Yes, cops are under stress. But they’re trained to rise above emotional responses. It’s part of having the badge and the right to use force.
In 1951, Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War. The two never got along, but that wasn’t why Truman canned him. “I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was,” explained Truman after the fact. “I fired him because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president.” You expect soldiers of all ranks to understand the need to respect the chain of command, regardless of personal feelings.
Soldiers—and cops, too.
Which is one big reason the display by members of the New York Police Department at the funeral of slain patrolman Rafael Ramos is particularly disturbing. At Ramos’s funeral service Saturday, NYPD rank-and-file—along with members of police forces attending from around the country—turned their backswhen Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered his eulogy. This was a very public fuck you to a politician widely perceived by conservatives and law-and-order types as weak on crime and in the pocket of social-justice warriors. Yet the cops’ protest illustrates exactly what drives so much fear of the police: the worry that cops react emotionally and impulsively in situations that call for cool rationality and a reliance on training and strategic restraint. “It wasn’t planned,” said one of the protesters. “Everyone just started doing it.”
“I certainly don’t support that action,” said NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. “I think it was very inappropriate at that event.” Bratton—whom de Blasio appointed and who first served as commissioner under tough-guy Rudy Giuliani—is very much in the tradition of “Give ’em Hell” Harry Truman. Which is to say that he at times lets his emotions get the best of him, as when he spuriously implicated President Obama for strained relations between police and citizens, saying that cops feel as if they “are under attack from the federal government at the highest levels.”
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
4 comments:
wow. most articles on this site bash police for acting superior to everyone else, whether on or off duty. but now you come out and say that they are better then everyone else? seems like police cant win for losing these days. simply turning their backs on the mayor for what seems like a very good reason does not seem unbecoming to me.
It says other cops from other states as well. Maryland state better not have. We have no dog in that fight. We went for respect of the fallen.
And why take government vehicles up there?look at Baltimore. Had two cops wreck in jersey on motorcycles. Smdh.
Let's get one thing straight. That prique de Blasio turned his back on the cops well before they responded in kind. I hope to start seeing more of this.
Really? What if he was showing more for his constituents? That's the problem with Leos like you! You feel that you should automatically have your back taken by the government! Well guess what there are going to be future leaders that do not care for law enforcement. Just remember after the next thirty years of acting like doinks the youngsters of today will be in charge .
This mayor is now damned if he does or doesn't! This is what happens when entities are valued more than others. All men are equally. And all lives matter.
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