Thursday, August 16, 2018

Sometimes the police can't win for losing


Calibre Press posted this video a few days ago.





In an accompanying article, the author pointed out:

Only one person should be talking to the witnesses and taking information—confidential information, as it is—from the victims. That person in this case, Officer Bartynski. No one else should inject themselves into the investigation.

This is too much, it seems, for Rev. David Bullock.

. . .

I’m not going to detail everything Reverend Bullock said over the course of the video. But what I will say is that this is a sad state of affairs we’re in.

Elites criticize peace officers with impunity. They talk about the “epidemic of police violence” and “systemic racism.” And this has consequences. People, like Rev. Bullock, apparently, have come to see police, laws, and, ultimately, our democracy as illegitimate.

Upon his release the pastor again disparaged the entire police profession stating that racist arrests like his are why the community doesn’t cooperate with the police.

Let’s consider this specific incident. Once Bullock clearly states he isn’t going to obey the officer, what are Bartynski’s options? Let him continue to interfere? Allow the pastor to give his uneducated opinions to the victim and her family? Wait until the pastor has confused and delayed the process for as long as he likes?

There's more at the link.

I think the author is exactly right.  This sort of racially motivated interference in routine police work is inappropriate, unacceptable and inexcusable.  If actual police misconduct is observed, then of course those comments no longer apply:  but in this case, no such misconduct is evident.  There's merely a knee-jerk reaction on the part of the pastor, who seems to anticipate that every police intervention is or will be motivated by animus rather than the requirements of the law.  (He also needs a few lessons in the use of language more appropriate to his calling.)

That sort of bias is what's destroying many communities.  Yes, some police deserve suspicion and distrust - but the majority of them don't.  Unless and until we can educate our community leaders to distinguish between those two categories, things are not going to improve.

Peter

6 comments:

Chris Mallory said...

This writer is well off base. It doesn't take comments from the "elites" to turn people against cops. The actions of the cops are enough to do that. He also seems enamored by "lawful commands". Bullshit. Unless a person is under arrest there is no such thing as a "lawful command". The citizens are the masters and the ones in charge, not the government employees.

How do you "nonviolently" lay hands on another person and push them across the street? A government employee should not be touching any citizen who is not under arrest.
It is well past time we disarmed cops and removed most of their privileges from them. Cops in the US are out of control and must be put back on the leash.

Cops are the standing army the Founding Fathers warned us about. ALL of them must always be treated with distrust and suspicion.

Yes, I know Peter, you are not an American, so the rights of citizens are not natural to you. That is one major reason why the borders should be closed to all immigration.

The rights of citizens are more important than the safety and life of a government employee.

McChuck said...

Chris - Your eyes must be brown.

Nate Winchester said...

"Why didn't you save my wife?" -Citizen
"Sorry, sir, but as a government employee I'm not allowed to touch her unless she's under arrest." -Fireman

"Sir we need you to go this way." -Policeman
"Screw you! You can't give me order!" -Citizen who proceeds to drive forward.
"But the bridge is out." -Policeman.
[insert crashing noises]

Thornharp said...

I just woke (ahem) up. I is it troll season already?

nono said...

They should have made him wait till Monday Morning to let him go.

@Chris you are wrong that was a crime scene, that means until the officer releases the scene he has complete control of it and any one on it.

In this case the only people who he needed to be talking to was the victim and her parent. Ata-boys to the officer for finding out before he asks any questions if the victim had a parent or guardian at the scene.

Tim said...

I'd grown up fearing the lynch mobs of the Ku Klux Klan; as an adult I was starting to wonder if I'd been afraid of the wrong white people all along - where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes, but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony.
SCOTUS Clarence Thomas
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/clarence_thomas_473323