Pick A Side

Well written commentary by a retired LAPD officer Posted on Retired California Law Enforcement FB Page. He gave permission to share it.

​ "I haven’t really spoken out about our nation’s situation, but after the Los Angeles mayor referred to Police Officers as “Killers” I could no longer keep quiet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not supporting the Minneapolis Police officer’s actions of kneeling on the suspect’s neck and for the duration he did so. The LAPD has specific training on how to deal with suspects in medical distress and this type of misconduct wouldn’t have happened or been tolerated here.

But Mayor Garcetti’s commet has to be the single most inflammatory and dangerous comment yet made by a public official towards law enforcement. What kind of vote pandering, shortsighted and reckless stupidity is this?

For 31 years my wife and I have served the citizens of Los Angeles as LAPD sworn Officers, with honor, dignity and respect. We haven’t killed anyone and the vast majority of my Brother and Sister Officers haven’t either. Most will never fire their weapon in the line of duty, yet alone kill someone! Only 1 out of a 1000 Officers are involved in a fatal use of force during their career. That means 99.9 percent of Officers don’t kill anyone during their entire career in the performance of their duties.

Yet the mayor of LA just referred to all Police Officers as “killlers.” Not the criminal element that is actually involved in committing criminal homicides. How disgusting this is! Talk about bigotry! Judging a person for the uniform they wear is no better then judging someone for the color of their skin. This only gives a false justification for criminals to resist lawful arrest and motivate unprovoked attacks on Officers.

I guess I’m just sick and tired of the complaining and second guessing of how we police officers do our jobs, especially from people that have no clue on how to do my job and either couldn’t or wouldn’t imagine risking their own lives to go into harms way to protect others. Enforcing the law has always had an ugly side to it. On a rare occasion, a suspect will resist arrest. There is no such thing as a pleasant use of force, it always looks horrible to the inexperienced person.

But I can assure you, there is no way to peacefully restrain and subdue an aggressive criminal that is intent on violently resisting arrest or fighting with the police. It’s always going to look bad and unnerving. And I’m especially sick and tired of the media and the outspoken minority of individuals in this nation, completely absolving the involved criminal of any culpability or responsibility for their actions that put them in that situation in the first place. They blame completely falls on the Officer that is doing his job.

I’m so done with the, ”They shot him over a ticket or petty theft.” comment. No, the suspect was detained for a simple traffic infraction or petty crime, but was shot because sometime during the contact, the suspect decided to attack the officer or presented a deadly threat that forced the officers hand. Officers are always reactionary to the suspects actions. Here’s a simple solution to law enforcement related deaths. DON’T RESIST ARREST!!!! Submit to arrest and have your day in court. Trust me if the arrest was unlawful, you’ll get paid.

This continual dehumanizing of Police Officers is a very dangerous and slippery slope. Now there is a motion to cut the LAPD budget and calls to defund law enforcement completely. Really? Who is going to provide the security to the vast majority of the citizens that can’t or are unwilling to protect themselves?

The citizens of this nation have employed men and women to do this dangerous “dirty” work of dealing with the criminal element for centuries, but they don’t want to see what it occasionally takes to deal with them. Sometimes it’s horrible, dirty and deadly.

I’m sorry to carry on this long, but I have to say, a society that makes war on its police, had better learn to live with it’s criminals. It’s going to come to a time to pick a side. I’m all for peaceful protests and reforms, but this crap is an all out war on law enforcement.
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And if you’re offended by my comments, or support the terrorist organizations of antifa or BLM then please feel free to defriend me at this time. I’ve seen first hand the destruction they have caused and deadly attacks they have perpetrated on Officers"