Disgruntled officers--and other public employees--have called in sick to register disapproval of higher-ups before.
But this is different. Here, there's a growing sense that leaps to judgment are leaving cops on their own.
Muckraking journalist extraordinaire Charlie LeDuff points out that Motown's bankruptcy partially-defunded police in Detroit, and the results are not encouraging, to say the least. Note especially the fear of "ending up on the 5 o'clock news."
In the absence of defunding, collapsing morale and an environment steering away potential LEOs from big cities will give us the equivalent of "defund."
Attrition of policing in large cities is underway: early retirements, for starters. And under-funding of big city departments already leads to transfers to better jobs in the suburbs. When you throw in the "All Cops Are Bastards and Here's Our 59 Demands" mindset, it's going to be a torrent. Who will want a career in an urban department?
Meanwhile, in Seceded Seattle, life without police is...CHOPpy.
If you'd like a less-bleak anecdote to end on, here it is.
But such moments of amity are the exception.
I've heard more than once about how we need to "screen the police" and "keep the predators out" (you can probably name people who have said those things).
ReplyDeleteEven if you set up for the best possible people to be cops - hire nothing but Steve Rogers - you still have to be able to entice them to join.
Even the best of us are still only mortal and human. Which means they're going to make mistakes. Nowadays if the cops don't even have to make mistakes, the media will just edit or create one from scratch then why would any sane person even bother with it?
Rarely has the perfect been as much of an enemy of the good.
And if you think cops are abusive, wait until vigilante justice is the only kind available.
Vito Corleone says for a small and reasonable fee he can provide the protection that the cops no longer can or will...
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