THE FIX IS IN

Nationwide, police find themselves being chastised for simply adhering to their training, following orders and doing their jobs to the best of their ability.

Our Border Patrol agents find themselves suspended, with promises of more punitive sanctions, for maintaining control of their 1,200-pound equine partners via split rein controls, wrongly accused of whipping unlawful border crossers, when actually maintaining control of their horses in a safe manner while following their training and following orders and policies in the protection of our border, protecting their own safety and the safety of those around them. The horses are now not being used in Del Rio.

A Towson Maryland University veteran officer found himself to be in trouble when a shooting occurred during an on-campus unsanctioned but organized event. Reportedly, the officer was told to stand down when engaging participants prior to the shooting but is now seemingly the scapegoat for the incident, finding himself under investigation for the incident at hand.

When will this ever end?

Here in my home county, in a scene played out at school board meetings all over the USA over mandates with potential overreach on parental and student rights, a lesson in control over being baited into situations outside law enforcement mandates may have been learned.

A divided Preston County Board of Education reversed a vote requiring masks indoors at school, and that’s when tensions began.

As reported by the Preston County Journal newspaper and by others in attendance, here’s what happened:

The meeting included presentations by 10 members of the public, threats by the board president to have a man who interrupted the board’s discussions removed by sheriff’s deputies, a deputy telling the crowd to calm down, and the board president telling the deputy he was in charge, not police.

At several points in the meeting, people in the audience interrupted the board’s discussions, some saying others had been allowed to speak out of turn, so they should as well.

“You’re not representing your community,” one woman said.

One board member said her vote “was not because I disagree that we need masks in school. My ‘no’ decision was because nothing productive has come from this afternoon ... It was childlike display.”

At one point, the board president told the three deputies present to remove a man if he interrupted again. As the interaction with the audience continued, a captain from the Preston County West Virginia Sheriff’s Office in attendance spoke up to clarify the law.

“It’s not the board of education’s call, if you are interrupting their meeting. It’s our call,” the captain said. “Please keep it civil. If he says ‘Remove them,’ that’s not the way that works. If we, as law enforcement officers decide you’re interrupting, then we can file criminal charges.”

But the time for public discussion had passed, he said, and if those in attendance interrupted the board’s discussion, “then that puts it in our court.” He had checked with the prosecutor’s office.

The board president gaveled the meeting to a more quiet state and told the deputy, “You’re not involved in this meeting as a speaker ... The open meeting law says that I’m in control of the meeting.”

At that point, the captain said “I apologize. We’re leaving;” which met with applause from the audience. Two of the three deputies then left with one remaining behind to support keeping the peace but not weighing in on the subject at hand.

While we must stand in support of officers wrongly accused, it is imperative that whenever possible law enforcement officers remain in control while maintaining neutrality and concentrate on keeping the peace allowing protests and following only lawful orders in the discharge of their duties.

In the end, police must be able to function in reasonable and prudent ways for the benefit of all while attempting to avoid entrapment into unsupported positions not of their own making.

Joel E. Gordon is a former Field Training Officer with the Baltimore City Police Department and is a past Chief of Police for the city of Kingwood, West Virginia. He has also served as vice-chair of a multi-jurisdictional regional narcotics task force. An award winning journalist, he is author of the book Still Seeking Justice: One Officer's Story and founded the Facebook group Police Authors Seeking Justice. Look him up at stillseekingjustice.com