Failed Police Executive Leadership

To say that we are living in Orwellian times is an oft-used phrase since the COVID pandemic and the overreacting response by government officials. To say that we are witnessing a dystopian existence is not over-the-top rhetoric. Words and phrases in this period of time have had their meanings changed. For instance, rioting is now acceptable peaceful protest, defunding police is called reimagining policing and saying all lives matter is now code language for white privilege and superiority. Add to that that anything causing the slightest provocation can get you banned from social media, canceled from society and, worse, fired from your job.

No other profession in America has been put under the microscope like law enforcement has during the last 10 years. Cops are now the bad guys and the crooks are sympathetic civil rights figures. Police officers are now afraid to do their job. Those that do take the chance that if something goes terribly wrong through no fault of their own, they will lose their careers and possibly face criminal charges for using their best judgment and relying on their training. There was a time not long ago when cops were given the benefit of the doubt in use of deadly force situations because the rule of law was applied. Now politics is applied, the lens through which these events are examined. The Supreme Court decision on use of deadly force is that officers are to be given the benefit of the doubt because they have to make split-second decisions under circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving. That landmark case also warned people reviewing these incidents against using the lens of 20/20 hindsight. Now however people who have no love for police demand that the standard to be used is that the officer should have known what might happen before they even arrive on scene. As if that isn’t bad enough politically active prosecutors apply pressure from the top while police executives apply pressure from below leaving officers in between.

I have long criticized the lack of courage by police chiefs since the Ferguson, Missouri, riots that spread throughout the country when Officer Darren Wilson in defense of his life used deadly force against Mike Brown, who it was determined through evidence and testimony was trying to disarm Wilson. Wilson lost his job anyway because the chief did not have the stones, if I may, to stare down the mob looking not for justice but for revenge. Every time an officer used deadly force since then over the last 5 years it sparked riots, looting and arson of businesses as an automatic default before facts were even determined. Many feckless chiefs have summarily fired officers as investigators were still on the shooting scene gathering evidence and talking to witnesses.

Other attempts by police executives to appease these cop haters have come in the form of “stand down” orders at riot scenes, prohibiting officers from using tear gas to disperse rioters for fear that it might agitate the criminals involved even though officers were pelted with rocks, bricks and urine-filled balloons. Stand downs did not appease these lunatics. Needlessly firing officers that could have been remedied with training didn’t quell the thirst for blood of this angry mob. Nothing will. But it isn’t keeping law enforcement executives from doing more stupid things to appease the bloodthirsty mob.

In a jump the shark moment that I would have never thought possible, the chief of the University of Wisconsin Police Department has gone even further to appease cop haters. She issued an order banning visual public displays of the symbol of the thin blue line in an official capacity. The order issued by Chief Kristen Roman “disallows the imagery on pins, bracelets, notebooks, coffee mugs, decals etc.” she claims that the thin blue line flag has been co-opted and places officers at great risk. In her directive, she

said that, “We must consider the cost of clinging to a symbol that is undeniably and inextricably linked to actions and beliefs antithetical to UWPD’s values.” She didn’t, however, demand that any officer who has a tattoo of the flag from have it removed. That’s coming next. The mob will never be satisfied. When you try to feed it, it wants more and more and more. When you can no longer satisfy the monster, it then turns on you. Ask Antifa.

So, she is couching it as an officer safety issue. Seriously, folks. Her order further says that, “I am moved to enact specific measures to distance UWPD from the thin blue line imagery and the fear and distrust that it currently evokes for too many in our community.”

I kid you not. So, know the thin blue line symbol is divisive and controversial. That she didn’t have the courage to stand up to this assault and support a symbol of this profession since the 1950s is untenable. She is unfit to lead this agency or the fine men and women who risk their lives to protect and serve. Where are these agencies finding these rat bastard chiefs? Chief Kristen Roman would be better suited as executive director for the state chapter of Black Lives Matter. This thin blue line symbol on a flag is to honor officers killed in the line of duty. This capitulation is sickening. That officers did not stage a job action is disappointing. Every officer should have a tattoo placed on their forearm prominently displaying the thin blue line flag for all to see. That would send her a statement of resistance.

Here is how upside down the world has become. Recently in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, the County Board passed a resolution to allow a Black Lives Matter flag fly below a U.S. flag in front of the courthouse that houses county government. That BLM flag is one of the most divisive symbols in America. It is a symbol of hate. It represents a Marxist ideology. One of its tenets is the dissolution of the nuclear family. That isn’t controversial and the thin blue line flag is? It won’t be long before a demand is made to the Milwaukee County Board to place the BLM flag above the U.S. flag. Stay tuned.

Sheriff David Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of AmericasSheriff LLC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com