Police Support with a healthy dose of Truth

Suddenly there is a nationwide, knee-jerk reaction to the deaths of some Black men at the hands of American Police Officers. A firestorm erupted in Ferguson, MO and there have been skirmishes and arrests at several other protests.

I am NOT a fool, I don’t blindly defend police officers, I KNOW that there are a few bad officers in the ranks but I also know this; the good guys far outnumber the bad and they do everything in their power to make the *bad* officers go away.

The way things have shaped up lately there is not so much as ONE MOVE an officer can make that is not criticized, investigated and used by groups such as Cop Watch and Cop Block to denigrate ALL police officers.

When the White House and DOJ interject their power into the fight suddenly local law enforcement and courts are rendered useless.

NEW YORK (AP) — From the White House to the streets of some of America’s biggest cities, the New York chokehold case converged with the Ferguson shooting and investigations out of South Carolina and Cleveland to stir a national conversation Thursday about racial justice and police use of force.

A day after a grand jury cleared a white New York City officer in the death of a black man, civil rights leaders pinned their hopes on a promised federal investigation. Demonstrators protested for a second night in New York and turned out in such cities as Denver, Detroit and Minneapolis. And politicians and others talked about the need for better police training, body cameras and changes in the grand jury process to restore faith in the legal system. SOURCE

Yes indeed, let’s break out all of the racial excuses that can be found, even if RACE isn’t a part of the equation. Let’s also advocate and institute police practices that place the lives of officers, and in many cases, innocent civilians in danger.

“A whole generation of officers will be trained in a new way,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed he and his police commissioner outlined previously announced plans to teach officers how to communicate better with people on the street.

Well, here are some wise words from New York’s Top Cop, NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. I suggest that the fans of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Cop Block, Cop Watch and several others that don’t know what resisting arrest is pay attention to the following words and take heed.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton sent New Yorkers an important message Tuesday in the wake of Eric Garner’s death, allegedly by police chokehold: There is no constitutional right to resist arrest.

“What we’ve seen in the past few months is a number of individuals failing to understand that you must submit to arrest, you cannot resist,” Bratton said in an interview on Brian Lehrer’s radio show. “The place to argue your case is in the court, not in the street.”

It’s a critical point, and one Bratton’s made before. We just wish he wasn’t the only public official sending that message.

The simple fact, painful as it may be for some to acknowledge, is that Eric Garner would be alive today if he’d cooperated when cops tried to arrest him for illegally selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.

Instead, he argued with police, refused to put his hands behind his back, accused them of harassing him and vowed, “It ends today.”

As Bratton said from the outset, “My officers are not going to walk away” when someone resists arrest. He also notes that cops aren’t in the harassment business.

Enforcement of “quality of life” crimes, like selling loose cigarettes, is prompted by calls from community merchants and local officials, who “definitely want more police in their neighborhoods.”

The fastest way to defuse a confrontation like the one that ended in Garner’s death is not to resist arrest.

And if folks like Mayor de Blasio and assorted community leaders (who seem bent on besmirching cops) truly want to prevent tragedies like Garner’s, they’ll repeat that lesson publicly and often.

Suspects have every right to fight charges against them. What they don’t have is a right to fight the cops. SOURCE

If you are stopped by an officer remember this; be polite and courteous, don’t try to be a *highway lawyer*, don’t tell the officer that YOU pay his salary and don’t try to tell him what wonderful friends you are with the Mayor or Chief. If YOU are polite and courteous you have placed the onus on the officer to be likewise.

If you choose to fight with the police on the street; remember this: a police officer cannot lose a fight. They may lose their life in the fight but they will NOT lose a fight in the end because even if you kill an officer, the rest of his department and many others will be looking for you, and you will pay the price.

As Commissioner Bratton said, “My officers are not going to walk away” when someone resists arrest.

That goes for ALL officers and agencies everywhere, or it should; once the arrest has been initiated it is going to be affected, that is the way it goes. If it’s a BAD arrest the person will have charges dropped and be set free, the officer may or may not be counseled on proper arrest procedures and what it is that defines a legitimate arrest, but once the arrest begins, someone is going to jail.

If you resist arrest you may be going to jail AFTER a visit to the hospital and depending upon the degree of resistance you offer, the consequences can be deadly.

For those that cry RACISM I suggest you read the following, SC Jury Indicts White Officer for Killing Black Man - Media Ignores. I have no idea who the person is that wrote this but I have to say, the media is indeed covering it.

Many in the Black community cry racism and play the victim at the first moment an officer of the law arrives on scene, later telling their tale with the *If the Police aren’t victimizing us why are so many Blacks in prison?” screed. Well maybe it’s because Blacks commit that many crimes. Just sayin’…