by C. Mitchell Shaw
Events of the past year — including Antifa/BLM riots and liberal media portrayal of nearly every police shooting involving anyone with black or brown skin as an act of racism by a racist police system — have stretched the thin blue line even thinner. And the brave men and women who risk life and limb to serve and protect their fellow citizens now find themselves at even greater risk. One of the biggest reasons why police work has become more dangerous and less desirable is that pandering politicians have bent to the prevailing political winds of a noisy minority by steadily stripping rank-and-file officers and deputies of anything resembling support from above.
State and Local Legislation
Proposed “police reform” measures in states and cities across the nation aim at making it harder for good cops to do an already hard job. In the wake of the death of George Floyd, the Marshall Project reported that lawmakers in 16 states had introduced bills “to improve police oversight and accountability.” “Police oversight and accountability” is a buzz-phrase for assuming the guilt of cops who exercise force (especially lethal force) in the performance of their duties and is used to gain support for “reforms” that, in the name of “oversight and accountability,” will hamstring individual officers and entire departments.
The Left-leaning and anti-police Marshall Project published a telling article last year entitled Which States Are Taking on Police Reform After George Floyd? It painted a bleak picture of the state of police actions, feeding from and into the false narrative of rampant police brutality and the need for “reform” that strips away the tools and power that cops need to keep their communities and themselves safe. It also paints a glowing picture of the proposed “reforms,” saying:
Eighteen days after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, the Minnesota state Legislature introduced 48 bills in a special session on law enforcement. On the same day, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a new bill restricting police chokeholds, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a series of police reforms into law, including repealing an obscure law, section 50-a, that shielded police disciplinary records from public scrutiny.
More lawmakers across the country are proposing changes to how police operate. In the three weeks after Floyd’s death and the ensuing nationwide protests against police brutality, 16 state legislatures have discussed the issues roiling the country. As of Tuesday [June16, 2020], legislatures had introduced, amended or passed 159 bills and resolutions related to policing, including bills that were introduced in both chambers, according to a database compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan association of state lawmakers.
So, within a few weeks of the death of George Floyd — and before many facts about the case were known — 159 bills to address the “issues roiling the country” were introduced. Left conspicuously out of the article is the salient fact that the “issues roiling the country” are based on an erroneous assumption that police routinely abuse their authority, particularly in cases involving minorities — an assumption promoted by the liberal media. In fact the real “issues roiling the country” are caused by that false narrative as part of a plan to demonize cops and make it impossible for them to do their jobs.
That article goes on to state:
An analysis of the conference’s database shows that the majority of the reform bills introduced since Floyd’s death focus on police oversight and regulating use of force, like banning chokeholds, building public databases of traffic stops and establishing an independent agency to investigate misconduct.
That list seems deliberately designed to create a situation where cops are stripped of their ability to combat crime, arrest someone who is hell-bent on resisting arrest, or maintain any independence from the political machinery that runs their cities, towns, and counties.
As 2020 fades further into the horizon in the rear-view mirror, and 2021 rolls along, the legislative assaults on the men and women in blue not only continue, but are escalating. After the trial and conviction of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, it appears that the #ACAB crowd is running with a full head of steam.
On April 10 of this year, the New York Times reported under the headline “Maryland Passes Sweeping Police Reform Legislation” that “the measures, enacted over the objections of Gov. Larry Hogan, placed the state at the forefront of a national debate over police brutality and officers’ excessive use of force.” The Times appeared barely able to restrain a joyful tone in reporting, “Maryland lawmakers voted on Saturday to limit police officers’ use of force, restrict the use of no-knock warrants and repeal the nation’s first Bill of Rights for law enforcement, taking sweeping action to address police violence after nationwide demonstrations following the death of George Floyd.” In an ironic twist, Maryland — which decades ago was the first state to pass a Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights — is now the first to repeal it.
On May 19, the Times reported that Washington Governor Jay Inslee “signed 12 bills into law that include bans on chokeholds and no-knock warrants, making Washington the latest state to pass sweeping police reforms.” The article also states, “With little federal action, more than 30 states — and many local governments — have passed a series of reforms over the last year.”
And on May 21, New York Attorney General Letitia James proposed the Police Accountability Act. If passed, the act would make it easier to prosecute police officers for actions they undertake as part of their duty as police officers. The bill seeks to make use of force “a last resort” to be employed only after de-escalation, verbal warnings, and non-lethal force strategies have failed. That theoretical approach may look good on paper, but fails to take into account the quick escalation criminals who are determined to avoid arrest often bring into the equation. Too many cops know what Attorney General James does not — what it is to make life and death decisions in a fraction of a second.
Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association of New York City, put it well when he commented on this proposal, “This sweeping proposal would make it impossible for police officers to determine whether or not we are permitted to use force in a given situation. The only reasonable solution will be to avoid confrontations where force might become necessary. Meanwhile, violent criminals certainly aren’t hesitating to use force against police officers or our communities. The bottom line: more cops and more regular New Yorkers are going to get hurt.”
That statement expresses a principle that is true not only of this proposal and of New York City, but of all proposed “police reform” measures that would hamstring cops in all communities. If the net effect of a given proposal is that it creates a situation where police are compelled to back off of policing, the criminal element will simply move to take the field.
With similar legislation in cities and states all across America, citizens may soon find themselves at the mercy of criminals without any police protection to speak of — and cops may find themselves hung out to dry. And these anti-cop measures are not just found at the state and local levels; The federal government under the Biden administration is moving in the same direction.
Proposed Federal Power Grab
On that front, President Biden — who during his campaign refused to distance himself from the radicals in his party calling for defunding and even abolishing police departments — promised a comprehensive “police reform” bill by the one year anniversary of the death of George Floyd. And while he missed that goal, as of this writing, that legislation continues to move through Congress. The legislation — known as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — is expected to:
• expose cops to persecution by prosecution by eliminating or greatly curtailing qualified immunity;
• threaten what is left of the independent nature of local law enforcement by empowering the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to issue subpoenas to police departments as part of “pattern and practice” investigations as well as by providing grants to state attorneys general to “create an independent process to investigate misconduct or excessive use of force” by police forces;
• expose cops and departments to no end of defamation by establishing a federal registry of police misconduct complaints and disciplinary actions;
• expose cops to increased risk of life and limb (as well as making it easier for criminals to destroy evidence) by prohibiting the issuance of no-knock warrants;
• make police work more dangerous by raising the threshold for the permissible use of force by federal law enforcement officers from “reasonableness” to only when “necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury”; and
• impose a litany of other measures that could not have better served the purpose of hamstringing cops than if it had been intended for that purpose — which appears to be the case.
These are tough times to be a cop and America owes a debt of gratitude to all of the brave men and women who continue to stay on the job looking for better days ahead. God bless them. And God bless America.