LEADING POLICE TO SLAUGHTER IN D.C.

I sit here shaking my head as I read a Washington, D.C., news story that talks about launching yet again a summer initiative designed to reduce crime in economically depressed areas of our nation’s capital. I don’t sugarcoat like left-leaning newspaper writers. I call these areas the American ghetto. These are the sections of urban cities predominantly controlled by progressive elected officials whose failed liberal policies keep these areas mired in crime and violence, poverty, inadequate housing, failing schools and unemployment. These neighborhoods are occupied by predominantly black residents with a spattering of Hispanics. And the conditions never change even after spending billions of dollars to improve things.

The news story points out that, “For nearly 11 years, the MPD (Metropolitan Police Dept.) has identified areas of the city that have experienced a high density of violence and utilized all available resources … to prevent crime in those focused areas during the summer months.” D.C Mayor Muriel Bowser went on to say that, “We bring the Summer Crime Prevention Initiative back each year because the data shows it drives down crime.” Let me comment on those statements. First of all if they have to keep bringing it back each year for 11 consecutive years, that tells me that it doesn’t work. It is really just a Band-Aid on something that requires major surgery. It appears to me and anybody else that can see right through the spin that the only thing that saves them is the cold winters in Washington. That is when the street crime and violence subside. The cold weather is their best crime reduction strategy.

Maybe Mayor Bowser will one day get a clue and realize that her failed liberal policies are the reason that there is no sustainable end to the high crime and violence. Her policies in fact encourage a continuation of the urban pathologies that lead to crime, violence and disorder like single-parent households with no fathers around, school failure, drug and alcohol abuse, joining gangs and other questionable lifestyle choices. These are the ingredients that lead to crime and violence leading to a need for more police and more police interaction. To the mayor’s credit, she does not support defunding police. Her problem is getting the D.C. City Council on board with that. They approved a $15 million cut to the police budget and reallocated that money to fund alternative programs.

Folks, that’s a problem. Most law enforcement agencies are underfunded to begin with. The other important element to successful policing requires full political support including from the prosecutor’s office. The D.C. City Council, in addition to cutting the police budget, passed a resolution to reduce police staffing from its current compliment of 3,863 and cap it at 3,500.This is all in response to demands by Black Lives Matter.

The job is tough enough as it is. Sending police into high-crime areas comes with a lot of high risk for officers. Sending them on a mission that necessitates high-risk activity without the necessary resources is sending them on a suicide mission. Only aggressive policing reduces crime and disorder. Activities like stop, question and frisk, a high volume of traffic stops and quality of life enforcement are the tactics needed to get guns out of the hands of career criminals and arrests to get them and keep them off the street. That, along with the will of the prosecutors to charge and hold them on high bail, will work. Any talk about second chance program, no bail and de-incarceration are failed policies. Jails and prisons are an effective crime control tool. When repeat career criminals are not on the streets, neighborhoods become more livable and safer places to be.

There is another important element to these targeted patrols that the MPD chief talks about. With more police/criminal interaction comes the potential for conflict. Perps today are more emboldened to resist police, fight with police and flee from police. Every high-profile police use of force over the last 5 years involved one of these situations of failing to abide by the lawful commands of a law enforcement officer. All of these incidents are now ripe for politicization. Politically active prosecutors now respond to demands of Black Lives Matter for officers to be charged with a felony. Spineless police executives are quick on the trigger to fire an officer to appease the demands of an angry mob. Due process be damned. In a flash, an officer’s career can be over. And they can face criminal prosecution for an incident that was not of their choosing. A perpetrators unlawful action caused an officer to react.

Law enforcement officers are under tremendous strain today. They are working long hours, they are attacked in ambush-style incidents, they are doxed on social media, BLM marauders show up at their homes to intimidate them and their families. Additionally, many states are moving toward the elimination of qualified immunity protection that protects officer’s personal assets from civil liability.  Then there is the issue of an officer’s mental health. Police suicides are at an all-time high and continue to rise. Not enough is being done to address this dilemma. 

It is with all this in mind that I call D.C. Metro Police Chief Robert Contee’s directive to send police into high-crime areas this summer after all that has happened to the police profession over the last 5 years an act of sending them to slaughter. He has not done his job of getting them the resources, giving them the complete authority to use all reasonable tactics to keep themselves safe from attack, the promise of the prosecutor’s office to charge criminals and ask for high bail to keep them locked up. I see no sign that he will have their backs.

The union representing the MPD should demand these assurances from Chief Contee. If he refuses, the union should advise their officers to proceed with caution, do the minimal and not to take any unnecessary risks. The hell with crime rates. Let Bowser, BLM and Contee deal with that.

It is no longer worth it.

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