policy professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Liebman is also “a senior economic policy advisor to the Obama campaign. From 2009 to 2010 he was executive associate director and Chief Economist and then acting deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.”. He has a PhD in economics from Harvard.

When it comes to economics, Professor Liebman has it completely backwards just like President Obama. He and the President are missing the point as if living in an ivory tower or in a bubble void of any understanding of basic economics.

Here are some selected quotes from Professor Liebman’s article (emphasis added):

·         “One of the largest drags on our economy has been the layoffs of public employment like teachers, firefighters and police officers”

·         “ … over the past 27 months, state and local government employment has fallen by 450,000 jobs …”

·         Professor Liebman summarizes a study by three economists as “that in a single year of teaching a great teacher raises the lifetime earnings of her students by $250,000 relative to an average teacher”

·         “There is a strong consensus about what the immediate challenges facing our economy are: first and foremost, a continued lack of demand …”

Obama Believes The Economy Depends On Teachers, Firefighters, And Police Offers

Until I read Professor Liebman’s opinion piece, I had no idea how essential unionized teachers in public schools, or firefighters, or police officers were for the well being of a free market economy. Of these three public sector professions listed only police officers are actually a genuine government function that also serves a free market economy. The other two, i.e. public schools and fire fighting, could easily be privatized and it would be cheaper to the public.

Is it not possible that this severe recession has finally opened our eyes as to how bloated the public sector was? Yes, I think so.

Would college tuitions be lower if professors like Mr. Liebman would be working in the private sector? Yes, I think so.

Thank you Wall Street Journal for exposing the peculiar thought processes of the inner circle of the Obama Administration. Thank you for not blocking access to the full article.