The relationship between police and their communities is based on mutual trust. Without that trust, the job of officers, detectives, and deputies becomes much more difficult and dangerous.
by C. Mitchell Shaw
Law enforcement officers have a tough job. On the best of days, it can be draining and challenging. On the worst of days, it can seem overwhelming. The thin blue line is sometimes very thin, indeed. The portrayal — by mainstream media and militant groups, such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter — of law enforcement as an arm of an oppressive, evil system, only makes that tough job even tougher.
The relationship between police and their communities is based on mutual trust. Without that trust, the job of officers, detectives, and deputies becomes much more difficult and dangerous.
Recent events illustrate this very well. As of this writing, the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin has been used as a pretext by anti-police activists to foment riots in more than 200 cities across all 50 states. And while Chauvin and the other officers involved certainly deserve due process before judgment is passed, this appears to be another case of a relative handful of bad cops giving all cops a bad name. The result has been violence, destruction, and a growing death toll — including, among its victims, civilians and officers alike. By the time the dust settles and the smoke clears, the damage that is being done will be difficult to measure.
Beyond the destruction of property, injuries, and loss of life, there is the matter of the relationship between police and their communities. That relationship has never been more strained than now. Long after this particular issue has passed, law enforcement officers will be paying the price for the loss of that relationship of trust.
Compounding all of this is the fact that the death of George Floyd came at a time when that relationship of trust was already under extreme tension. With states and cities across the nation under lockdown orders from mayors and governors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, law-enforcement officers in many of those cities and states were tasked with enforcing those orders by issuing citations and making arrests. This creates a situation where citizens feel betrayed by officers and deputies. Betrayal and trust are mutually exclusive.
It appears that the “simple” matter of banning church services, and other activities considered by many to be a vital part of their lives, is easy for politicians to do, since they then get to punt the enforcement of those bans to the men and women who make up the thin (and getting thinner) blue line.
Furthermore, police departments and sheriff’s offices — already burdened with the normal heavy load of real police work — have to devote time and other resources to the enforcement of novel regulations. In many jurisdictions across the country, other laws and regulations designed to protect public safety were put on hold while COVID-19 regulations consumed more and more of law enforcement’s resources. For example, expired license plates and driver’s licenses have been ignored, since citizens could not renew them due to government offices being closed to the public.
One underlying issue in all of this is the oath police officers and deputies take to uphold the Constitution and protect the individual rights of the citizens they are sworn to serve. That “Prime Directive” stands above all else. It is also in stark contrast to the enforcement of COVID-19 orders.
This was perhaps best articulated by Officer Greg Anderson of the Port of Seattle Police Department in Washington State. In a viral Instagram video post on May 5, Anderson expressed his concerns about cops being used as the enforcement arm of tyranny. The caption for the video asks, “Are you doing the right thing?” and states, “Many officers out there are trampling on people’s liberties. Ask yourself are you doing the right thing?”
In the video — which has been shared and viewed millions of times across several social media platforms — Anderson says:
As a police officer, I am compelled to make this video. I’ve been in law enforcement for ten years, and I’m speaking to my peers, other fellow officers, people in any type of law enforcement position.
I’ve seen officers nationwide enforcing tyrannical orders against the people, and I’m hoping it’s a minority of officers, but I’m not sure anymore because every time I turn on the television, I look to the Internet, I’m seeing people arrested or cited for going to church, traveling on the roadways, for going surfing, opening their business, going to the park with their families or doing nails out of their own house, using their own house as their place of business and having undercover agents go there and arrest them and charge them with what? With a crime? I don’t know what crime people are committing by doing nails in their own house.
We are seeing this more and more and more, and we need to start looking at ourselves as officers and thinking is what I am doing right? I want to remind you regardless of where you stand on the coronavirus, we don’t have the authority to do those things – to do those things to people. Just because a mayor or a governor tells you otherwise. I don’t care if it’s your sergeant or chief of police. We don’t get to violate someone’s constitutional rights because someone in our chain of command tells us otherwise. It’s not how this country works. Those are de facto arrests. We are violating people’s rights and taking money from them or — even worse — arresting them and depriving them of their freedom when they are exercising their constitutional rights. So let’s talk about that. Let’s read something right here, the Declaration of Independence.
Before quoting more of Anderson’s video, perhaps a bit of context would be good. Anderson states that even if “it’s your sergeant or chief of police” telling you to enforce an order that violates someone’s constitutionally-protected rights, it is not alright to do it. Two good illustrations would be the oppression of Jews under the Third Reich and the oppression of black Americans under Jim Crow.
To borrow from Anderson’s question, ask yourself this: Would you have arrested Jews and sent them off to concentration camps just because it was the law and your sergeant or chief told you to? Would you have arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat to a white person just because it was the law and your sergeant or chief told you to? Would you be that cop?
It appears that some things are missing from police academy training. Very little — if any — time is spent teaching the Constitution and the rights it protects. Very little — if any — time is spent on critical thinking. Both of these things are essential for law-enforcement officers to properly do the very important job of serving and protecting. In the absence of those things, it is easy to slide into unthinkingly enforcing orders that trample on the rights of the people.
Anderson addresses that in his video. After reading the Declaration of Independence, he talks about the American principle that the power of government is derived from the consent of the governed:
Our power and any governmental official’s power is derived from the people, okay? We don’t hold power over our citizens. It’s contradictory to everything our country stands for. This is what I am seeing: First Amendment rights — Telling people they can’t go to church, freedom of religion. Telling people they can’t protest, freedom of assembly. Fourth Amendment violations — illegal traffic stops to check for papers. What are you the Gestapo? Is this 1930s Nazi Germany? You don’t get to stop people unless you have reasonable suspicion or probable cause that they have committed a crime. And I know people that have personally been stopped saying we want to see papers saying you’re essential.
Anderson’s point is not hypothetical, either. Just days before his Instagram video was posted, police in Meridian, Idaho, arrested a mom at a public park during a “playdate protest.” Setting aside the wisdom (or lack thereof) on the part of the mothers who held that protest, the one thing that really stands out from the video of that arrest is a statement made by one of the officers on the scene. The officer is asked by a woman who is off camera, “So just kind of person to person, do you think that it makes sense to close the park down when people are going to the grocery store, they’re touching everything?” The officer responds, “That’s not for me to say, ma’am. I’m a law enforcement officer — I’m not a government official or a lawmaker.”
The woman reiterates that she is asking the question to him as a person. He replies, “I have my personal opinions and I’ve got to keep those to myself when I’m on duty. My job is to enforce the law.” The woman then asks the pivotal question, “Do you think there is a limit at which you decide within yourself, ‘I can’t get on board with this — like, I can’t agree with what our government and our elected leaders are telling us?’” His response could have been uttered by the cop who arrested Rosa Parks or the Nazis who were tried at Nuremberg. He answered, “When I put on the badge and put on the uniform, I have to take a lot of my beliefs — personal beliefs and things — and I’ve got to set those aside and I’ve got to enforce the law, whether I agree with that law or not.”
The “just following orders” defense is not just wrong, it is dangerous. It is dangerous for society and for police officers who depend on the relationship of trust with those in their communities. Anderson addressed that in his video, saying:
What really has been pissing me off lately is these officers who have been going out here and enforcing these tyrannical orders. They’re putting my job and my safety at risk because you’re widening the gap between public trust and law enforcement officers. Look at what’s happened to law enforcement in the last ten years. Less and less public trust and more often than not that’s the result of isolated incidents blown out of proportion. They’re not isolated anymore. They’re happening every single day.
Our power that we hold as law enforcement officers is nothing more than a facade. It’s a badge and a gun. If you haven’t lived in anarchy, if you haven’t seen combat, things can be stripped from people in a heartbeat, and that’s what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid these actions are going to awake a sleeping giant, i.e. the American people. They are going to be put in a position where they won’t have their rights trampled anymore, and us as law enforcement officers, we will have our ability to enforce the law stripped from us in about ten minutes. I think what is going to happen is we’re going to see bloodshed in the streets. I don’t want to see bloodshed in the streets on either side of this coin.
Anderson was originally praised by his command for his video. The next day, he was ordered to take it down. He refused and has been suspended, pending what will almost certainly be his termination. But this much is sure: He was — and is — correct. Widening the gap between law enforcement and the people they serve is a bad idea. The death of George Floyd — who was victimized by a rogue police officer who should have been weeded out — is one of those “isolated incidents” Anderson mentioned. And though the abuse in this instance does not appear to be “blown out of proportion,” the reaction to it certainly is. The system is working in this case: All four officers involved were fired. Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder. Those responsible will pay what they owe. But, because of the breakdown in trust between law enforcement and the people — for which COVID-19 regulations are at least partly responsible — all of America is paying what it does not owe. Moving forward, America’s cities need more Greg Andersons and fewer Derek Chauvins. Proper training and vetting is the only way to make sure we get that, but this needs to be locally driven not federally driven.