Welcome 2021: We will endure!

What a difficult year we have been through. With all of the anger, protests, riots, verbal and physical assaults and death we are being exposed to on a daily basis, I have felt compelled to speak out. Here’s a compilation of some of my thoughts throughout 2020 …

ON BEING A MEMBER OF THE HUMAN RACE

All of us have supporters and detractors. It is part of being a human being. It is reality. I am sorry if some people don't like others simply for differences in race, religion, career path, disability, sexual orientation or other identifiers within our society.

Our power is derived from within. Self-examination of our own individual belief structure and taking responsibility for our own choices and behaviors is what will collectively contribute toward the more perfect culture that we seek.

We don't have to agree to get along or at least coexist. By focusing on our commonality rather than our differences we can move mountains moving forward.

ON INNER-CITY VIOLENCE & SURVIVAL

With a resurgence of violence throughout our nation, I am reminded of a revelation that I had over 30 years ago upon becoming an inner-city police officer.

I learned to accept, but not fully understand, that the perceived value of human life on the street in many of the downtrodden areas of America is substantially lower than it is to the police and many others living under better socio-economic circumstances.

When the two cultures of diverse values clash, it often results in those with higher self-worth being forced to take actions they would not choose to take except out of a desire for self-preservation.

If you were an officer being shot at or truly in fear of having your gun being taken and used against you, what would you do? As it has been said many times in the world of law enforcement, it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by six.

ON ACADEMIA and “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS”

When the West Virginia University campus police chief apologized for displaying a Thin Blue Line Flag in the background at his home while engaged in an online Zoom conference, the meltdown from many "triggered" students and faculty was swift. It resulted in an apology from the chief for his “insensitivity” and removal of the flag after calls for his termination from office were made.

More recently, the university endorsed the display of Black Lives Matter decals on Mountaineer football helmets and it has “triggered” many others. If the official policy of the university is to allow display of what many view as political symbols or emblems, then this public Land Grant University should level the playing field and fulfill its mandate of fairness and inclusiveness in what is supposed to be an open learning environment; thus allowing freedom for dialogue and reasonable expression for all individuals and groups without fear of being ostracized or becoming a victim of the "cancel culture." It's time for WVU and other campus communities to become "woke" to harmony through fairness to all. Universities must return to their roots and maintain an environment that promotes knowledge through understanding of different points of view. Neither intimidating tactics nor "political correctness" should have any place in education.

I have long professed that we must reject an "us versus them" mentality. In choosing sides WVU has, seemingly, endorsed such an environment through its actions. The truth is we are all in this TOGETHER.

ON LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS

Over the last many months and years, the trust people have placed in every level of government has diminished. While law enforcement does many things well, there are always things which can be done better. Protecting victims, promoting equality for all, and deploying intelligent, compassionate, and empathetic officers are the foundation of any responsive agency. While meaningful change comes neither quickly nor easily, I know that the best will adapt to the changing environment which is upon us. As a past police officer and chief of police, I have learned that we cannot simply arrest our way out of every situation or social ill. Policing that is even more community-oriented and transparent will result with the right leadership in place and thoughtful plans for action. Our future safety and wellness are dependent on the trust and partnerships forged as we move forward promoting for better days ahead. As always, I maintain a deep respect for and belief in our active and dedicated local law enforcement officers. Stay safe … We will endure!

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

5 Examples of Horrible Political Leadership

By virtue of their position, politicians are in a leadership role. But there’s one thing I think we can all agree on: Some of them are just not very good leaders.

As a leadership professional and author (my book here amzn.to/3mFvVEP), I was mortified when I found out several high-level politicians broke one of the most important leadership rules in existence.

And that is never break a rule you expect your people to follow.

This isn’t new, however. History is filled with examples of reckless and ineffectual leadership by local, state and federal politicians. So I took the time to find several of recent history’s most egregious examples.

This past September, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was captured on video visiting a hair salon in San Francisco, violating local ordinances. She, of course, blamed the business for misleading her. You can add Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for committing the same infraction.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom pleaded with the residents not to gather in large groups, including with their own friends and family. Just last month, he was seen attending a dinner party indoors at a Napa Valley restaurant. His ridiculous response; “should have … got[ten] back in my car and drove back to my house.”

NYC Mayor DeBlasio was seen entering a gym back in March… in New York City! In another absurd response: “I need to exercise to stay healthy and make … decisions.”

Why is this happening? It boils down to three possible reasons:

1- They are unfamiliar with basic leadership principles.

2- They feel they are above the law and better than us “common folk.”

3- They didn’t think they were going to get caught- the mindset of a criminal!

Regardless, it’s a darn shame and I, like most people, expect much more from an elected official. Are they drunk with power? Are they fueled by telling other people what to do and get a rush from breaking their own guidelines?

This isn’t just a COVID-19 issue either. Recall back in 2017 when then New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ordered all state beaches closed due to a government shutdown. That didn’t stop him and his family from enjoying the beach that state residents couldn’t.

Whatever the reason for political dissidence, it stinks and they should all publicly acknowledge their mistakes and step down, because that’s what real leaders do!

About the author: Eddie Molina is the author of A Beginner’s Guide to Leadership and blogs about it on his website, www.eddiemolina.com/blog

Artificially Driving Down Crime Rates

Keeping crime and violence in check has always been a challenge with major urban city law enforcement agencies. Agencies are almost maniacally driven about crime statistics. Staffing and deployment strategies are being determined based on how much crime is occurring and where. Neighborhood residents get nervous when news reports of crime waves set in. Safe city rankings are determined by crime rates. Insurance rates are calculated by how much property crime occurs in a particular city. Crime reduction matters.

You may recall that beginning in the late 1980s and lasting for nearly two decades, a renaissance occurred all across the country when a crime reduction strategy called Fixing Broken Windows emerged. Its authors, George Kelling and James Wilson, put forth a thesis that was based on police putting a higher priority on going after lesser crimes like property crimes and acts of disorder. The theory was that quality-of-life offenses were an indication to criminals that nobody cared about their behavior and that citizens were numb to it and were not likely to call police nor would anything be done about it. This cynicism allowed the criminal element to operate in the open as resident fear increased. It caused people to withdraw from engaging in neighborhood life. Social interaction can reduce crime. Kelling and Wilson’s thesis was that the occurrence of property crimes and other quality-of-life offenses were the precursor to more serious crimes.

When William Bratton became commissioner of the New York Police Department, a top commander named Jack Maple came up with a strategy based on the Broken Windows theory of policing. He called it Comp Stat, short for computer statistics. When crime was mapped using computers, patterns emerged. The thought was to “put the cops on the dots” thus going from reacting to crime to preventing crime. Computer generated statistics allowed neighborhood precinct commanders to get information to front line officers in real time. It allowed officers to identify the criminals on their beat where they could be focused on while targeting specific offenses. Quality of life offenses like subway turnstile jumpers and squeegee men were harassed. It brought that disorder to an end. Policing went from being reactive to being proactive. Citations began to be issued for lesser crimes and disorder. When fully implemented and over time, not only did property crime and disorder go down, violent crime was reduced by record numbers. New York City went from having over 2,200 murders a year to just over 250. Gotham went from being considered unlivable to becoming America’s safest large city based on low crime rates.

Many of you reading here might remember the period of what was called the great crime decline. It is important to have a reference point to compare what was an intolerance toward crime at the end of the 20th century to what some policy makers are proposing today.

As if ideas like defunding police, abolishing and re-imagining police is not crazy enough, now get this out of the cities of Seattle, Portland and Minneapolis. These lunatics are actually talking about reducing crime not through sensible crime reduction strategies like were done in the 1990s. No, they are actually talking about declassifying certain types of lesser crimes and inserting clauses into certain categories of crime that allow the perpetrator an escape from arrest and accountability if they can show a basic need to have committed a crime. In other words, poverty will absolve the perp along with mental health or addiction. That’s right. If you are a drug addict and you commit crime in furtherance of that addiction then you walk. So if someone throws a rock through the plate glass window of a business or damages your car? If you claim the devil made you do it, you are absolved of that being classified as a criminal act. And get this. Selling property that you stole from somebody else is now lawful if you can show a basic need like poverty.

In any other time period, this would be considered unfathomable. Unfortunately, however, we are no longer applying common sense to public policy. We are going from what worked in keeping neighborhoods safe to a model of social engineering using neighborhoods as petri dishes and human subjects as lab rats.

This is not going to end well. It never does when people in position of suggesting public policy and who should know better behave irresponsibly and in what is nothing more than an act of moral preening. As this, let’s make believe it is not crime, is being proposed, both property crime and crimes of violence are escalating in the cities I mentioned. The shame in all this is that these policy-makers will not be held accountable for this insane policy nor are they likely to be the victims of this buffoonery.

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

PROMOTION “IRREGULARITIES”

The Baltimore Police Department is again answering questions about exam questions members were asked on a promotional test. Recent oral examination results for the Baltimore City Police Department's sergeant and lieutenant promotional tests were tossed out because of "irregularities." After consulting with the city's Office of the Inspector General, the results of the oral exam are being thrown out with new exams being scheduled.

Baltimore City Police did not reveal what the "irregularities" were.

This isn't the first time the Baltimore City Police Department has faced this sort of issue. In the past, there have been allegations of improprieties in the exam process such as allegations of sex for answers schemes and other questionable practices to influence outcomes.

My Attempts at Promotion in Baltimore

My initial goal was to become a three-year sergeant. Officers were eligible to take the Sergeants Exam once three years of service were completed. Occasionally, an officer would be promoted on their first try. Except that the promotional process was tied up in the courts until I had been with the department for 4 ½ years … due to something called “affirmative action.”

It was known that the department had recently been ordered by the court to promote a number of minority officers to sergeant based in part upon racial preference. The goal was to bring the numbered ratio of minority officers/supervisors more equal to the city’s minority population figures.

Nonetheless, I was excited to take the sergeant’s examination which was divided into three areas; a written exam of 125 questions which was about half the final score, a performance appraisal on previous work ethic (about 5%) and an oral interview rounding out the remainder toward final scoring and placement on the promotional list.

I did well on the written exam (96%) and maxed out on the performance appraisal, receiving the highest possible score. Now it was on to the oral interview. I reported to the rented motel conference facility where my oral interview was to be held in suit and tie, a little nervous, but more than ready for questioning. This was far more structured and less confrontational than courtroom testimony, so I felt confident that I was prepared. Plus I had a track history of successful private sector employment interviews.

The interview board was comprised of three individuals holding the rank of sergeant or above from outside agencies. Each interviewer would ask 3 questions (one at a time) and I would be given up to 5 minutes to respond to each question. No follow-up questions could be asked by either party and I could only ask them to repeat their question, if necessary.

No problem, as I was prepared for all of the questions that they asked. One potential problem, though. I had been assured of a diverse and fair board panel. Here’s what I got: an all-minority interview board.

My score? Not even a whole number! I still was ranked 73rd out of over 1,100 taking the promotional exam. It was not high enough for promotion during the promotional lists life span of about one year due to fewer openings since the filling of so many sergeants’ positions previously under court order by those given affirmative action priority-based promotions.

In the meantime, affirmative action initiatives continued on.

By 1986, two years later, I was ready to try for sergeant once again. Now the city had a newer idea to attempt to improve the test scores of minority applicants for the promotional exam.

STUDY GUIDES

I was given a large fill-in-the-blank study guide that made me research or verify answers in the Annotated Code of Maryland, Baltimore Police General Order (policy & procedures) Manual, Traffic Law, Baltimore Park Rules and Wiretapping Laws. Minority officers were given sanctioned study guides with the answers already filled in.

Once again, I did perfectly on the performance appraisal and was exceedingly well-prepared for the written exam. My oral interview board was balanced and the interview went well. I was ranked 52nd out of over 900 applicants for the 1987 promotional list, which again was not thought to be high enough for promotion.

By midsummer 1987 I felt as though my career was going to be permanently stymied and that upward mobility in my career would be unobtainable on my own merits so I tendered my resignation from Baltimore City. Perhaps I should have waited. In fact, if I had stayed through Christmas of 1987 I would have unexpectedly been promoted to sergeant as they promoted up to number 57.

In the words of Ronald Reagan, I will attempt to be “verbose but delicate.” Is this current re-taking of interviews yet another attempt to put chosen persons in charge, further politicizing the agency?

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

13 Reasons Why We Don't Need Another Shutdown

With 2020 coming to a close, I’m starting to see more hope for 2021. But it seems like it’s going to get worse before it gets better. And quite frankly, I’m just tired of it all.

Even though we all saw increased cases and more restrictions coming, I can’t shake the feeling that it doesn’t have to be this way.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say dealing with this pandemic is frustrating and the politicians in charge are part of the problem. More orders are emerging as to what needs to close, what restrictions need to be put back in place and so on.

But when I was told that my family and I couldn’t get together as we used to during the holidays- it hit a nerve.

Why?

I mean I get why. But what about everything that has unfolded since this has started back in March.

A lot of progress has been made and it’s almost like the government isn’t recognizing any of it. Now it’s been over seven months since the heaviest onset of the virus and a lot has been learned and a lot has changed.

Here’s why we don’t need to shut down again (politicians pay close attention).

There has been seven months…

1) For citizens to understand the importance of social distancing and personal cleanliness.

2) For cleaning product and paper product companies to increase their production and improve their logistics to get it to consumers.

3) For supermarkets, restaurants and general supply stores to learn how to effectively deliver products to customers that prefer to stay home.

4) For the medical equipment companies to develop more ventilators.

5) For people to understand that toilet paper is not ultra- critical and hoarding products is not necessary because the world isn’t ending.

6) For the scientific community to better understand the virus.

7) For the public to see the progress of a vaccine and recognize how close it’s getting.

8) For organizations and businesses of any type to develop protective shields, protocols to promote social distancing and other safeguards for people.

9) For citizens to understand what steps they need to take if they do become symptomatic; contact tracing, quarantining, testing, and recovery.

10) For testing facilities to streamline and improve their testing process.

11) For companies to continue developing more accurate COVID tests with faster results. (jamming something up our nose isn’t the only option anymore).

12) For the scientific community to clearly define who is really ‘at-risk’ versus who will have a very high percentage of recovering.

13) For hospitals to improve logistics and operations to accommodate the higher demand of affected people that was expected.

… and a bonus one- for media outlets to understand why they shouldn’t sensationalize the pandemic and scare the s*** out of Americans purely for ratings.

There have only been two different occasions where we, as Americans, had our freedom and liberties trampled on; the Patriot Act after 9-11 and now this… COVID-19. And I’m ready to fight back.

Now understand I’m not heartless and have a lot of compassion for those that succumb to the virus. But there has been seven months for every person, company, entity, etc. to figure out what they need to do for themselves.

There is no way any restriction put in place by the government is going to stop the virus. It’s going to be around for the long term and I believe there is enough information out there that we, as Americans, should be able to move about as we choose. That is the true American way.

About the writer: Eddie Molina is the author of A Beginner’s Guide to Leadership available on Amazon. He voluntarily writes articles to keep the law enforcement and military community informed on important issues. For more information go to www.eddiemolina.com

New World Order

Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.  - Cesar Chavez

It appears that the battle lines are being drawn in recognizing our rights, responsibilities and to celebrate our individual and collective heritage and the sacrifices of those who have gone before us, with one group vying for position over those of other groups throughout our nation and specifically in Baltimore.

The D’Alesandro family is a known Democrat dynasty with two former Baltimore mayors, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., later his son, Thomas D'Alesandro III and then his daughter, Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, becoming the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. The family fortunes and political influence rose from a small house in Baltimore's Little Italy. It was those of Italian heritage that were the primary political power brokers in Baltimore city for many decades before progressivism and a shifting of political influence in Baltimore began to take hold, with the city still remaining under Democrat control. 

On the evening of July 4th of this year, while much of America was celebrating our nation’s Independence, several hundred “protesters mobilized by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police” (USA TODAY) destroyed a statue of Christopher Columbus at the west entrance of the D’Alesandro’s Little Italy neighborhood. Throwing ropes around the statue, the mob pulled the monument from its pedestal with an impact that broke it to pieces, dragging it to water’s edge, and dumping it into the Baltimore harbor as reported by national media and seen on national television. Although the Baltimore City Police were present, they had reportedly been given orders to “stand down.” The Promotion Center for Little Italy Baltimore, a nonprofit promoting community heritage, has weighed in:

The statue of Christopher Columbus was built with funds raised largely by Baltimore’s Italian American community. It was carved in Italy, gifted to the City of Baltimore, and dedicated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. It has been a sense of immense pride for the people of Little Italy and those of Italian descent with annual celebrations around the Columbus Day holiday including parades, wreath-layings, and Italian festivals. It is a symbol of immigration to America which attracted hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to seek improved lives for their families. In that spirit is what we as ancestors of Italian immigrants struggle to preserve. A piece of Little Italy’s heart was destroyed along with this statue. The “protesters” gave no thought to the Italian immigrant experience in the United States which included ample discrimination, abuse, starvation, and lynchings.

Now add a third faction to the mix. The Baltimore City Police Department and its Fraternal Order of Police representatives have been further drawn in to the fray when a Baltimore city councilman by the name of Ryan Dorsey tweeted “How is it with all the attention given to the Columbus monuments, and as consistently awful as the FOP is, how is the FOP memorial not on the list of monuments to remove?” The latest proposal in the alternative is to dedicate a memorial to those mortally wounded by police in proximity to the tribute to our fallen officers.

The truth is that this memorial is not an FOP memorial although members of the FOP have taken it upon themselves to keep the area clean along with the victims' families who raised money in their honor to have a place in the city where they could remember their loved ones who were killed in the line of duty. This has been said to be akin to the desecration of graves if harmed or removed.

Dorsey later acknowledged the comments that the memorial might not be an "FOP memorial," but said the FOP is a "toxic, divisive organization" and wondered: "Why would such an organization have a monument in Baltimore City?"

FOP lawyers, at the direction of Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #3 President Mike Mancuso, wrote a letter calling out Dorsey’s “veiled threats” and clearly articulating to the police commissioner that the expectation is that the Baltimore City Police Memorial to those killed in the line of duty to the City of Baltimore will be protected from harm or removal.

Meanwhile, lame duck Baltimore Mayor Jack Young recently vetoed a passed city council bill, introduced by Councilman Ryan Dorsey, to rename a Columbus monument that is overlooking the memorial to officers killed in the line of duty to “the monument of victims of police violence” as an alternative to removal of the fallen officer’s tribute. It is unclear how the new incoming administration will deal with this matter.

While the lines may be drawn in the battle to preserve our own heritage and history, respecting backgrounds and sacrifices of others is essential if we are to move forward in an intelligent and informed manner. While we seem to be in the midst of revolutionary times with a push toward a New World Order, studying history is necessary to avoid repeating past mistakes. After all, as George Santayana, a Spanish-born American author of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s observed, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Or as Winston Churchill lamented, “A nation that forgets its past has no future.” 

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

Election Just Threw Police From The Frying Pan Into The Fire

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse for the American police officer with what has happened to them over the last year, it did. And at a time when police agencies are already struggling with draconian budget cuts, record-high resignations and retirements.

Barring some successful legal challenge by the Trump campaign, we are currently staring down the barrel of a cop-hating Joe Biden who thinks that police should be trained to confront armed subjects by shooting them in the leg and his vice presidential running mate Kamala Harris, who stated she was proud of Jacob Blake. Blake was armed with a knife, told numerous time to drop it in the lunge area of two Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officers and headed inside a car that 3 kids were in. Police, fearing for their safety, shot Blake, paralyzing him from the waist down. That is who Harris is proud of. She spoke with him on the phone from his hospital bed. She did not reach out to the two Kenosha police officers to see how they were doing. These two are a threat to every cop in America. And it gets worse.

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullers, an avowed cop-hater and Marxist who advocates for the destruction of the nuclear family, recently publicly asked for a meeting with Biden and Harris. She said, “We want something for our vote.” That is not a request, it’s a threat.

Black Lives Matter has one objective. It is not to simply defund police. It’s not to reform police. Their overarching objective is to abolish police, and until that happens they are content with advocating for hurting and killing police.

A Biden-Harris administration can do most of their damage to policing in the nomination of the next Attorney General and U.S. Attorneys around the country. Biden has indicated that he will continue with Obama-era polices involving any police reform. That means get ready for more pattern and practice investigation leading to forced consent decrees with any agency involved in a deadly force situation, no matter how straightforward the incident is and no matter that the officer is eventually exonerated. In fact, often times the Obama-led USDOJ rushed investigators into a city without waiting for the locals to conclude their own investigation. Before Obama began sticking his activist nose into police use of force investigations, the role of the USDOJ was to act as an overseer. It reviewed reports and pored over evidence to ensure that a thorough investigation occurred. Under Obama, the USDOJ took anecdotal claims of a racist police agency as pattern and practice. It looked at traffic stop data as the benchmark. That is the wrong benchmark. It then manipulated data then bullied the city and department into signing a consent decree. Most mayors just caved. The decree came with money for training. It’s reporting requirements, however, were onerous and burdensome. Officers were spending valuable patrol time filling out reports at the precinct to satisfy compliance. The Obama-led USDOJ had 21 consent decrees in place after conducting 22 pattern and practice investigations. That doesn’t pass the smell test. It’s a statistical anomaly. It was bad enough to have race baiting US Attorney General like Eric Holder. It will be worse if an avowed cop-hater is nominated. Imagine Patrisse Cullers leading a White House task force on police reform.

So, what do we do? Normally I would suggest and remind mayors that they should resist any and all attempts for a federal takeover of their police department. It’s a Tenth Amendment issue. States have a vested interest in controlling crime. Why give it away to the federal government? Resist the urge to fall on your sword by virtue signaling or flaunting your racial sensitivity. It won’t matter. You will not be given any leniency from the federal government. The problem with that advice is that most of these cities that are likely to be involved in a use of force incidents are cities controlled by Democrat mayors and city councils. So that advice will fall on deaf ears. That leaves few options.

I’m left with something I never thought I would ever say to police officers, but this is existential. No police officer should take anything but manageable risks. Don’t sign up for voluntary overtime. You just might end up in that use of force on an overtime assignment. Take advantage of stress-related duty disability options. These work conditions are destroying officer quality of life. It is an occupational safety hazard to work under these conditions without the safety equipment required to do the job.

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

SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO TAKE A STAND!

“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” – Alexander Hamilton

Have you ever been asked to do something you felt was wrong? Did you give in to someone else’s plan or did you take a stand?

My Story

As a 17-year-old high school senior looking for my first “real” job, I was excited when I spotted the “help wanted part time” sign in the window of a local Radio Shack store. I went home to dress appropriately and returned to the store, introducing myself to the store manager. The store manager and I immediately hit it off. He was a former Baltimore city police officer and I an aspiring one. It didn’t hurt that I had been a licensed amateur radio operator since age 13 with a knowledge of electronics. I was immediately scheduled for a pre-hire polygraph exam and was hired after passing with flying colors. It was on my third day of work that I was given some bad news. The regional manager had nullified my hire. It turned out that my being under 18 years of age violated Radio Shack hiring practices and I had somehow fallen through the cracks.

Having already been on the job for three days, I decided to challenge this ruling. With the help of my parents we wrote a rather eloquent letter to the well known President of the Radio Shack division of the Tandy Corporation Lewis Kornfeld, famous for his “flyer-side chats.” After all, I had already been owed money for work completed. By taking a stand, not only was I reinstated but went on to be one of the company’s top salespeople and became a retail store manager for them by age 19.

Having learned a valuable lesson at such a young age served me well when I later myself became a Baltimore city police officer. I utilized my knowledge of the power of taking a stand whenever necessary throughout my career.

I have always placed a high value on truth and justice and took my oath to enforce the law seriously:

 “I, do swear, that I will support the Constitution of the United States and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the City of Baltimore, State of Maryland and support the Constitution and laws thereof, and that I will, to the best of my skill and judgment, diligently and faithfully, without partiality or prejudice, execute the Office of Police Officer.”

On one particularly notable occasion, after working a busy day-shift in Baltimore’s western police district in the early 1980s, my squad was drafted to be held over for a detail which happened to be at the AFRAM (African American) Festival which was actively taking place at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Due to crowd size and some incidents that had already occurred, command had made the decision to activate additional manpower for festival patrols. During a roll-call briefing about the assignment, my shift commander ordered the drafted officers in attendance to avoid making arrests and specifically ordered that any observed open-air drug use by festival participants be ignored “because we don’t want to create a riot.” Feeling that this was an unlawful order asking to violate my oath of office to diligently and faithfully, without partiality or prejudice, execute the Office of Police Officer  I found myself asking my shift commander to put the order to suspend the enforcement of laws in writing. I never received that written order and was not sent to the festival.

As years went on, I took a stand against the occasional order which did not comport to my oath of office, written policy, legal requirements or my moral compass. I did not take a stand unless I felt certain that it was justifiable and I was not known as a difficult person to supervise. To the contrary, I had good working relationships with supervision and command. We frequently found common ground and without exception had mutual respect.

Taking the high road

During my recent unsuccessful political campaign to become my home county’s next sheriff, I withstood false rumors about me and more than a few naysayers were revealed. Some continually made ridiculous assertions. Throughout it all, my supporters and I proudly stayed the course on the high road without being baited into the bad politics of mudslinging. Rather, we were not deterred in having a positive impact through solutions-based action plans for change.

In this day and age of political discourse, much of which is against the police and in favor of bad behaviors turning victim-perpetrator roles inside out, isn’t it time for law enforcement officers and leaders to consistently take the high road while individually and collectively taking a stand for truth, service, safety and justice?

Are you “woke” yet? Never surrender!

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

Welcome To The Powder Keg (revised)

Florissant, Missouri, is a suburb of St. Louis County about 18 miles from St. Louis City (proper). Like Minneapolis, Baltimore, and New York City, St. Louis and Ferguson, Missouri were targeted for complete mayhem.  Florissant was added to that list.

Peaceful demonstrations turned violent quickly when professional agitators rolled in and mingled with the Marxist terrorist groups Black Lives Matter as well as ANTIFA, and everybody took the cue to “get their clown on.” They looted and burned, and it had nothing to do with Mr. Floyd.

Let me hip you to something, “These folks don’t give a shit about George Floyd! They don’t give a shit about Rayshard Brooks either!”

The problem is at the top, folks. It’s not the frontline cops who have brickbats bouncing off their skulls every time shit “pops off.”  It’s the command staff, (“the brass”) who are afraid to do their jobs and the politicians who are holding the cops back. They want to protect their jobs, and their money.  Integrity be damned.  Someone gets sacrificed to satisfy the mob.

 “Under the bus you go, tiger! Hold on because we’re going to back it up and then park it on top of you.” And, that’s how it’s done.  Regardless of the sacrifice, Atlanta burned.

It makes as much sense as someone whistling at my neighbor’s wife and I get so mad that I go down the road and beat the shit out a local farmer planting corn and steal his tractor. On the way home I smash out the window of the local liquor store and steal as much as I can carry.  “Don’t worry folks. I’m just acting out.  I’ll be finished in a couple weeks.” Does that sound logical or normal? No!

That’s what is being played out in the major cities where BLM and the ANTIFA pussies (Yup, I said it) are destroying shit, and they are being allowed (if not encouraged and sometimes paid) to do it! You want chaos? You don’t want the police? This country will burn to the ground!

The folks who really need the police are already prisoners in their own neighborhoods!  Defund the police? Defund the politicians and put more cops on the streets to protect these folks. And then, let the cops do their jobs!

Florissant, Missouri. On June 2nd an unmarked police vehicle occupied by three officers attempted to curb a vehicle. Its three occupants bailed from the moving vehicle and the police vehicle struck one of the fleeing occupants and he was arrested, roughly. I saw some of the video. I will neither condemn nor defend the actions of the officer.  That’s what the courts are for. There’s always outrage.  The officer driving was white; the suspect treated and released for an ankle injury, was black. Clergy groups called for the officer to be suspended. BLM got in on the act quick, fast and in a hurry.  They organized protests, and demanded the officer be fired.  The chief of police and the mayor asked for an independent investigation and it was underway. The protesters demanded the officer be terminated. The mayor and chief acquiesced, quickly.  The officer was terminated, quickly.   The protests continued, now demanding the officer be charged and arrested, so that happened, also quickly. The protests continue today. 

I’ve seen it, firsthand. The police station is boarded up.  There have been as many as a dozen police officers protecting the mayor’s house.  The protesters want the other two officers terminated and charged with, well … anything.  They’ve been told, “It’s not going to happen.  They didn’t do anything criminal.”  So, what exactly do the protesters want? Who knows?

The old cop in me, I went up to put eyeballs on the scene.  I took along a friend.  Someone posted on social media that the U.S. flag in front of the PD had been desecrated. That pissed me off!

The BLM and ANTIFA folks bellowing into their bullhorns, signs, buckets and drumsticks, not really organized at all, just screaming at the guys and gals in uniform and making demands.  I saw someone in a white shirt and a gold badge slink out the front door of the PD and spied him, hiding in the bushes near a brick pillar, watching from a place of cover and concealment, the activity on the line some 70 meters away.  He never made an attempt to get off the porch and talk with the protesters or join the cops holding the line. I waved at him. He didn’t wave back. He knew it was me and I, him. It was a disgrace. He should be embarrassed

I was some thirty meters from the crowd, just watching,

“Check this guy out,” a slightly built, smiling black man approached my friend and I,

“You guys here to join the protest?”

“Nope. We’re just watching Old Glory. Don’t want to see anything happen to her.”

He scurried off.

I turned to my friend,

“They’re running counter intelligence.  He’s a scout, watch, where he goes. He’ll tell his friends about us and we’ll have company, pretty quick.”

He did exactly that, and within seconds, we were swarmed by five black men, a tall skinny fellow with a big mouth and something in his waistband under his shirt, another was wheelchair-bound and carrying an AR-style pistol.  A dark-skinned lad with dreadlocks was carrying an AR-style rifle on a sling, another who could have been his twin was similarly armed but with a red bandanna holding his hair up. All smiles, he was the talker of this group. His rifle was equipped with a drum magazine. There was a portly fellow in a “wife-threatener” (usually we call them a wife-beater except in cases wherein the person wearing it is not physically up to the task, and I don’t think he was up for much physical activity) This guy was also sporting “white face,” makeup which added a little “comic relief” to a scene that had the potential to go horribly wrong.

 Red bandanna started to speak just as a pudgy person, that I could only describe as androgynous, bulging out of shirt and pants, joined the group.  It yelled something from behind its mask that was unintelligible, but angry. 

Red bandanna, “What are y’all doing here?”

“Watching our flag,” as I pointed to it.

“It ain’t my flag, shit!” He laughed as he spoke.

“Well, it’s my flag, and my friend’s flag”

“What if I go over there and tear that flag down off that pole and burn it? Whatcha gonna do about that?”

I looked red bandanna square in the eyes, “It’s still there.  You want to take it down you’re certainly welcome to try.”

“You prepared to die for that flag?” he seemed serious enough for me. A threat? You bet!

I answered, “Lots of folks have died for it. What are you prepared to do? That’s the real question.”

It was hot out, but not so hot for the red bandannas’ skin to be leaking so hard.  He had stopped laughing but I hadn’t laughed since the encounter began. To me, this was not a joke.

The tall one with the big mouth jumped up and perched atop an orange water-filled barricade. He was in my space.  Red bandanna told him to move away from me.  He did.

I saw every trigger finger on every rifle I could see.

The fat tub of shit in whiteface had to get in on it, red bandanna suddenly quiet,

“What if I snatch that hat off yo head? Whatchu gone do about that?”

Still watching every trigger finger,

“This hat? I’m bettin’ it’s gonna stay right here on my head. What are you gone do ‘bout that?”

He must have lost his voice. No reply.

Red bandanna,

“What you gone do, kill us? You packin’?”

“You’re all carrying guns. There’s what, five of you and two of us? This is America. You can carry guns. We can carry guns. What’s the big deal? No reason to get all nervous.”

Red bandanna had “that look,” the look when you’ve started something you weren’t really sure you wanted to start.  Brandishing weapons attempting to instill fear, and making threats, weren’t working.

Calmer heads prevail. We were outnumbered, but not really out-gunned; they had long guns and probably very little training.  We were armed and had lots of training. Discretion being the better part of valor, my friend and I agreed that we’d go leave the way we came, so we simply backed up, cautiously (turning and running usually triggers an enhanced mob attack), and left.   

I think they considered following, but red bandanna knew there was something in the wind that told him it might be a bad idea. Old Glory still at full mast, my hat still on my head.  I certainly didn’t want to be on the evening news or in the newspapers.  We would have been labeled as “troublemakers” spoiling for an armed confrontation.  I did wish they had just kept their distance. We were just on opposite sides.  Where’s the harm in me, a law-abiding citizen on a public roadway, engaging in a conversation about our beloved flag, being accosted by a group of armed men making credible threats?  Powder keg. That’s the best way to describe it, and it probably plays out more often than you’d think, but nobody will tell that story.  Another time, another place, a similar situation will play out and someone will do something they will regret.  We, as Americans cannot roll over and let the mob rule. There comes a time when you need to make a stand.  My question, the one plaguing me is, “Where are the other patriots?” The powder keg is there, and somebody is going to touch that fucker off!

Kirk Lawless is a 28 year, decorated, veteran police officer from the St Louis area. He’s a former SWAT operator, narcotics agent, homicide investigator, detective and Medal of Valor recipient. Off the job due to an up close and personal gunfight, he now concentrates on writing. He’s a patriotic warrior, artist, poet, actor, musician, and man of peace.

Contact : kirklawless@yahoo.com

POLICE REFORM: HERE WE GO AGAIN

After every high-profile police use of force going back to the Rodney King incident involving the Los Angeles Police Department, there has been an immediate knee-jerk reaction call to reform police agencies. Change was needed, we were told. The problem is that the final reports on the need for change were one-sided. Efforts were made to improve policing but no efforts to date have been made requiring criminals to behave in ways that will increase the likelihood of surviving an encounter with police. When you flee police, fail to abide by an officer’s lawful command, resist arrest or attempt to disarm an officer, you are likely to experience a bad outcome.

Yet every time an officer legally uses force to protect themselves against a threat posed by a suspect, we go about the same inane exercise of trying to reform policing. The reason that not much ever changes, however, is that we end up working on the wrong thing. The police are not the problem. Failed communities are the problem, but fixing that seems to be too high a mountain to scale so we go back to picking at the low-hanging fruit, which is to try to reform policing. Panels and task forces are convened, meetings are held and a work product is usually produced that contains nothing more than platitudes, rhetoric and cliches. After a while when emotions have subsided, everybody goes back to doing what they were doing before the incident that got people’s attention.

The last time we heard calls for change on a national scale was after the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and Baltimore. People forget that before Freddie Gray’s death in police custody, President Obama gave a speech in which he heralded the Baltimore Police Department for its reform efforts and its commitment to community policing. He called Baltimore PD a model for change and one that every law enforcement agency should emulate. A few months later, after the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore Police were being investigated by Obama’s Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder for racism, profiling and unfair treatment in black neighborhoods. I’m serious.

Obama signed an Executive Order appointing an 11-member task force titled 21st Century Policing that would “begin the process of healing and restoring community trust”. Yes, here we go again. A 38-page document called an action plan was produced. Most of what was recommended was already being done by agencies across America. All the usual key words were included, like community policing, crime reduction, building trust, oversight and training. The rest was a bunch of pie in the sky flowery-sounding nonsense that was actually dangerous to officers and citizens alike. Nothing changed. And then came the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And just as sure as the sun rising in the east, the call went out to reform policing — yet again.

I cannot stress enough the importance of blocking efforts by politicians to transform the profession of policing in America in knee-jerk fashion because of one or two incidents involving the police use of force. Knee-jerk public policy most often turns out to be bad public policy because a balancing test is not performed. The balancing test answers this vital question. Have we considered what bad outcomes might result from our emotional decision? Asking this important question can reduce the likelihood of the law of unintended consequences. Another troublesome point is that this reform movement is being led by people who do not like police. In fact, they hate police. Black Lives Matter, Antifa or any other innocently disguised groups cannot and should not be allowed to drive police reform. They are pursuing reform with one goal — to weaken a law enforcement officer’s ability to keep the peace, enforce the rule of law and take law violators into custody. In other words, it will severely hamper effective law enforcement. Calls for reform are not based on any data or research to support sweeping change. These are based solely on emotional rhetoric and propaganda. A recent poll by Rasmussen shows that 81% of people polled believe that police deserve more respect and support. A Gallup poll shows that 80% of blacks polled want the same level of policing and some want more law enforcement in their communities. Why, then, are politicians ignoring the will of the general public?

Fortunately, many police agencies are refusing to cave to major policy changes being pursued by the idiot social justice warriors. The reformers are people who have no understanding whatsoever about police work. A Washington Times newspaper survey of police agencies across the country found that, “Most are making only slight adjustments to standard operating procedures rather than major overhauls.” Calls for more body cameras is a reasonable request. Most agencies banned the use of chokeholds a long time ago. Banning no-knock search warrants deserves more data and research before banning. This is an officer safety issue when serving narcotic-related search warrants. Let’s be clear. What the cop-hating crowd has in mind for reform is to ban the use of tear gas in riot situations and to eliminate the use of police canines as one Milwaukee, Wisconsin, alderman has introduced and to prevent agencies from buying surplus military equipment under the 1033 federal program. Things like ballistic shields and helmets.

Another sweeping change suggestion is a call for national standards in local policing. It’s a terrible idea. That is about one thing: federal control of local police. The Founding Fathers knew the danger of that and did not want it. What the people making this suggestion to police standards fail to understand is that how a community is policed is incumbent upon local conditions. Every community is unique and requires a style of policing tailored to that particular environment and culture. How you police in a dynamic and complex densely populated urban area like New York is different than how you would police a midsize Midwestern city or outlying rural area.

What is noticeably left out from the recommendation list is how the community can do a better job of holding up their responsibility in a representative democracy. People have certain responsibilities to make communities work and function. Parents need to raise socially adjusted children, for instance. They need to instill virtues in them like respect for authority and personal responsibility. Police were designed to keep the peace already in place because of societally enforced standards, not create the peace. Now they are called for everything. Increased police/citizen interaction leads to an increase for potential conflict.  That’s how we arrive at Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray and George Floyd.

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

Politics, Pardons and Commutations

Politics, Pardons and Commutations

The power of clemency is one of the fullest powers bestowed on the president by the United States Constitution. The pardon powers of the president are outlined in Article Two of the United States Constitution (Section 2, Clause 1):The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States.

Clemency given by a president falls into one of two categories: A pardon is an executive order granting clemency for a conviction; it may be granted at any point after the commission of the crime. As per Justice Department regulations, convicted persons may only apply five or more years after their sentence has been completed. However, the president's power to pardon is not restricted by any temporal constraints except that the crime must have been committed. Its practical effect is the restoration of civil rights and statutory disabilities (i.e., firearm rights, occupational licensing) associated with a past criminal conviction. A commutation is the mitigation of the sentence of someone currently serving a sentence for a crime pursuant to a conviction without vacating the conviction itself (example: Roger Stone).President Trump, as of this writing, has issued 44 pardons and commutations. This compared to President Obama, who after eight full years in office left with a total of 1,927.

Of greater importance than the number of individuals granted clemency is the severity of the offenses and the totality of the known information on their individual backgrounds, their likelihood of recidivism and their own success at improving their lives and the lives of others while incarcerated. 

While the vast majority of President Obama’s executive clemency orders affected people considered being low-level and nonviolent participants in the drug trade, many with an addiction issue themselves, not all met those criteria. Perhaps President Obama’s most well-known commutation decision was when he ordered Army Private Chelsea Manning to be released from prison after serving just seven years of a 34-year sentence for passing secret documents to WikiLeaks. 

Lesser known is that President Obama ordered the early and immediate release of Oscar Lopez Rivera on Jan. 17, 2017, as one of the final acts of his presidency. During the 1970s, Lopez Rivera headed a Chicago-based cell of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), which waged a futile but violent struggle to win Puerto Rican independence. The FALN claimed responsibility for more than 120 bombings between 1974 and 1983 that killed six and injured dozens. In 1981, a federal court in Chicago sentenced Lopez Rivera to 55 years for seditious conspiracy, armed robbery, interstate transportation of firearms and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property. The indictment listed 28 Chicago-area bombings. FBI agents at the time discovered dynamite, detonators and firearms at two residences occupied by Lopez Rivera. At trial, a cooperating witness from the FALN testified that Lopez Rivera personally trained him in bomb-making. Oscar Lopez Rivera is neither a low-level offender nor a repentant or nonviolent one. 

In contrast, President Trump granted executive clemency and famously commuted the life sentence of first-time, nonviolent drug offender Alice Marie Johnson following a meeting between President Trump and Kim Kardashian. This was followed by landmark justice reforms through the First Step Act which requires the Board of Prisons to assess prisoner recidivism risk and place prisoners in recidivism-reducing and productive programs.

In fact, the president just recently commuted the sentences of five nonviolent offenders. The White House described all of the individuals as having been model inmates during their incarcerations who had worked to better themselves and the people around them while still behind bars. 

So those are the facts. Conclude for yourself the importance executive clemency to those truly deserving second looks who contribute to our society in positive ways versus the potential danger in any president releasing those who could justifiably be deemed to be a threat to our republic.

A complete list of President Obama’s granted executive clemency requests can be found at: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-pardons

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-commutations

A complete list of President Trump’s granted executive clemency requests can be found at:

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-trump

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/commutations-granted-president-donald-trump-2017-present

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

After Further Review, A Change Of Heart

With great amusement I am watching politicians who eagerly jumped on board with calls from cop haters to defund and even abolish police now having to contort themselves into a more serious public policy proposal now that they see the foolishness of these suggestions after polling suggests there is nearly zero public support across all demographics for defunding police.

What started out as blatant calls to defund and abolish have turned into a game of wordsmithing by two-bit politicians who got too far out in front of their skis on this inane idea. Now defunding, abolishing and cuts have been replaced by words and phrases like “redirecting”, “repurposing” or “reallocating” police resources to disguise and mislead their true intentions.

Democrat vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris calls it “re-imagining” policing. All of this is being done after cities like Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland (OR), Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City and Los Angeles have experienced spikes in violent crime rates as police stood down and backed off the need to be assertive in order to keep crime and violence in check, to keep the peace and maintain law and order. Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden gave his vision of police reform saying he should send social workers along with police on calls to talk them out of using force when they legally need to. You won’t find many social workers who will sign up for that.

The New York City council recommends cutting the six-billion-dollar budget of the NYPD by one billion dollars. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett submitted a city budget for 2021 that includes cutting funding for 125 officers on a police department already operating with vacancies. The liberal local newspaper that shills for the liberal mayor said in a story on the budget that Barrett’s proposal was not a true defunding move. Really? Then what is it? In Seattle, calls for cutting the police budget in half led to “only” a 1% reduction in the police budget. In Portland, the police budget has been cut by $10 million or 4% of the budget and far less that the police hater had sought. In Los Angeles, the city council cut the budget by $150 million. The Philadelphia Police Department was scheduled for an increase in its 2021 budget but that was nixed.

As a law enforcement chief executive and former sheriff of Milwaukee County, I know a thing or two about budgeting. A budget is a plan about what you will do to keep the area safe. Most of what is contained in a budget, about 92%, is eaten up in salaries and benefits. That leaves only 8% left for discretionary spending. That’s working on the margins. My budget, like most law enforcement agencies, was underfunded to start with. That means that the slightest cut is a big deal. Cuts don’t include the rate of inflation-the rising cost of collectively bargained salaries and benefits.

All of this has consequences for the public, especially those who live in areas ravaged by street violence. Poor black and Hispanic people who live in these urban centers will bear a disproportionate level of being victimized. Minneapolis has had more homicides in the first three quarters of 2020 than in all of the previous year. Rising crime in cities cutting police budgets has left clueless politicians scratching their heads. In Minneapolis, for example, at a recent city council meeting, several council members have asked where the police are as their constituents demand that something be done about crime. Council President Lisa Bender even accused the police of not enforcing the law or making arrests.

These absent-minded politicians cannot and will not make the connection between fewer police and rising street crimes like robberies, aggravated assaults and homicides. They cannot make the connection that all this cop-hating and physical attacks are having on the psyche of officers. Chief Medaria

Arredondo had a chance to let them know that cuts mean fewer police and longer response times and that his officers are mentally and physically fatigued. He did not. He stood down. Instead, he said he would discuss it with his commanders. I was recently in Minneapolis and talked to several police officers including one who still has not been cleared for duty having been injured during the riots following the death of George Floyd. They told me that the department was totally demoralized. That Arredondo doesn’t know that is telling how disconnected he is from his officers.

Other city leaders have also had a change of heart. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan was all in with Antifa and Black Lives Matter about abolishing the Seattle Police Department. After an awakening that saw her come under attack from the same insurrectionists she once supported, she had to walk back her initial anti-police position. Her veto of police budget cuts was overridden.

Add to this that retirements and resignations are skyrocketing. The Milwaukee Police Department is experiencing an over 40% retirement rate compared to a year ago. In Minneapolis, 100 officers have left the agency. NYPD is seeing what is described as a “troubling surge in officer retirements”. Most officers surveyed say they are leaving due to all the anti-police rhetoric. Losing a police officer in and of itself places a heavier workload on an already overworked staff. An overworked officer is subject to making more mistakes. Add to that all of the experience that is walking out the door. Politicians don’t consider that. Most agencies do not have a succession plan to capture that knowledge and experience before officers retire. That is not replaced by simply hiring a new officer. Most officers know that it takes about 5 years for an officer to become truly seasoned in the science of policing.

I am sounding the alarm now. The fire is getting closer. We need more effective police leadership today more than ever before. The question is whether we’ll see it or not before this proud profession collapses.

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

Let them hate, so long as they fear

“Oderint dum metuant,” loosely translated, is a message capable of sending mixed signals.  For The United States Marine Corps, “No better friend, No worse enemy,” drives home a point.  

Consider the NYPD legend of the 1870s and ‘80s, Captain Alexander “Clubber” Williams and his quote, “There is more law in the end of a policeman’s stick than in any decision of The Supreme Court.”  

People on the left and right will, without a doubt, cringe to some degree when reading this. Does it embody police brutality? Was it applicable in a past century? Certainly. Is it applicable today? Yes, that’s my opinion and I’ll back it up.

We, the police, are a necessary evil.  Should people actually fear us? Yes, but not all people.  Criminals should fear us.  Otherwise, we are approachable and we should be.  Are we guarded?  We’d be foolish not to be.  We are here for the solitary reason of maintaining law and order, keeping the peace, whatever the “flavor of the month” is.  The absurdities of “Defunding or abolishing the police” are catastrophes being set in motion and only in their first trimester.  It’s a litmus test.  

You are witnessing a precursor of some folks’ Utopian dream being played out in major cities as BLM terrorists and ANTIFA counterparts loot, burn, attack and destroy, and guess what. That shit ain’t working!

​You can hate the police all damned day, but the community, as a whole will be better served when the criminal element reverts to fearing the police.  Protest all you want.  I encourage it, but when you break the law there should be consequences, and that’s where the cops come in.  People are calling for the reformation of the police.  Here’s a little clue for you.  Police work has been reforming since its inception.  Police officers for the most part are more educated now and receive training updates at every turn.  It is an ever-evolving, trained animal, but like every animal it can turn on you when attacked or provoked.  

I read a comment from an ANTIFA “warrior” a few hours ago, “Man, I got hit with those pepper-balls, it was like I was in a war.”  Pepper-balls hurt, no doubt, but when this turns into a real war, this guy will be begging for pepper-balls.

Back to “Clubber” Williams, and the fondness for his nightstick.  The Supreme Court Justices are afforded the time to dissect every interpretation of the law and adjust it accordingly when the envelope is pushed, for the police it’s not always that easy.  We don’t have the comfort of the bench. Our “bench” is the asphalt streets we patrol.  We have to think on the fly, sometimes with seconds, if not milliseconds, to react to an incoming viable threat.  Sometimes the cops get it wrong and they are held accountable, more so now than ever. The nightstick does not discriminate! If you don’t fear it, you might learn to, the hard way!

There are no rules for the terrorists, but they want the police to stop using intermediate weapons such as tear gas, Tasers and pepper-balls.  They have been whining about it for months. “Ouch! That hurt!” says the skateboard-swinging, brick-toting in his Hello Kitty backpack, ninja-outfit-wearing “toughie” who had been hitting cops with goodies from his bag of tricks, falling as the staccato of a pepper-ball gun drops him to the pavement, a short-lasting lesson, at best.

“Son of a bitch! I don’t want to lose my leg,” cries another suffering from an abrasion caused by a rubber impact baton fired at him (for no good reason apparently, according to the left-wing media) while another idiot applies a tourniquet to his “damaged” limb, potentially causing the noble warrior to lose his leg due to an uneducated wannabe trauma medic plying her trade.

​If they get arrested, after the “owie” wagon (or band aid bus) takes them to the hospital, they get booked, released and go right back out there to start the same shit over again. That is not “pain compliance,” to me that’s justa temporary inconvenience.  Pain compliance curbs the criminal activity long enough to get someone in handcuffs and tossed into a cell.  When delivered properly, it curbs behavior and maybe, just maybe, the recipient of a solid baton strike sees his or her own blood, later feels the stitches and the swollen bumps and thinks, “You know, that hurt really bad, I’m going to pass on the next peaceful protest.”

​So, let’s take away the tear gas, pepper balls, Maceand Tasers.  The antagonists still have bricks, sharpened PVC pipes, umbrellas, bricks, guns (they have guns too) lasers, frozen water bottles, Molotov cocktails and potatoes with ten-penny nails sticking out of them (I shit you, not) and you expect the cops to stand there and take the physical injuries?  Remember, we are trained?  Remember we are Class one mammals (look it up)?

​That will leave the cops with fists, nightsticks, gunsand accordingly bad attitudes.  If you noticed how the National Guard handled the violent protesters in Ferguson, it expertly displayed the pain compliance theory.

​Whichever state you’re in, and you are a professional “shit bird” see what offenses you plan on committing and figure what level of the police force continuum you can be met with.  That way, you’ll know the gamut of stupid prizes you might win, should you score a hit on a cop with a brickbat.  

Keep it up.  The cops are getting tired and angry.  At some point the bosses will quit being political pussies, hiding in the bushes, and let the adults handle things.  Oh, you can still hate us, but there’s that element of fear, and those nightsticks!  Be careful what you wish for!

Kirk Lawless is a 28 year, decorated, veteran police officer from the St Louis area. He’s a former SWAT operator, narcotics agent, homicide investigator, detective and Medal of Valor recipient. Off the job due to an up close and personal gunfight, he now concentrates on writing. He’s a patriotic warrior, artist, poet, actor, musician, and man of peace.

Contact : kirklawless@yahoo.com

Interview: Emmy Award-winning actor Tony LoBianco Talks to Blue About his Support for LEOs

We all know of a handful of celebrities who are very public about their anti-police beliefs. It's a shame they're using their influence to convince America's youth that we are the bad guys. The worst part is these celebrities don't understand the intricacies and complexities of our job, especially the all-too-familiar and difficult split-second decision.

I wouldn’t dare try to tell professional athletes how to play their sport, or actors how to act. They, in turn, are in no position to tell the LEO community how to do their job. They just think they know what’s right, and it’s disgusting and an insult to those who walk the beat every day dealing with the decay of society.

 But there's one celebrity who's not afraid to show his support for the men and women in blue- Emmy Award-winner Tony LoBianco. 

Every supporter of blue has their own reasons why he or she supports law enforcement, and Tony has his reasons. Tony tells Blue in a Zoom interview, “It’s (LE support) common sense logically, just watching history and knowing what they’ve gone through. Growing up at the right time to appreciate the military and police.”

And there’s a very specific reason for it. He knows the job and understands what it’s like to be a police officer.

 “I was greatly interested in police work when I got into acting.” Tony said. “I went out on many calls with police … I was on murders, rapes, suicides, kidnappings … everything you could imagine and I see what police go through.”

 Every anti-police celebrity should spend a day in an officer’s shoes like Tony did so they can see exactly what police go through and how difficult the job is. That will help them understand that we aren’t the bloodthirsty maniacs the media and ignorant celebrities paint us to be. It’ll prove to them that many police interactions just aren’t that simple and force must be used. 

Instead, spoiled celebrities think they have the answer, but in reality, they are just contributing to social injustice by spreading misguided rhetoric.

“The people should be reformed to learn respect for authority, law enforcement and the laws.” Tony said. And he is absolutely correct. Tony truly understands the value of law enforcement, and even the US military.

In 2015, Tony LoBianco and his team created a beautiful tribute video to the American military entitled “Just a Common Soldier” (www.JustaCommonSoldier.com). It reached millions of viewers and continues to reach more. 

Tony produced and wrote The Blues, a tribute to law enforcement.

This past August, Tony created another tribute video to honor the men and women of law enforcement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-1jzMTy4jM&t=80s). His staunch support of law enforcement must be recognized and he wants the LEO community to know that some celebrities DO care, some DO have your backs. 

But the political climate remains unstable and the routine challenges of the average police officer remains extremely difficult. Tony was asked to give some words of wisdom to the law enforcement community.

“I care about United States of America and how to heal this wound. Hang in there, I know it’s extremely difficult when the authority won’t let you do your job, just hang in there.”

The law enforcement community needs more actors like Tony LoBianco, because he understands what it means to be a police officer. He has seen it and been there. 

But for every Tony LoBianco out there, there are 100 celebrities who believe they know how police work should go and they couldn’t be more ignorant. 

There are other well-known figures out there like Tony, we just need to find them and make their voices heard. Thank you, Tony LoBianco for letting us know you care and lifting our spirits during these turbulent times. 

For information about Tony LoBianco, go to www.TonyLoBianco.com

Eddie Molina is a leadership professional, blogger and author. He voluntarily writes articles to keep the law enforcement, first responder and military community informed on important issues. For more information or to see the full unedited Zoom interview with Tony LoBianco, go to www.eddiemolina.com

Weary? You’re not alone.

Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today? – Thomas Sowell

Where freedom of speech, expression, individual thought and group-think intersect I have grown weary. The divisiveness, the anger, the coming apart instead of coming together is increasingly hard to take. I am constantly catching myself trying to make rational sense out of many positions I see being taken in an irrational upside-down, inside-out world.

Three words come to mind when it comes to the state of our nation...  anger, tribalism and anxiety. Feeling attacked for your own thoughts? You're not alone.

No matter what the subject, disagreement seems to ensue. Whether it comes to peace treaties, societal reforms, protests, riots, capitalism, socialism, safety, constitutional matters, judgeships, whose life matters, you name it. The result is all the same in black and white, with stances being taken with very little gray allowed in the opinions being shared. 

Are you tired of conspiracy theories?

Tired of in with new “politically correct” murals and monuments and out with the old in our cancel culture “new world order”?

Tired of COVID-19 and the wearing of a mask debate?

Tired of Blacks vs. Whites?

Tired of Democrats vs. Republicans?
Trump vs. Biden?

Facts vs. Fiction?

I am sick of the people who are jumping on the bandwagon to spread hatred and start riots, looting and destroying others’ property or calling for or causing injury and death.

Huntington West Virginia’s Marshall University recently suspended a professor who, during a virtual biology class session online, after noting that some supporters of President Donald Trump at an indoor political rally were not wearing face coverings, stated “I’ve become the type of person where I hope they all get it (COVID-19) and die. I’m sorry, but that’s so frustrating – just – I don’t know what else to do. You can’t argue with them, you can’t talk sense with them, uhm, I said to somebody yesterday I hope they all die before the election.” To the professor, I say how about being mature enough to be able to deal with the fact that thankfully everyone doesn’t have that same mind-set? The penalty for disagreement should now be death according to you? Is this how far we have come with an alleged educator spewing such vile rhetoric? I guess not every life matters in your world. I am very grateful for those who have not been affected by indoctrination and are able and willing to look past ideologies in search of unity and fact.

As time passes, we increasingly find ourselves battling the differences between each other, rather than recognizing that there is so much more that we hold in common. The human tendency to want to categorize everything has seemingly spiraled wildly out of control. Even people who essentially agree are often seen being disagreeable and argumentative with one another.

Much of the divisiveness has been fueled through the media sources we turn to for information that have validated that in their media world bubble it's really primarily about identity politics and labels. It's "us versus them." Commentary is less about balance, substance and truth or telling two sides to a story with absolute accuracy. Forget finding any common ground. Value is only seen in certain beliefs quickly invalidating or demeaning those with heightened concerns due to a different perspective. Often it comes down to what amounts to a difference of opinion on perceived intent and motivation from different groups or movements and who is aligned with whom.

Is real support for the First Amendment reserved for when it supports a singular agenda? Attempts at shaming and silencing the opposition is a tactic used instead of learning by listening to views outside what has been described as a safe space or comfort zone. How about coverage, commentary and discussions which might actually result in new insights, knowledge and understanding? I’m done with attempts at erasing historical lessons learned. I am sick of blaming the world for the wrongdoings of a few. 

Personal Responsibility

I look forward to better times ahead where we can feel some level of success in preaching to those outside our own choir in a civil manner complete with respect, trust and with a mutual goal of learning and understanding the viewpoints of others. While, in the end, we may agree to disagree, surely our human journey together can be improved upon.

We must do better.

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

The police officer was wounded, but is expected to survive

Thank God for this addendum to a story that is played out nearly every day in the United States.  Maybe it’s reported this way to provide a bit of a “warm and fuzzy” close to a violent story. 

There’s way more to it, usually.  The officer doesn’t always get out of the hospital and walk away and get back after it (the job).  The mainstream media may do follow-up stories in those cases where the officer returns Lazarus-like (not from death itself) but from the brink of death.

In my part of the world, those follow-ups are usually celebrations of officers who have been shot in the head and by God’s grace survived, and learned to walk and talk again. Others who survived a shooting or a vehicle accident lived to tell the tale, but have become prisoners in their own bodies, paralyzed from the neck down, maybe from the waist down (if they’re lucky).

Most stories are not followed up on.  I have a good friend and young police brother who got shot in the back in 2009 and is now paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.  This happened because he was a police officer doing his job.  The bad guy could have simply run away, but elected to pop up out of a dumpster and back-shoot this kid.

Oh, the department pinned medals on him and put him in his dress uniform and wheeled him around for photo ops.  The community rallied behind him and raised money for the young officer and his family.  The department controlled the money (whatever the actual figure was is not known) and it was doled out, as they deemed necessary.  He was promised, “He’ll have a job here, no matter what.”

But, at the end of the day, promises made are not always kept.  He now lives in another state, doing the best he can physically and mentally.  He is also in litigation with the body armor company who provided a product that failed to perform. 

Now, he’s on his own with his family, his attorney and a circle of friends pulling for him.  I don’t believe the city is rallying behind him in his lawsuit endeavors.  

On the morning he got shot, I was one of the first guys to arrive at the hospital to check on him.  He was awake and in good spirits, waiting for surgery.  Before I got to speak with him and his wife, I noticed a young lady in business attire, clipboard in hand, standing near his room.  I surmised she was a hospital employee.  I engaged her in a short conversation and learned that she was an investigator from the insurance company representing the city.  When I spoke with my friend and learned of the extent of his injuries, I told him and his wife that the woman with the clipboard was not their “friend.”  I told my young brother to stay tough and get better; that was the most important thing to do.  I spoke briefly with his wife and told her to have very little interaction with the insurance company representative.  I also told her to reach out to legal counsel as soon as she could, after the lifesaving surgery and her valiant husband was on the road to recovery.

At the end of the day, the city let him go.  They like to use the term “separation,” and that they did.  The litigation with the body armor company continues, and he still does not have a job there “no matter what.”  It’s cheaper to let us go than to help us.

Lots of cops get “that letter,” nobody from the police departments and cities want to talk about it.  I was the recipient of such a letter, but I talk about it.

What the media doesn’t talk about is that we, the police are way easier to replace than to repair.

The officer is expected to survive.  What does that mean? And survive at what level? How will they support their family, maybe with Worker’s Compensation?  Look into that. Do the math.  And don’t you dare believe that the department, the city, or their attorneys are looking out for the best interest of the officer and their family.  They are not.  They are protecting themselves and they want to keep their money.  Think I’m lying? It’s all about the money.

In today’s climate, every cop out there is one brick toss or frozen water bottle to the head away from getting “separated” from their department. One broken hand, injured back, one laser-blinded eye and you are done. PTSD, PTSI or TBI and you’re done.

And remember, when the cop bellies up to the bar at the Worker’s Comp meetings, the city attorney will be right in there, figuring out a way to fuck the cop over.  Pimps and whores, it’s what they are and what they do; they protect the city and their money while billing the city for their time and they make lots of money per hour.

Research how many departments write a check for a job well done to a cop whose gun hand got mangled in a gunfight, or suffered debilitating injuries in a car crash, or a TBI, or PTSD?  I’m pretty sure you won’t find any. If you do, I’d certainly like to hear about it!

Kirk Lawless is a 28 year, decorated, veteran police officer from the St Louis area. He’s a former SWAT operator, narcotics agent, homicide investigator, detective and Medal of Valor recipient. Off the job due to an up close and personal gunfight, he now concentrates on writing. He’s a patriotic warrior, artist, poet, actor, musician, and man of peace.

Contact : kirklawless@yahoo.com

Our America: Holding the line

WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.

The preamble to the Unites States Constitution … and so it begins in 1787. Our founding fathers were all about putting out fires, not starting them. Having lived and worked in urban, suburban and rural area law enforcement, I have found that politicians, modern lawmakers and even some rural enforcers have failed to understand the importance of self-reliance and personal responsibility for one’s own safety, security and welfare.

If you ask the average citizen about being victimized by criminal activity and what they would do if and when confronted with violence, the typical response is “I would just call 911 for help.” There is a false sense of security created with the 911 system that has some believing that with a single call, an officer will be dispatched immediately to save you and your family within minutes of the call. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth with an ever-shrinking thin blue line tasked to cover increasingly large geographical areas or sometimes within areas of greater population density than before. 

While rapid response times of emergency responders in urban and suburban areas have historically been of top priority, in rural America individuals and families have always understood the importance of self-defense capability without reliance on government to come to the rescue when faced with emergencies and threatening encounters. The United States is estimated to consist of about 97% rural areas, though only about one-fifth of the overall population resides in these rural areas according to the United States Census Bureau. In many areas of the country, law enforcement response times are measured in hours, not minutes, if there is any response at all. It wasn’t until more recent times that there was even 24-hour on-duty law enforcement coverage of my home county here in West Virginia. With diminished staffs and funding, even urban and suburban areas are now experiencing a longer wait and increasing response times for police arrivals, too. 

Even those with good intentions often mistakenly promote the idea that government, through law enforcement, will be able to protect against criminal intrusions or violent confrontation. I hear politicians, especially those with no concept of rural life, promote the frequently repeated adage that law enforcement is all that protects us from succumbing to violence and anarchy. While it is the intent of law enforcement to be a first-line defense, it is not a realistic expectation nor possible in many situations and scenarios. The truth is that it is the American people who are tasked to protect our land, lives and livelihoods, with law enforcement to be relied on for help and guidance to assist in that effort. 

Lately we hear stories where citizens are arrested for raising a firearm when confronted with intruders at their residence after being placed in fear for a family’s safety; then having guns confiscated under court order or resulting from “red flag” laws. While there may possibly be other circumstances used by the courts to justify such charges or action, when this occurs law enforcement is put into a difficult position with a public perception that the police are taking away the individual right to protection of one’s self and family. With extended response times in many communities, this adds to citizen insecurity and becomes a “hot” topic on social media and in the towns and neighborhoods where this has occurred. It is situations like this which serve to further the divide in our country and put law enforcement squarely in the cross hairs of the current debate on reforms. 

The reality is that we all have a personal responsibility for our own protection, and our Constitution’s Second Amendment ensures that citizens are reasonably afforded the opportunity to possess the tools which may prove necessary to do just that.  

Isn’t it odd that some of the same people who promote “modern interpretation” or changes to our Constitution’s Second Amendment are, in many cases, the same people who are advocating for less police? Should law-abiding citizens be placed in no-win situations at the mercy of those with intent to cause harm? Ironically, even rioters have gone from yelling “defund the police” to “call the police” upon being confronted with violence.

During this time of reflection and reevaluation, let us view the world how it really is and not the way many wish it would be with a view toward making sure that WE THE PEOPLE move ever closer to that more perfect union envisioned by our forefathers.

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

Police Unions Do Not Protect Bad Officers

Much is being made recently about the role police labor organizations have played in officer discipline and other political activity. Most of the claims are anecdotal and part of the ongoing attempt to smear and disparage the American police officer. Being ignorant and uninformed is no justification for criticizing law enforcement agencies for retaining an officer because of the discipline process that is codified in law.

The same politicians taking cheap shots at agencies for retaining an officer with a lengthy record of complaints fail to inform the public that the process for disciplining an officer is codified in collective bargaining agreements that politicians themselves, including the mayor, signed onto. None of these agreements can occur without city approval. So if there is displeasure with how difficult it is to terminate an officer, the politicians should look in the mirror.

Much was made over the fact that the Minneapolis Police Department officer directly involved in the video that depicted him with his knee on the neck of George Floyd has 18 conduct complaints. I was interviewed extensively on cable news about this, to which I responded, “So?” Unless I know the particulars of each case, it is irrelevant to me.

Several things are noteworthy here. As former sheriff of Milwaukee County, I was responsible for the good conduct of my officers. After a personnel investigation was conducted, I ruled on what an appropriate disposition was. It ranged from unfounded, retraining, a suspension or termination. I had to consider all of these before my decision and I would have to defend the decision in the appeal process if the employee appealed my decision to a county personnel review board. State law creates these tribunals. These boards are all in on what is called progressive discipline. In other words, is there a lesser discipline that is appropriate. Termination is a severe recommendation. It has legal implications. After this step, the case can be appealed to state and federal court and in rare cases could end up back in the US Supreme Court like the Cleveland Board of Education v Loudermill case did. It applied due process rights to public sector employees in disciplinary cases.

The other thing that is noteworthy is that no other public sector employee is exposed to people on a daily basis like a police officer is. That contact is usually under less than pleasant circumstances. Not only that, no other public agency encourages and solicits complaints from people like police agencies do. In fact, they advertise it. No other public employee faces that. The teachers union is probably the largest public sector entity. School officials and school boards do not encourage parents or students to make complaints against teachers even though they probably should.

For this reason, it is totally understandable for cops to have representation from a labor organization for alleged complaints made against them. Uninformed blowhards like to claim that police unions make it impossible to fire a police officer and that they protect bad cops. That is a bunch of uninformed BS. Again, the law comes into play. Officers have what are called Weingarten Rights, a 1975 case that guarantees them union representation during an investigation. The US Supreme Court established this right and cops are entitled to it. In fact, if a union does not represent the employee, the employee, who by the way pays union dues for this representation, could sue the union for failure to represent. In other words, the union is doing what it is required to do by law. The unions don’t get to pick and choose which officers they will aggressively represent.

Ironically, the same agenda-driven people, many of whom despise police, who think it should be easy to fire cops, are the same ones who support leniency for criminals, support second chance programs for people with lengthy criminal histories and want to get rid of jails and prisons. Are they suggesting that police officers should be treated like second-class citizens?

It was the United States Supreme Court where in a landmark decision (Loudermill v. Board of Education) ruled that a public sector job is a property right and as such, a person cannot be deprived of life, liberty or property (job) without due process. It was a game changer. Due process is a staple of our individual rights under the US Constitution. Any freedom-loving American who has a problem with that is not a defender of ordered liberty. 

I reject the claim that police unions protect bad officers. The union’s role is to ensure that officers accused of misconduct get all the rights afforded to them. Think of them like a defense attorney. Do people believe that a defendant in a court of law should not have representation or other due process rights? The union after all does not make the final decision in serious cases of misconduct. A separate entity does. Blame them. A better remedy to taking away officers’ rights is for the agency to put forth a better case to terminate. Sometimes these cases are haphazardly put together. That’s not the officer’s fault.

The beauty about the US Constitution is that the founders put in a mechanism to change it any time we the people want to. There is a process involved that has to be followed.  One avenue is to go back and petition the US Supreme Court to reverse themselves on the Loudermill and Weingarten decision that gave public employees due process rights. Cop haters know that is an uphill climb and instead want to take short cuts. 

I support the expansion of individual rights in this country, not taking them away no matter how unpleasant we may find 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

Riddle me this. Which lives matter?

Riddle me this. Which lives matter? On Saturday, August 29, I was in attendance at a peace march in downtown St. Louis. The march was organized by two St. Louis Metropolitan Police widows, Ann Dorn, whose husband, David Dorn, a retired SLMPD captain, was murdered on June 2, and Kim Kowalski, whose husband Jeff “Lead belly” Kowalski succumbed to gunshot wounds received in 1987. Jeff passed away on October 1, 2008. While there, I spoke with both ladies and saw countless police supporters. I also spoke with many active and retired police officers from the region. It was a peaceful rally at a site nestled between SLMPD headquarters and the White Knight Diner where David Dorn bought his final lunch. He would be gunned down hours later.

There was a small group in attendance carrying anti-Trump signs (declaring the event was a Trump photo-op), but while wearing pro-captain Dave Dorn T- shirts. They were silent, only holding their signs. I have no idea who they were. They walked along with the rest while carrying their signs. Note: Not one person bothered them, nor did they bother anyone in attendance to support the cause. That’s a “peaceful protest.” There was no looting or burning, assaults, not even any angry words.

Chief Hayden Of the SLMPD appeared, but apparently it was only to say howdy and grab a photo op. I learned later he declined an invite to march with the group. Why, I have no idea?. From beginning to end, it was a nice event. I spoke with many old friends, met new ones, and found myself in a discussion with a group of cops who had been shot, and cops who had been in shootings, one who had been shot on the same night Dave Dorn was killed. Another was shot and temporarily paralyzed over ten years ago, overcoming his wounds, and was in uniform working on the day of the event. We had all lived to tell our respective tales.

There were prayers and such and although there was a BLM protest scheduled for the same day, although later in the day. None of the protesters came near the peace march. At the end of the event, I went home. I received a text at 20:00 hours letting me know that two SLMPD officers had been shot in the Tower Grove neighborhood of South St. Louis, one critically. Both were taken to the hospital. One would leave alive; the other would not. The officer’s name is Tamarris L. Bohannon. A beautiful young man only 29 years old, married and the father of three young children. He had only been on the force three years. I didn’t know Tamarris, but he was my little brother. His training officer, Cedric, is also my brother.

The killer of Tamarris was taken into custody after a long standoff. Honestly, I’d be lying if I told you I was happy the bad guy surrendered. I’d much rather he’d chosen suicide, or had died in a continued gun battle with the police. Oh yeah, I didn’t mention race; so let’s clear that up. Tamarris was black and his killer, white. Wait, I’m white too! Yeah, do I give a solitary shit about this guy because we share the same skin color? Absolutely not! Fuck that guy! I hope he gets the death penalty! Dave Dorn’s murderer was black just like him. I hope he gets the death penalty as well. Fuck that guy, too!

Now, here’s where I get a bit confused. Will my brother Tamarris get a gold coffin? Will actors and athletes (all hacks) pay for the show? The funeral cortege is a great photo-op, yes? Will someone display his name on his or her jersey? Will any companies openly declare his murder and the murders of other police officers in The United States of America as tragedies and support Blue Lives Matter while simultaneously condemning his killing because he was a young black man and black lives matter?

Will the BLM terrorists burn some random shit stuff down and steal a bunch of crap because Tamarris was black (except he wasn’t a criminal) and because his killer was white (except he’s not a cop)? Shortly after the peace march I stood in front of the police memorial dedicated to the SLMPD officers killed in the line of duty. I read the names chiseled into the red granite slab. It’s a striking statue and a very moving tribute. There are lots of names on it, and I know some of the fallen personally. There will be more names added to it by year’s end. Some were taken from us before I was born, but understand this.: They are all my brothers. Folks fail to realize that. And, the color of their skin matters not to me.

Will the ANTIFA folks come around and do their misguided thing? I’m so confused. There was no protest for Dave Dorn, or Jeff Kowalski, So none for Tamarris either? Can anyone clarify the issue for me? Asking for myself, but also asking for a friend.

Kirk Lawless is a 28 year, decorated, veteran police officer from the St Louis area. He’s a former SWAT operator, narcotics agent, homicide investigator, detective and Medal of Valor recipient. Off the job due to an up close and personal gunfight, he now concentrates on writing. He’s a patriotic warrior, artist, poet, actor, musician, and man of peace.
Contact : kirklawless@yahoo.com

Kim Klacik is Spot-On

“Guns, drugs, rats and trash are on the streets, while jobs and quality education are elusive.” – Kim Klacik

She's not lying. In her inaugural campaign video, which went viral, garnering over three million views in less than the first 24 hours online, Baltimore’s 7th Congressional District candidate Kimberly Klacik walks the real West Baltimore passing a multitude of demolished, dilapidated, abandoned and boarded-up homes along with failing businesses. Wearing a bright red dress and matching red high-heeled shoes she asks the question. “Do you believe Black lives matter? I do.” Klacik points out that Baltimore city is in the “top five most dangerous cities in America,” has “skyrocketing homicide, drug and alcohol deaths, and a poverty rate more than 20 percent.” She goes on to say “Democrats don’t want you to see this. They’re scared that I’m exposing what life is like in Democrat-run cities. That’s why I’m running for Congress, because all Black Lives Matter, Baltimore Matters, and Black people don’t have to vote Democrat. Help us win.”

While on her nearly three-minute video walking tour, she takes time to discuss police defunding with residents of West Baltimore. All are in agreement that the defunding of police or reductions in police deployment is ill-advised.

This parallels my own experience serving the good hardworking citizens of West Baltimore while working as a patrol officer. My primary area of responsibility was a five-block by six-block area located in the southwest corner of Baltimore's western police district. People were glad to see me and I became a mostly respected (not feared) member of that community. Race was not a factor in my social or enforcement interactions. The best officers, back then, worked hand-in-hand with good law-abiding citizens to do what we could to eradicate the bad and accentuate the good. We believed in the old Benjamin Franklin adage (circa 1736), “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We were limited, of course, due to guidelines needing to be followed and limited available resources but we formed partnerships for the common good.

The fact remains that Klacik was not using props in her city walk, which is now about to exceed 10 million views. This is the real Baltimore. Urban decay is not only seen in West Baltimore but throughout many areas of the city. Even Harborplace, once the crown jewel of Baltimore tourism and its Inner Harbor, developed and built by renowned urban revitalization developer James Rouse during the William Donald Schaffer mayoral years of Baltimore City renaissance, now sits mostly empty after a number of owners, defaults and lack of maintenance has resulted in low tenant occupancy rates.

Baltimore remains a city in major crisis. From an understaffed police department, lack of confidence in police command by the rank and file and their Fraternal Order of Police representatives, a former mayor and police commissioner sentenced to jail time for crimes committed while in office, and now a State’s Attorney under investigation by the city Inspector General's Office investigating her travel and financial disclosures, Baltimore needs new blood and a better direction moving forward.

 “Real problems need real solutions.” says Klacik. Her campaign platform also includes:

• Create Working Class and White Collar Jobs through the Port of Baltimore, the second-busiest port in the country

• Reduce Reliance on Entitlements in District 7

• Make Education Work for Children and Parents by supporting school choice

• Ensure 2nd Amendment Rights 

• Increase Healthcare Options to Drive Down Costs

Will reform over privilege finally win out in this race? Democrat Kweisi Mfume, Klacik’s challenger in the general election, believes that he is next in line to take the seat which had been held by fellow Democrat, the late Elijah Cummings. Klacik is working hard to achieve her goal of ousting Democrat representation in her congressional race.

President Donald Trump has endorsed the Klacik campaign, and at the Republican National Convention Kim Klacik was named by Donald Trump Jr. as his #MAGA Candidate of the Week.

For more information on her campaign and to view her campaign advertisement along with the speech she gave at the Republican National Convention, head over to https://kimkforcongress.com/.

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