Memo To The Political Class: Do Something, Dammit

Calendar year 2022 begins much like it ended in 2020 and 2021. Police officers continue to be ambushed and gunned down in areas all across the nation and violent crime continues to surge not only in large urban cities but in suburban areas as well, and still elected officials continue to wring their hands as to what is causing it and how to mitigate it. 

In New York City in one week, two officers were killed in the line of duty while another two were shot and are expected to survive. In Houston, Texas, three officers were wounded in a shootout, with one dying. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my hometown, a sheriff’s deputy and a city of Milwaukee police officer were shot and are expected to survive. According to the National Gun Violence Archive, in the first 24 days of 2022, gunmen opened fire on cops 22 times, killing three. Another four officers have been ambushed in vehicle attacks. Even two police K-9s have died in the line of duty. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 2021 was the deadliest year on record for law enforcement officer deaths.

There is no doubt that there is a correlation between the animus coming from Democrat elected officials, Black Lives Matter and Antifa and the assaults against police. These groups have turned police into villains. That steady drum beat of hate with little counter narrative from people other than myself on a national level has eroded the respect and trust for police. This vilification has manifested itself in the violence against police that we are seeing.

I have two remedies that could go a long way in restoring respect for police. Keep in mind that this hate for police didn’t start overnight and it won’t turn back in the other direction overnight, but if we enact public policies today, we can start the arduous path back toward a return on a focus toward officer safety. The first is for Joe Biden to stop with his inane idea of police reform and call for making it a capital federal offense for murdering a police officer with the death sentence handed out upon conviction. Also, there should be no more than a two-year window for the defendant to exercise appeals. This would ensure consistency nationwide, since some states currently do not have the death penalty.

The second remedy is for people in Congress and every state legislature to pass a resolution condemning any more hateful rhetoric toward police. Then we would have all of these two-bit politicians on record as to their position of support or non-support of police.

Next, I want to turn toward the continued escalation of violent crime across America. It is predicted that the upward trend in street violence that we have seen in both 2020 and 2021 will continue. For a snapshot, five people were shot, killing one, in Washington D.C.; three people were gunned down in Chicago including an 8-year-old girl, and six people were found shot execution-style in a Milwaukee residence known for drug activity. In Philadelphia so far this year, there have been 90 carjackings after 750 carjackings in 2021. Milwaukee saw a record year in car thefts with over 10,000 incidents. In New York, subway crimes of homicides and rapes doubled in 2021. Just because the calendar year turned from 2021 to 2022 does not mean that cities get to start at zero in reporting as if all the crime that happened the previous year and all of the victims it claimed didn’t happen. As I said earlier here, these are trends that will continue if not abated. 

The most startling thing to me is that there has not been one law enforcement executive who has put forth a comprehensive plan or strategy to combat this street violence. All I hear from the feckless city officials and police executives are platitudes. They express concern, condolence and calls for the violence to stop as if on that command alone the perpetrators will change their behavior and turn over a new leaf. They talk about looking for root causes and reinvesting in cities, which is code language for spending million more in taxpayer dollars that will lead to nothing. Police executives continue to embark on the fool’s errand of community policing. They erroneously believe that regaining and rebuilding trust with minority communities will lead to lower rates of crime. This whole community policing craze was first spawned in early 1980. We have spent billions trying to rebuild trust to no avail.  This is foolhardy. Besides, the law-abiding people already trust and respect you. Get a clue.

Nothing will build trust in minority communities faster than showing them that you can keep them safe from the criminal element. Nothing will build community trust faster than to show business owners that you will protect their property from thefts and burglaries. That means suppressing crime. Business owners watching their businesses looted and then set on fire during a riot doesn’t instill community trust especially after front-line cops were given stand down orders. Neither does a mother finding out that her child was killed after being struck by an errant bullet in a drive-by shooting.

Restoring trust starts with going after and harassing known criminals. Leave everybody else alone. If an officer does not know who the perpetrators of disorder are, and who the career criminals are on his or her beat, then they aren’t worth a damn as a cop. Notice that earlier here I mentioned that 6 people were found shot execution-style in a “known” drug house. My first thought was, if the people living in that neighborhood knew it was a drug house, then why didn’t police? And if police did know, what were they doing to shut it down? It has always been an important element of successful policing to know your beat, up and down, inside and out. In fairness to front-line officers today, they do not have the resources nor the time since the defund police movement to effectively dedicate themselves to routine patrols and surveillance ops, and even if they do make an arrest, George Soros-funded prosecutors are not prosecuting criminals.

Here the plan for any police executive who wants to become the next Bill Bratton of law enforcement executives. Here is the plan for any city mayor who wants to become known as America’s Mayor a la Rudy Giuliani.

Reinstate broken windows policing. All police activities will have one objective: crime reduction. Focus on order maintenance activities. If you do not know what that is then get a copy of Bratton’s book titled, TURNAROUND: How Americas Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic. Read it, study it. Copy what he did. Come up with a written comprehensive crime reduction strategy. Come up with a plan to succeed. The plan has to have measurables so you can track how well you are doing or not doing. The stuff that is yielding results, do more of. The stuff that isn’t, do less of. Have a solid information-sharing process. Information needs to move up, down and across the entire agency. Your resources are finite. Let the mayor know what you are doing. If he doesn’t approve, then go rogue and do it anyway. Dare him to fire you for trying to restore law and order in all the chaos. Let the local media know what you are doing ahead of time. Notify community stakeholders. You’ll need their support. Let the city council know and tell them you’ll need more resources. Tell them to reverse no-bail policies so you can keep repeat offenders locked away. Team up with state probation and parole offices for a full-court press against the scumbag criminals with home and vehicle searches. Notify the local United States Attorney that you’ll need grant money to lighten the load on property and business taxpayers and that you are sending career violent offenders to be prosecuted at the federal level for more certainty in prosecutions and longer sentences.  

Now that you have informed everybody of what is coming down, execute the plan. Hold commanders accountable for results. Check on their progress frequently. Forget that community policing initiative BS. Am I clear?

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

Live by the sword; die by the sword?

By: Joel E. Gordon

Quote by Baltimore City Prosecuting Attorney Marilyn Mosby in July of 2021 about one of the many criminal complaints she has brought involving Baltimore City Police Department members: "These indictments demonstrate our commitment to ensuring one standard of justice for all - regardless of one's race, sex, religion, or occupation."

Marilyn Mosby, who rose to national prominence in 2015, has been a frequent target for criticism of violent crime in Baltimore since her failed prosecution of the officers she charged in the death of Freddie Gray after he was arrested by the Baltimore police. She was accused of prosecutorial overreach for charging the officers. None were convicted of any criminal wrongdoing. Since that time, she has continued to earn a reputation for criminally charging police officers while protecting law breakers.

In June of 2020, Mosby dismissed more than 600 pending criminal cases and announced that her office would no longer prosecute many misdemeanors for crimes she deemed low-level, including drug possession, prostitution, trespassing and select other offenses.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan called the Baltimore state’s attorney a “big part of the problem” with skyrocketing violent crime in that city. “We have a prosecutor in Baltimore City who refuses to prosecute violent criminals and that’s at the root of the problem,” Hogan said.

In fact, if you are charged with a violent crime in Baltimore, there’s a one in four chance your case will be dismissed.  Mosby released that data in a recent letter to the governor, who ordered a review of her office

But that is not the only claim to fame attributable to Mosby, who is now facing four counts of federal charges of her own alleging perjury and making a false statement on loan applications for two separate properties in Florida.

From unpaid federal taxes and a tax lien to using campaign dollars for personal use, Mosby has a history of questionable financial dealings and hasn’t always been transparent about information pertinent to their ethicality.

Federal prosecutors have been investigating the anti-cop state’s attorney and her husband, Nick Mosby, who is president of the Baltimore City Council, subsequent to a Baltimore inspector general report in February of 2021 that brought into question the state’s attorney’s travel, gifts and personal businesses.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) subpoenaed all of the couple’s financial records including their tax returns, bank statements, credit card statements, loan documents and canceled checks, The Baltimore Sun newspaper reported.

Mosby is accused of lying about experiencing COVID-related hardship on an application where she asked to withdraw $40,000 from her Baltimore City retirement account. The indictment claims that she did not actually have any financial hardship due to coronavirus, as required.

She is also charged with making false statements to influence a mortgage company, in connection with homes in Florida. She allegedly failed to disclose that she owed "significant amounts of federal taxes."

Calls are growing for Mosby to temporarily step aside or resign, as she is under indictment facing the four federal charges.

Mosby said she is innocent and she intends to fight these charges. "I have done nothing wrong," she said at a news conference. Mosby says she will not be distracted from doing her job as city state's attorney and is strongly refuting the federal charges against her.

While criminal defendants are always certainly considered to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and to a moral certainty, federal indictments are to be taken seriously. Data published by the Pew Research Center in 2019 highlighted how federal prosecutors have a 99.6% conviction rate. To put those numbers in perspective, U.S. attorneys filed 79,704 cases in 2018. Of those, only 320 resulted in acquittals.

In the meantime, Baltimore remains a city in crisis under siege. Mosby, who considers herself a “progressive change agent”, must not escape accountability for her own actions, business dealings and contributions to the increases in lawlessness within the city of Baltimore.

Will this indictment lead to ineligibility for her to continue to serve as the state’s attorney for Baltimore city? Let’s hope that justice will be served honestly, swiftly and decisively and for the common good of Baltimore’s merchants and law-abiding citizenry who need relief from a rapidly deteriorating environment currently devoid of actionable policy shifts resulting in a return to a better, safer and more desirable Baltimore.

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

An LA Tragedy

The following happened on December 23, 2020. Experienced officers know how this goes down. Police received multiple calls regarding a man in a Los Angeles area Burlington retail store. The 911 calls ranged from a man with an object that might be a bicycle lock who was attacking customers to one where the man in question had a gun.

Suffice it to say that this investigation has a long way to go and not all the information and facts are available, but we can make some observations and comments based on the post-incident news conference conducted by the LAPD Chief that I watched and listened to. He released the body cam video and 911 calls that came in and walked the media through the incident. Yes, it was pandemonium at the scene. People could be heard screaming in the background of the calls to the dispatcher. Others had barricaded themselves in locked offices and others frantically fled the store. Police were dispatched with a patchwork of what information was available at that time. This is par for the course in law enforcement. Cops have to work in the environment of the unknown. And they do a damned good job of it. That comes with experience.

When officers arrived, you can imagine what they found. People running around like chickens with their heads cut off. That’s understandable. What happened in the early moments is important. I’ll get to that shortly. Officers are trying to slow everything down, collect as much information as they quickly can and then process what they know and what they don’t know in order to make decisions as to how to proceed. To take language from the Supreme Court case Graham v Conner on officer use of force, “Things happen under circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving.”

Here are just a few of the unknowns that these LAPD officer had to quickly consider. Are there people injured and in need of medical treatment? Where in this large retail store is the suspect? Is he armed? Does he have hostages? Is the suspect high on drugs, intoxicated or mentally deranged? Where have customers barricaded themselves?

Officers came into contact with the suspect, who had a large metal bicycle type lock in his hand. Keep in mind that one of the calls that came in said the suspect was armed with a gun. He was commanded to drop the object in his hand. He did not comply. One of the officers made a decision to deliver rounds from his firearm at the suspect who undoubtedly posed a threat. Whether he should have used another level of force from the force continuum is a decision the officer on the scene gets to make and just like from the Supreme Court on officer use of force decision cited earlier in this column, it advises not to review these from the lens of 20/20 hindsight. It also says that in an objective test of reasonableness, the officer’s decision to use force has to be judged on the facts known to officers at the time, and what they learn later is irrelevant, which is why I took the time to lay out the case. One media report from CNN pointed out that the officer fired shots at a suspect who did not have a gun. I took to social media to call this uninformed goof out, reminding him that the Supreme Court case on officer use of force does not say that officers can only use deadly force if the suspect is armed with a gun. It asks under the objective test whether the officer faced a reasonable threat and if the force used by the officer was reasonable under the circumstances. It’s not a subjective standard of what somebody else would have done.

The suspect died after being shot. But it doesn’t end there. A 14-year-old girl who was in a store dressing room was shot as one of of the rounds fired by the officer pierced through a dressing room wall and struck her in the chest. Anybody who has used a retail store dressing room knows that the walls are nothing more than drywall. Drywall is not by itself going to stop a round from a firearm. She died at the scene in her mother’s arms. My initial thought was, “Oh, crap,” except I used an expletive.

This was nothing more than a tragedy, a terrible unfortunate tragedy.

Now, what to do about the 14-year-old unintended victim. Under most state laws, there are what is called defenses to prosecution. Those include mistake-an honest error, necessity- an act to prevent something worse from happening, adequate provocation-circumstances that deprive a reasonable person of self-control and finally privilege-immunity give to a person because of their position. In my opinion and based on my experience of having investigated police use of deadly force incidents, privilege and necessity should be taken into consideration in the death of the 14-year-old. She was obviously not the intended target of the officer. Sure, officers should take into consideration other people in the area, but that cannot be the overriding consideration. Other things have to be considered as well. Civil court using tort law is the proper place for this tragic case, not criminal court.

As for the review of the case, there are about four tribunals which will look at this officer use of force, including civilian review boards. That is too many. What if the determinations come into conflict, then what? You have to wonder about the objectives, especially with inexperienced on law or police tactics of civilian review boards and who sits on those boards.  Then there is the politics that will undoubtedly seep in here. The officer is black and the 14-year-old is of Hispanic descent. It didn’t take long for carnival barker Al Sharpton to insert himself into the situation. He lives in New York. This happened in California. California is not without its own political exploiters. He became the self-anointed family spokesman. It is guaranteed that with this clown involved, he will turn this into a situation about race.

There is another issue that needs to be pointed out here. The last few years have been filled with cop-haters and politicians, although I repeat myself, suggesting that social workers and mental health professionals be sent to cases where some deranged person is involved instead of police. How would that have turned out in this circumstance? I can tell you right now that people educated in social work or mental health experts are not clamoring to be used on these calls for service. They are being offered up as sacrificial lambs. It sounds like a good idea, but it’s foolish and not well thought out. Truth be told, they do not want any part of dealing with this danger.

We will have to keep an eye on this review. It is sure to garner national interest.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

What a Sad Way To End 2021 For Police

The start of each New Year brings promise, hope and a renewed sense about the future. For that I am grateful. There are several instances involving policing to close out calendar year 2021, however, that leave me wondering. As you know, just because a calendar date page turns does not mean that the timeline of life stops and starts anew.

The people who benefit the most and thus are looking forward to this calendar year ending are the mayors of all the cities who have been saddled with skyrocketing violent crime rates. They get to set the meter back to zero as if all the murders, the people shot in nonfatal shootings, the robberies, drive-by shootings and the women raped didn’t happen and they won’t have to hear about these anymore. If January shows a slight decline in these Part 1 crimes, which it usually does because of cold weather, these elected officials and police commanders will shout that crime is down in those cities.  You know the game, but that is not what this column will focus on.

 Two incidents occurred in December involving law enforcement that leave me sad and shaking my head.

 The first is that a Baltimore police officer was shot in the head and killed while sitting in her cruiser on a city street. Keona Holley is a 39-year-old mother who leaves four children behind. The two black suspects then shot and killed another man after murdering Officer Holley. I will point out that the officer is black for the Black Lives Matter crowd. Over 60 officers have been killed in the line of duty in ambush attacks in 2021. That is a 28% increase in ambush-style shootings over 2020, and that year saw an increase. I don’t hear any elected officials talk about this nor offer a solution like they did in pushing for police reform that included defunding police, ending qualified immunity for cops and banning no-knock search warrants along with other things that weaken officer safety. These creeps find more political value in locking arms with cop haters in hating on law enforcement officers.

The second incident is one that I find tragic to begin with and then compounded by a prosecutorial decision. You probably know of this incident as it garnered nationwide media attention. Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police officer Kim Potter was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright. She now faces a maximum 15 years in prison. Potter who is 49 years old, is a 26-year veteran of the police force. She since resigned. She was a field training officer and while on patrol with a recruit officer saw a vehicle with expired registration tags and an air freshener hanging from the rear-view mirror which is a traffic violation in Minnesota. Suffice it to say that the air freshener violation is pretty petty, but that is up to the legislature to fix. So, we can say that the expired tags is a legal justification to stop the motorist for an investigation. What followed is what too often happens in these situations with a young black motorist. I have never sugarcoated anything in my columns and will not start now.

After another backup cruiser arrived, it was learned that Daunte Wright was wanted on a warrant. He was told he was being taken into custody, and instead of complying with an officer’s lawful command to arrest him, he bolted back toward his vehicle. Any officer can tell you that the inside of a suspect vehicle is a serious danger to the officer’s safety. Weapons can be secreted inside a vehicle and the suspect can escape, leading officers on a high-speed pursuit that places officers in serious danger. Officer Potter made a decision to use her Taser as Wright struggled with officers. She grabbed for what she thought was her Taser and instead inadvertently grabbed her firearm. She yelled “Taser, Taser” which officers are trained to do to alert an officer engaged in a struggle with a suspect so that the officer doesn’t get struck with the Taser round. She pulled the trigger on what she thought was her Taser and a gunshot sounded. Realizing what she had done by mistake, she immediately blurted out words to the effect, “I think I shot him.” That excited utterance alone demonstrated her frame of mind as to her intent to deploy her Taser and not her firearm. She simply made a mistake. There are three legal standards involved here that a prosecutor not motivated by politics or animus toward police should have considered.

The first is that the US Supreme Court has said in use of force by police that ensuing reviews should not be viewed through the lens of 20/20 hindsight, because these things happen under circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving. The second is that her immediate excited utterance, which is a legal standard, shows her lack of intent to use her firearm on Wright. The third is that it is reasonable to conclude that although tragic, this was a mistake, an honest error by the officer. In most states, mistake is a legal defense for prosecutors not to criminally charge a person with a crime. The other defenses to prosecution are coercion, privilege and adequate provocation. Keep in mind that the decision to prosecute Officer Potter was made by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, an avowed cop hater. That matters here.

 In my estimation based on my nearly 40 years of law enforcement and having investigated these officer use of force incidents, this officer should not have been charged with intentional manslaughter. This is a situation where the civil court system is the appropriate place to litigate this. Tort law was created for situations where somebody was damaged, in this case a death occurred but no intent of a crime exists. But not cop hater and domestic abuser Keith Ellison. He couldn’t resist.

That thing I mentioned earlier that seems to happen in the overwhelming number of incidents where a suspect ends up dead from an officer’s use of force is that the suspect resisted arrest. It is a suspect’s actions that causes an officer to fear for their own safety or for other officers and thus, in this case, the need to defend other officers.

The moral of this story is for officers not to make traffic stops. Traffic stops are a high-risk activity. They also yield a treasure trove of uncovering more serious criminal activity like people wanted on serious felony warrants. Guns illegally possessed and illegal narcotics can be found. I get it. I believe traffic stops to be an effective crime-control tactic. Officers have to ask themselves, however, if it is worth it when the original premise for making the stop is a traffic violation that will result for the most part in issuing the violator a citation and letting them go. Government officials like these as a revenue-generating stream. It is inappropriate to use law enforcement officers as revenue generators.  Officers risk their lives and careers, as Kim Potter did, and people resisting arrest end up dead over an expired registration tag violation. This is the balancing act officers are asked to make on a daily basis.

This results in officers not being as aggressive as they need to be for effective policing. It has a direct result in escalating crime rates all across the country as criminals do not fear aggressive police action.

Don’t blame the police for this, though. Blame the war on police. Blame Black Lives Matter. Blame the political class.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

FROM WHERE I SIT

The Blue magazine is always honored to present new and exciting editions throughout each year as the national “independent voice of law enforcement.” Our acclaimed writers from coast to coast provide insights as only our stellar team can do. This is independent journalism and commentary at its finest by people in the know; most who have real-world front line experience to draw from. Unlike so many media sources with “progressive” agendas based more upon emotion than fact, and too often with a rush to judgment, we always keep it real.

In Blue magazine you will find frequently published commentary by our nationally known contributors such as Bernard Kerik, David Clarke, Tom Homan and Michelle Malkin along with works by equally powerful writers such as Pat Ciser, Kirk Lawless, Chris Amos, Joe Pangaro, Deon Joseph, Wes Wise, Eric Caron, Ron Camacho, Leonard Sipes, Jr., Joel Shults and so many more!

For those reading this who have not yet submitted an article of interest to law enforcement for possible publication, we are always welcoming additional contributors to become a part of our army of team members. https://www.thebluemagazine.com/submissions

On the heels of my promotion to managing editor of Blue Magazine, after receiving so many accolades with statements like “law enforcement needs you,” I was reminded of the real truth ... I need law enforcement. When word slowly spread that I required hospitalization for COVID late in the year, the outpouring of care, concern, prayers and support was beyond overwhelming promoting my recovery which had been, early on, brought into question by my medical caretakers who thankfully utilized available treatments in a most effective manner. Thank you to all friends and family for your immense barrage of encouragement which in an equally large way helped propel me to overcoming what had been mistakenly believed to be my unlikely recovery.

As we move past a most difficult 2021 for so many, those of us who survived the pandemic and all of the other obstacles faced that put longevity in question, we must remain united and dedicated to the causes of freedom and justice in honor to our sisters and brothers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. By standing strong together, we can work to overcome the many forces working against us. We continue to need one another, as always, to forge ahead in a positive fashion. We will be proven to be on the right side of history, and the days of reckoning are surely just ahead. Do what is possible to stay strong, healthy and safe and remember, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Here’s to safety, good health, and a positive turning point in 2022 and beyond!

Joel E. Gordon
Managing Editor – The Blue Magazine

WAR ON COPS IS NOT EVEN OVER

I am continually reminded that the assault on what I believe to be the most significant domestic institution in America, the institution of policing, still rages. No civil or orderly society can thrive or be held together without the men and women who put on the uniform of their community and go out to serve and protect.

I do a lot of public speaking all across America and every chance I get I continue to remind the good law-abiding people in these communities how important it is to loudly support their local law enforcement officers and agencies. I remind them to be not afraid of placing a Back the Blue sign in front of their homes or to display the Thin Blue Line flag outside their homes. Every time I see these I say to myself, there is a courageous person.

I was at a support rally in Strongsville, Ohio recently and while speaking to the Chief of Police there he told me of a movement by the local chapter of Black Lives Matter had gone to the mayor and asked that a wooden Thin Blue Line flag hanging on the wall in the lobby entrance of the police department be removed because they felt it was divisive and harmful to police community relations. I am not making this up. I gave you the name of the city. Call and ask the Chief if you don’t believe me. The Chief said that the mayor suggested that he consider removing it but he was not ordered to take it down. When it was my turn to speak, I told the people in attendance at the support police rally that if I was the Chief, I would meet with the head of the Black Lives Matter chapter and after listening briefly out of courtesy I would then tell that person that the flag would be removed over my dead body. I would then say, “Now get the hell out of my office”. Obviously, the crowd roared in approval. Now that would be leadership, that would be a morale booster to the frontline officers. We don’t always get that however. I previously wrote in this publication about the University of Wisconsin police chief who caved to Black Lives Matter and ordered that her officers could no longer carry any items like coffee mugs or pad folios on duty that depicted a Thin Blue Line flag. She called it divisive,  saying that it did not represent the values of the department. Sometimes the enemy resides among us in the form of feckless law enforcement executives.

Let me give you more examples that the War on Police is alive and well.

Recently in San Francisco, a restaurant refused to serve two San Francisco police officer in uniform because they were armed and the staff found the firearms to be threatening. Yes, you read that correctly. Police officers in uniform carrying service weapons are threatening. When news of this story broke, the owners doubled down saying that the officers were politely asked to leave because the restaurant is a, “safe space and the weapons made them feel uncomfortable.” He indicated that the officers could come back out of uniform and unarmed and that they would be served. Would these nitwits find it welcoming if masked hold-up men brandishing guns came in to rob the place? Would they politely tell the hold-up men to go put their guns back in their car and then the money would be handed over? Outrage against the restaurant soon followed and after calls for boycotts, the owners reversed course and apologized calling it a mistake and an unfortunate incident. They said, “these are stressful times and we handled this badly.” Ya think?

Now that might not be the biggest indicator that the War on Cops continues but what I am about to talk about next is a sobering and more serious reminder.

In 2021, a total of 60 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty by gunfire cross 45 states according to the National Fraternal Order of Police. That is a nearly 30 percent increase compared to the calendar year 2020. Additionally, 314 officers have been shot since the beginning of this year. One hundred and nineteen officers have been shot in 95 separate ambush-style attacks resulting in 28 of the total gunfire deaths. Ambush attacks on officers have increased 130 percent in 2021 compared to 2020. An FOP union leader attributes the increase in ambush style attacks on a growing hostility toward law enforcement.

Those figures might not make the liberal corporate media raise any eyebrows but I find them staggering. I realize that the same cop hating media outlets no longer report it as breaking news because it reflects poorly on Democrat politicians who have supported defund and abolish police departments. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a correlation between fewer officers available and not having enough resources and the increase of these deaths even if indirectly. This same progressive corporate media still reports as breaking news every time a white police officer shoots a black criminal, even one who was armed and posed a grave threat to the officer at the time. Reporters are rushed to the scene to stick a microphone in the face of cop hating people who have no facts and start unverified rumors. The murder of a police officer doesn’t get that attention from the same criminal apologist progressive news agencies.

I recently attended a support police rally in Champaign, Illinois. I met the widow of Champaign Police officer Chris Oberheim who was shot and killed in the line of duty back in May. That would make him among the 60 who have been killed in 2021. Officer Oberheim leaves behind four daughters in addition to his wife, Amber. I met one daughter who is engaged to be married this summer. She will not experience her father walking her down the aisle. This isn’t the first time I have met a law enforcement officer’s surviving spouse or child. It’s gut wrenching. Every time I think about an officer killed in the line of duty I am reminded that, there but for the grace of God go I. Seeing the pain and grief in their eyes is numbing for me. The outpouring of support that Amber Oberheim is getting from the Champaign Police Department and the community is reassuring to me. We owe it to the survivors of officers killed in the line of duty. They gave everything.

Because we aren’t hearing about officers killed in the line of duty on national news because of liberal media indifference to it doesn’t mean it’s subsiding. Me saying that the War on Cops hasn’t let up is not embellishing things.  

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

SO, THIS IS HOW IT FEELS

After watching the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse conclude with a not guilty verdict, there are several observations I want to touch on. You may recall that in the summer of 2019 Kenosha, Wisconsin Police were sent to a call for service concerning a domestic dispute. Police confronted a suspect named Jacob Blake. Blake who is black, was wanted at the time on a warrant for sexual assault and he had a restraining order out against him obtained previously by an ex-girlfriend who had called police on the day of this incident.

Police confronted Blake and attempted to take him into custody. He resisted and at one point broke loose of one of the officers who had grabbed his arm to handcuff him. Blake continued to refuse to comply with the officer’s lawful command to take him into custody. You know where this is going, right? Yes, where it always does. Blake went to a vehicle and now he had a knife in his hand and attempted to get inside. The car had two small children inside, children who were not his. Officers continued to give Blake commands that were ignored. One of the officers, fearing for his safety after seeing the knife, shot Blake. Any officer will tell you that a suspect crawling into a vehicle poses a grave threat, as weapons can be and are secreted inside automobiles. People made a big deal that Black was shot in the back. He was shot in the back because he turned his back away from the officers while holding a knife. Officers are trained to use deadly force to stop the threat. Where the bullet strikes is irrelevant. In this case it was the suspect’s back because it was the mass area that the suspect presented to the officers. Blake survived but today is confined to a wheelchair for life having lost the use of his legs. The city paid out millions in a lawsuit settlement. They shouldn’t have. Blake’s own actions caused his current state. We are in a period of time, however, where municipalities settle out of moral preening and sympathy. The officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing and the use of force has been ruled justifiable. So why then did the city of Kenosha settle instead of backing its officer’s actions? Well, you know why. Virtue signaling. The officers are white.

So, let’s move to what happened after that. You guessed it. Several days of rioting and looting along with fires being set to private businesses and government property. Kenosha police were overwhelmed at the start and basically stood down as rioters had their way. They were ordered to stand down. Small business owners watched in horror as their businesses were destroyed. The National Guard was requested. Gov. Tony Evers moved slow and only after harsh criticism he reluctantly gave Kenosha 250 Guardsmen. That wasn’t enough and after more nights of rioting he relented and provided 250 more for a total of 500. It was too little, too late. Damage estimates were put at $20 million.

Enter Kyle Rittenhouse. Seventeen years of age at the time he went to Kenosha, Wisconsin to help businesses protect their property. Verified reports showed him cleaning up graffiti that had vandalized buildings. One night he was walking the riot-ravaged streets with a semi-automatic rifle to protect himself. What reasonable person wouldn’t feel the need to go armed to protect themselves in riot conditions? I would. Some have questioned why he would have gone there to begin with. That is a reasonable question. The answer is because no adult would do it and more importantly because law enforcement was late to respond with adequate resources to defend life and property. The governor of the state, Tony Evers, refused an original plea for the National Guard. He reluctantly agreed only after he was eviscerated in the media about his slow response as a city in his state was under siege with rioting, and even then he only initially authorized 250 troops. This is where I want to go.

We have witnessed time after time cities being burned and looted as law enforcement is ordered by police commanders to stand down. Apparently, the thinking is that if law enforcement does what they have taken an oath to do-protect life and property, it might further infuriate the situation. Yes, there are actually politicians and law enforcement executives who naively believe this crap. What they fail to understand is that in the absence of state authority (police) to provide public safety, the social order collapses. When this happens, the individual becomes their own authority. They have no other recourse than to provide safety for themselves, their families and their businesses. The result is not pretty, either. This lawless environment left Rittenhouse with no other recourse when he was attacked by an armed adversary who pointed a gun at him, fired a shot while others knocked him to the ground as one attacker beat him over the head with a skateboard. Ask yourself this. If you were in that same situation and you had the capacity and wherewithal to respond in an attempt to save your life, how would you have responded? 

As I previously said, Kyle Rittenhouse was recently acquitted by a jury on all five counts including two intentional homicide charges. This was a politically motivated charging, as it was evident from the early part of this case that self-defense was necessary and reasonable for Rittenhouse to survive the attack.

I would suggest that Rittenhouse was a victim of state indifference to living up to their duty and responsibility to protect people and property. I have said over and over again that tying the hands of frontline officers in riot situations is a failed strategy and inevitability leads to more injury, death and property destruction. These are the same idiots who continue to focus on police reform as if policing is the problem that needs to be fixed. Policing doesn’t need to be reformed, politicians and their feckless police executives do. 

 Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

JUSTICE: WHO’S TO BLAME WHEN OUR SYSTEM BREAKS DOWN?

By: Joel E. Gordon

Cicero was a Roman orator, lawyer, statesman and philosopher. During a time of political corruption and violence, he wrote on what he believed to be the ideal form of government. His views on justice:

“For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On the Laws

Back to the modern era…

In addition to answering calls for service, much of my time as a police officer entailed letting the community get to know me and working toward preventing criminal activity in my area of responsibility through my presence and community engagement. It’s the way policing should be done.

When crime does occur, it’s easy for the public to blame the police. In reality, when crime occurs it is the responsibility of the police to bring criminal investigations to a conclusion which may or may not result in criminal charges. We are required to work through an ever-increasing mandated maze of rules about engagement, arrest and seizure of evidence to make cases that are valid to the court. Then it’s up to our prosecutors through our legal system to bring or validate charges and up to our judges to adjudicate same. When will we start to hold our prosecutors, judges and any elected officials accountable for their actions?

How often have we all been aware of a violent criminal offender being let loose on society prematurely resulting in further violence and criminal acts? Now more than ever with bail reform and early release initiatives it seems to be all too commonplace.  It is why the police seem to arrest a small percentage of the population most of the time for serious crimes over and over again, placing all in unnecessary danger.

As a former Baltimore City Police Officer, I have experienced this first-hand and early in my career, too. Take the time I forcibly arrested a man for breaking his girlfriend’s ribcage and then, once I was on-scene awaiting EMS response and taking investigative information, the same suspect returned to the scene and attempted to stab me. Once in jail his violent rage continued and he broke the cellblock toilet. He was charged with all three crimes. At trial, the judge found him guilty. Sentencing was for 90 days for assaulting his girlfriend, 30 consecutive days for breaking the toilet and a concurrent 30 days for trying to stab me with his knife. The prosecuting attorney turned to me in open court and said “Officer, isn’t it nice to know you’re worth as much as a toilet”? The man had a lengthy criminal arrest record including numerous crimes of violence and assaults on police in both Maryland and the District of Columbia. He was somehow released after 15 days in jail on these three charges and promptly threw another police officer down a flight of stairs at the same location where I had arrested him… and so it goes on and on.

I had a district court judge in Maryland say in my presence that all defendants were guilty in his eyes if arrested by the police. Conversely, I have heard a Maryland district court judge say in court that all police officers are liars meaning no case can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The cases before these judges were not judged on merit. They were all pre-judged!

Another problem we all face is the reliance on government from revenue generated from court proceedings. Both here locally and elsewhere I have seen instances in municipal and smaller town mayors court where decisions on innocence or guilt appeared to be rooted in revenue collection goals. Case facts seemed to be deemed irrelevant and legitimate mitigating circumstances were either ignored or denied. Fine collection was all that seemed to matter.

We need to hold our courts accountable for ensuring that all live up to our rights and responsibilities, that our security and safety is not unnecessarily compromised, and that just outcomes are brought in all cases before the court.

Our system of justice is by design the best the world has ever known. In practicality, our system is only as good as the people serving within it. Innocence until proven guilty, common sense and justice should prevail. If only our courts truly reflected the motto of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation… “That guilty shall not escape nor innocents suffer.”

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

Hope is not a Strategy

By: Joel E. Gordon

In a twist to the notion of taxation without representation after 37 businesses representing the one of the city’s more vibrant areas paid attention to the city’s reaction to violence, including shootings that injured three people in Baltimore’s trendy Fells Point – described as one of the “crown-jewels” of the city - business owners there signed a letter threatening to not pay taxes if city officials did not provide additional resources for what they described as long-standing problems, including crime, trash and traffic.

“We have reached our breaking point. Our elected leaders have closed their eyes and ears and turned their backs on our community for long enough. We are fed up and frustrated, and we now realize that nothing will change unless we demand action.”

“When it comes to prostitution, public urination and defecation, and the illegal sale and consumption of alcohol and illicit drugs on the streets, we know these crimes are not as serious as the carjackings, shootings, and homicides that have become routine,” the letter read. “But, as this past weekend proved, a culture of lawlessness rarely remains confined to petty offenses and invariably leads to the kinds of violence and tragedy we witnessed late Saturday night.”

“The trash that piles up every week drifts into the Inner Harbor and hurts the environment, attracts rodents and fosters disease, and stinks up the streets and damages the beauty of our wonderful waterfront community. Every neighborhood, residential and commercial, is entitled to regular and reliable trash removal.”

“Frankly, it’s pathetic that we have to ask for these basics.” “But this is where we are.”

The businesses advised the city that they would be putting their taxes, permit fees, and other funds withheld into an escrow account that would be released once the city had met their demands.

“Many of us have obtained expensive liquor licenses and are subject to routine code inspection,” the letter further read. “We are carefully regulated and pay taxes on the proceeds of our liquor and alcohol sales. Yet, there are individual vendors in Fells Point illegally selling large volumes of alcohol, marijuana, and a range of other illicit substances directly in front of our establishments with no consequences or penalties.”

The response was swift. A town hall came at the request of Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, who sent a letter to the mayor and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison asking for the meeting. Three state delegates and City Councilman Zeke Cohen echoed his request. In addition to the meeting with residents, they demanded “a comprehensive plan for Fells Point that not only aims to deter violence, but that also addresses the other conditions.”

Mayor Brandon Scott convened the virtual town hall before about 700 participants and the police department announced detailed plans to flood the area with officers, along with a promise to start enforcing laws such as open container violations that have long been ignored. But this in conflict with State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s policy not to prosecute what she considers to be low-level crimes.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced at the beginning of the pandemic that her office would stop prosecuting lower-level crimes such as open container violations, public urination, defecation, prostitution, and alleged low-level drug possession offenses. The business owners said in their letter that the lack of enforcement of the petty crimes has led to a violent situation in the neighborhood, and they demanded city officials have the police department take action.

Mosby responded to the criticism from the Fells Point business owners and defended her policies. “Having the police respond to the Harbor for an open container makes absolutely no sense when we have an increase in non-fatal shootings and homicides,” the prosecutor said. “It’s about resource allocation. You can’t have it both ways. We want to deploy our officers in a way that makes sense for trying to change the trajectory of violence in our city.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott released a statement shortly after he received a copy of the letter.

“Mayor Scott shares the business owners’ frustrations over the violence across the city, and has ordered the Baltimore Police Department, Department of Public Works, and Department of Transportation to work collaboratively to address it,” the statement read. “The Mayor is working tirelessly to hold people committing violence accountable, remove violent offenders from our streets, and identify illegal firearm traffickers so Baltimore residents can enjoy a night out without fear of endangerment.”

Yet, while Fells Point received a greater reaction from government officials than other less affluent areas of the city have traditionally experienced, Mayor Scott himself, failed to even attend the highly touted virtual town hall which was promoted in response to the Fells Point business owners threats of action against the city. Scott’s office issued a statement that said the mayor had a previously-scheduled commitment.

Richard Vatz, rhetoric professor at Towson University, said Scott’s actions spoke louder than his words and displayed an apparent lack of leadership. “I think when the chief administrative officer of the city decides not to go to a meeting that implies it is not his number one priority. There’s no way to get around it. By saying ‘we hope to see you there’ he implied that he’s going to be there and when he’s not, the inference is that he doesn’t care very much. It’s irresponsible to imply you’re going to be there and then not be there.”

Other, less affluent areas of the city who have been plagued with the same concerns for decades paid attention to the city’s overall reaction to the demands in trendy Fells Point. Community leaders across the city for the most part said they weren’t criticizing the Fells Point business owners for their demands, but the city for its lack of response elsewhere.

“We don’t get any kind of response like that,” said Marvin L. “Doc” Cheatham, president of a Neighborhood Association in West Baltimore. Cheatham said the majority of the city’s homicides are Black victims and their killings are occurring in Black communities.

“What if we stopped paying taxes?” he said.

The city of Baltimore has surpassed 300 homicides in 2021 once again for the seventh consecutive year in a row. "You've just had the pastor of St. Leo's pistol-whipped. This poor woman stabbed to death in a church in east Baltimore. No, there is no place safe anymore," said former Baltimore City Police commissioner Ed Norris.

"I don't even know how to respond to some of the things being said. We're hoping things get better and no one is doing anything about it. I have a bulletin for everybody - hope is not a strategy."

Is there any solution to improve Baltimore’s future? The federal government made a commitment to step in on crime wave issues as they see it but if ineffective, uncaring and ill-advised, often conflicting policies, rule the day it is clearly not very likely, if not impossible, until major leadership and philosophical changes occur at every level.

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

MEMORY LANE - Today Like Yesterday: "Mount Street Blues"

By: Joel E. Gordon

If you are an old timer like me, chances are certain television shows and the portrayal of their characters became a positive influence in contributing to a desire to become a law enforcement officer. Shows such as “Adam-12” and “Hill Street Blues” are two such shows. Among the most impressive character portrayals are of the salty old first-line supervisors; the hardest, most influential and one of the most critical assignments in any department. During the best and worst of times, we all have memories of supervisors who became our rock who could always be counted upon. Some of us went on to emulate their example paying it forward.

Upon my graduation from the police academy on to my West Baltimore assignment there was a local TV promotional ad that aired frequently on Baltimore television comparing the fictional crime-ridden Hill Street Precinct to “Mount Street Blues” our real Western District police station located at 1034 North Mount Street. It still is located there.

We, in fact, had a salty older police desk sergeant on my shift who kept us and others straight and on the path to order and righteousness. He kept both young and old in line along with arrestees and anyone else who crossed his path. A rock and steady, in control, influence.

“Adam-12’s” Sergeant “Mac” MacDonald played by William Boyett famously once had an opening line telling an overly confident and opinionated rookie Officer Jim Reed “You’ve been on the job for three weeks! You don’t have an opinion!”

Sgt. Phil Esterhaus, played by actor Michael Conrad, was another such character. When it was announced that Sergeant Phil Esterhaus had passed away, the moment of truth at roll call was scripted this way… PHIL ESTERHAUS PASSED AWAY THIS MORNING. CAPTAIN HAS A FINAL ITEM FOR YOU. GOOD MORNING, FOLKS. [ALL] GOOD MORNING, CAPTAIN. AMONG SERGEANT ESTERHAUS'S EFFECTS WAS THIS LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE PEACE OFFICERS OF THE HILL STREET DAY SHIFT.

"PERHAPS YOU THOUGHT YOU'D HEARD THE LAST FROM ME, "BUT I DESIRE TO TURN YOU OUT ONE LAST TIME "BEFORE ASSUMING THE DUTIES OF MY NEW ASSIGNMENT. "THERE, I'M SURE WE'LL ALL BE DOUBLE-SHIFTING TOGETHER AGAIN. "I HOPE NOT FOR A LONG TIME. "ITEM ONE: "THE SHEDDING OF CROCODILE TEARS IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. "HOIST A SHOT OR TWO, IF YOU MUST. "THEY'LL LOOK THE OTHER WAY, BUT NOT WHEN YOU'RE ON DUTY. "UM... "ITEM TWO: LET US NOT FORGET IN THEIR BEREAVEMENT "THE LOVED ONES OF OUR DEPARTED FELLOWS. "LOOK IN ON (my wife) GRACE ONCE IN A WHILE, MY FRIENDS. "ITEM THREE: "REMAIN MY KIND OF COPS. "FIND SOMETHING OF WORTH IN EACH PERSON, "SOMETHING TO CARE FOR IN EACH SITUATION. "DRESS NEATLY, SPEAK POLITELY.

"YOU HAVE DECLARED YOUR FAITH IN SOCIETY. "KEEP THAT FAITH. "IT WILL KEEP YOU. "ITEM LAST: "THOUGH THE HILL IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED THE WASTE BASKET "OF THIS CITY'S LAW ENFORCEMENT MINIONS, "I HAVE FOUND ITS DENIZENS TO BE THE FAIREST, "MOST COURAGEOUS, AND HARDWORKING "I'VE BEEN PRIVILEGED TO KNOW. "GENTLEMEN AND LADIES, IT HAS BEEN A RARE PLEASURE. "NOW PICK YOUR BUTTS UP AND LET'S ROLL, "AND REMEMBER, ALWAYS, LET'S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE."

Amen to that. Those about sum up the dedication of those who serve areas like the Hill and Baltimore’s Western. May the genuine spirit of those who care continue to be a shining light to all who take up the cause of law and order for the common good in cities across the U.S.A. during these most difficult of times.

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

I have spent the better part of the last five years warning people that the inane public policy course many woke Democrats had the country going down would have catastrophic consequences for mainstream Americans. The Democratic Party went on a jihad against things like law and order as they crawled into bed with slimy characters from Black Lives Matter and Antifa who incessantly bashed the police and heralded criminals as heroes. They pushed things like defunding and even abolishing the police, eliminating bail for repeat and serious violent criminals and eliminating the use of jails and prisons as a crime control tool. They pushed removing police from schools, although I agree that police should not be used in schools as hall monitors. It absolves teachers from their responsibility to control student behavior and parents of their responsibility to discipline and control their child’s behavior. What does it say about the ineffective parenting going on today when we have to resort to using the criminal justice system to control children? But I digress.

The seeds of hate sown by these straight-up cop haters are not just taking root but are shooting up above ground and now that naïve voters are waking up to see what has sprouted, and it isn’t pretty. Crime rates are rising as criminals control large swaths of public spaces along with businesses having to stand idly by as thieves brazenly remove their merchandise from the shelves and not run but simply saunter from the store without paying. Normal people have watched news reports of this, and although they shouldn’t be shocked, they are.

What has happened in numerous cities and states in the recent elections could be seen as a bellwether, as voters went to the polls to push back and repudiate these insane progressive policy changes.

An example of the sea change was in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where voters elected a governor who ran a campaign with law and order as a major piece of his platform as he pounded away about the rising crime rates in the state. In Minnesota, a place that could be considered as ground zero in the war on cops, the voters convincingly rejected a crazy idea of replacing the Minneapolis Police Department with some Public Safety Department staffed by social workers. This as violent street crime including murders have risen exponentially in Minneapolis. Clueless Democrat politicians overplayed their hand. They thought they were on a roll with all the cop bashing.

Where they erred was in thinking that the general public’s emotional distress over the death of George Floyd would stay permanent as they continued to push extreme public policy shifts. That emotional overreaction never lasts. People eventually settle down and come to their senses as more information about a traumatic incident is revealed. As the public learned more about Floyd’s character, they still thought the way he died was horrific but they learned that he was geeked up on fatal levels of fentanyl, was passing a counterfeit bill to buy more drugs, was with his supplier at the time of passing the bill and that he did time in prison for a home invasion burglary where he held a loaded firearm to the stomach of a pregnant women threatening to shoot her.  When they learned all of this about him, many realized that we should not be making crazy public policy shifts in our attitude about crime and violence over what should reasonably be seen as an anomaly in police behavior.

And in another upon further review moment, numerous school systems are reversing course about removing police officers from schools as gang violence and other fights are rising inside schoolhouses and weapons are making their way inside. Here are a few examples. In Desert Springs, Nevada, local lawmakers who pulled police from schools reversed their decision and renewed the contracts.  In Santa Cruz, California, public school officials returned to having a cop in schools after a student was fatally stabbed on campus. The same has happened in Rochester, New York, Washington D.C. and Alexandria Virginia after one superintendent cited an escalation in “disciplinary infractions.”  We can safely read that as dog whistle and wordsmithing for violent behavior. You don’t need a police officer called in for “disciplinary offenses.”

A National Police Association official said that programs placing police in schools became one of the victims of the ridiculous defund the police movement. As I mentioned previously, I think it says more about our schools becoming less about education as schools resemble juvenile detention centers housing uncontrollable miscreants. Then we dump it on police. Then, when police have to use force to remove some uncontrollable teen from a classroom, everybody wants to know why force had to be resorted to. It’s because the goof wouldn’t comply with the officer’s lawful command to peacefully leave. I always ask why the parent wasn’t called first. Let them have to come to school and handle their unsocialized misfit.

The question is whether this trend will continue into the future and across the country or will the next police use of force incident that goes viral stop the reversal of this madness. Only time will tell.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

Cops Go From Hero To Villain

In the early days of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic when everybody was running around like chickens with their heads cut off, American law enforcement officers with calmness and courage risked their lives and well-being, and that of their families, when they answered the call to serve and protect. This was at a time when not much was known about the virus or its transmission. This was at a time when Dr. Tony Fauci confidently proclaimed on a top-rated Sunday night news show that he was not worried about COVID and that there was no need for people to run out, buy and start wearing surgical masks. More importantly, it was well before testing was available and keep in mind there was no “vaccine” available. I’ll get to that later.

Nevertheless, our police officers went to work as other government employees including public school teachers and elected officials locked themselves in their homes and got paid to work from home. In the private sector, businesses were ordered closed, putting private sector employees out of work with no pay unlike government workers. That quarantine-like bubble of protection wasn’t available to police officers. They couldn’t strictly socially distance themselves from crime victims or suspects. You can’t handcuff an arrestee from six feet away. If first aid was required of say a gunshot victim, that could not be done from six feet away. At the time there was no concern about the well-being or safety of police officers. In fact, they were heralded as heroes for their bravery and selfless service.

That was then, this is now.

 Now a so-called “vaccine” has been developed. Bear with me for a moment as I look inside what is being called settled science on COVID. The people using this term have an agenda. There is no such thing as settled science. A Harvard College professor once reminded me that science doesn’t prove, it only probes. Keep in mind that settled science once believed that the sun rotated around the earth. First of all, it isn’t even a vaccine by medical definition. A vaccine makes you immune from getting a virus or spreading it. It was rushed through clinical trials to market. There is still a lot that is not know about what really is by medical definition a therapeutic. That means you can still catch the virus and spread it and you have to continue to get periodic additional shots to protect you. A recent news report said that several weeks ago, 40% of all COVID-related reported deaths nationally were of people who had been fully “vaccinated”. There is still a lot that is not known about this therapeutic like its long-term side effects. Now something called a delta variant has emerged that is resistant to the therapeutic. In addition to this, reasonable people are asking questions like how long will they have to keep getting jabbed and injected with this therapeutic. The bottom line is that we have not been told the whole story about things and it makes people rightfully suspicious. So-called experts keep moving the goalposts. Ok, enough of that.

Then there is the legal question about government’s authority to force an individual to inject anything into their body as a condition of employment. I don’t care about the efficacy of what is medically best for people. It is still a freedom and liberty issue, and those decisions should be left to the individual to make.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot continues to threaten Chicago police officers with suspensions without pay and termination unless they take the jab. Her order further reduces the ranks of an already depleted force as violent street crime continues at record rates. She had no concern for their health as they continued to perform their duty in dangerous conditions in the early days of the pandemic. Many saw them as heroes. Now their organizations and political class officials are showing their thanks by seeing them as the bad guys in all of this. That is an odd way of thanking them. Making matters more untenable is that feckless police commanders are willing to enforce these city policies. Lightfoot should attack crime and criminals like she does Chicago police officers. Crime rates would drop exponentially. She should attack her useless state’s attorney Kimberly Fox, who refuses to charge repeat criminal offenders or ask for substantial bail in these cases.

So now law enforcement officers are at a crossroads between freedom to choose or losing their careers as local government officials are threatening them with the loss of their livelihood if they do not give in to forced “vaccination.” Some agencies have already terminated and suspended officers without pay, and some have voluntarily resigned. This makes their families collateral damage as many officers are the primary income source for things like mortgages, putting food on the table and tuition for their children.

Thankfully, police unions are showing resolve in this fight.  The Chicago FOP president has told officers to hold the line against these forced injections. In New York, NYPD officers organized a large protest march against forced medical orders. This is a good sign.  These labor organizations possess leverage in this fight against these thankless politicians and should start flexing their muscles by using it.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

When Handed A Gift-Take It

Recently, the law enforcement profession won a victory over an attempt to yet again reform this profession. Before this latest attempt to fix that which is not broken, we had to endure what former President Barack Obama labeled the Twenty-First Century Police Reform Project. It was an overreaction, a knee-jerk response that was nothing more than a politicization of a single incident. To use a baseball analogy, it was a swing and a miss. That call for reform you may recall came after the Ferguson, Missouri, Police Department incident in which thug Mike Brown committed a strong-armed robbery (a felony) of a convenience store clerk before attacking and attempting to disarm Officer Darren Wilson. Wilson used deadly force to save his own life. It was ruled justifiable. Soon after began the War on Police. This was the catalyst used by cop haters nationwide that ignited a wave of anti-police rhetoric that continues to this day.

I opposed that attempt to reform policing then and continue to do so to this day. I said at the time that that they were working on the wrong thing. I said that the problem was not policing, the problem was with the ghetto. All the urban pathologies that afflict ail large urban centers are self- inflicted. These ailments are exacerbated by failed urban progressive policies that lead to ineffective parenting, fatherless homes, school failure, not consistently staying in the workforce and poor lifestyle choices by young people like teen pregnancy, joining gangs and drug abuse. Instead of rooting out the dysfunctional behavior and cultural rot, it is much easier for two-bit politicians to go for the low-hanging fruit. They blame the police. This spawned the calls for reform, the calls to defund and my favorite, the calls to re-imagine policing (whatever that is).

Without a lot of forethought, this task force assembled by Obama produced a document that was supposed to fix policing, yet here we are again trying to fix what is not broken. These people never learn. These are all rare incidents. Police use of force incidents have decreased over the years. You don’t overhaul a profession based on anomalies. No reasonable person would. No other profession would tolerate it.

So here we are after another police use of force in Minneapolis, we find politicians looking to score a few cheap political points by bashing the police. Many cities began taking away tools that police need to quell riots and disturbances, tools that were needed to quickly disperse crowds in order to keep the peace and restore law and order and that police need to protect themselves from injury and death. And then there is the granddaddy of them all as they say. Congress, under a so-called bipartisan bill ironically called the George Floyd Police Reform Bill. Now we have the federal government sticking its nose into what is a local issue, a state’s rights issue under the U.S. Constitution. The belief theoretically has always been that states have a vested interest in public safety and controlling crime. Every state has its own unique issues as to public safety. There are cultural differences as well. Rural policing is different from urban policing. What people will allow under these circumstances is different, too.

First of all, no bill at any level should have this convicted felon’s name attached to it. This is the same creep who did prison time for an armed burglary in which he held a loaded firearm to the stomach of a pregnant woman, threatening to kill her. He is the one who was geeked up on fatal levels of fentanyl when he died. He had just attempted to pass a counterfeit $20 bill to buy more drugs, causing the police to be called in the first place. Memorializing this goof stains the legacy of other black Americans that we can be proud of, people like Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. No Republican lawmaker who claims to support the police should have wanted their name attached to support of this anti-police bill. Chief among the items listed in this bill was a provision that would strip police of qualified immunity that prohibits suing police in civil court personally for acts that they could not have known at the time they used force were a denial of civil rights. Fortunately, this killed any chance of the bill becoming law. It was a win for law enforcement. Some in law enforcement, however, shamefully disagreed.

After the bill was killed, several law enforcement entities attacked GOP Sen. Tim Scott on how negotiations broke down. It is worth noting that two leading Democrats were pushing eliminating qualified immunity. They were Sen. Cory Booker and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, both of whom are straight-up cop haters.

What is noteworthy here is that two law enforcement entities were pushing for passage of the bill, the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. They issued a joint statement that read, “Our organizations remain steadfast in working with all interested parties who are willing to take a fact-based approach to enact effective and lasting change, to avoid a patchwork of state laws that do not provide uniform standards and guidance to the policing profession.” The statement went on to say that it would have, “strengthened the law enforcement profession and help improve the state of community police engagement without compromising management and officers’ rights, authority and legal protections.” Cops know bullshit when they hear it. This statement is complete bullshit. This is antithetical to state’s rights and promotes a one-size-fits all approach leading to that slippery slope of federalizing local policing. Additionally, nothing is ever “fact-based” in this anti-police environment.

If you want to know why these two organizations support passage of the George Floyd Act, all you have to do is follow the money. The FOP and the IACP are whoring for dollars. They are looking for federal grant money to supplement their shrinking budgets. They are willing to prostitute themselves and their agencies for money from Washington.

The problem with that approach is that any money given out by the federal governments comes with strings attached. There is no free money here like some misguided law enforcement executives believe. The federal government would love nothing more than to control local police department policies, and this is how they will do it. If you take the money, you must do whatever the feds say. This is a slippery slope and not worth the federal money. Things like data collection requirements will tie up officers with unnecessary report filings. This is time away from preventive patrols and results in higher response times, not to mention that this provides the ammunition to spin and misinterpret the data and hammer the police about the racial component of things like traffic stops and arrests. This will provide an opening for a

Federal Department of Justice pattern and practice investigation and a forced consent decree allowing the feds to take over the agency.

Do the FOP and IACP not understand what is going on here? Instead of a letter disputing GOP Sen. Tim Scott(R) about the failure of this bill to pass, they should have commended him for standing strong against eliminating qualified immunity protection for front line police officers. Not allowing this bill to see the light of day is a win for every law enforcement officer who takes to the streets risking their lives in service to their community. This reminds me of an old saying. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Take the victory and run.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

WEAPONIZING LAW ENFORCEMENT: Political Pawns in Redefining Terrorism

The continuation of the politicization of the FBI is of real concern to our republic. While all directives and investigations may or may not be as partisan as they initially appear -- no rush to judgment here -- it is clear that federal law enforcement and some of their personnel have unquestionably, of late, put themselves in the untenable position of being utilized as pawns to push certain narratives.

Isn’t it ironic that the same federal government that is critical of the operations and appearances of local law enforcement agencies born of the 10th Amendment of the Constitution has seemingly no regard for the appearance of inequities or impropriety in the course of their own operations? This leaves a black mark on the very reputation of all of law enforcement through perceived “guilt by association.”

Looking back, there are numerous examples of these federal issues, such as:

· Sworn personnel being politicized in testimony before J6 congressional hearings.

· Disingenuous criticisms of the US Border Patrol.

· FISA abuses resulting in overreach.

· Questionable investigative tactics which have resulted in apparent false “truths” being promulgated.

· Selective investigative delays and inadequate investigations.

How many Trump affiliates and supporters have found themselves to be subjects of an investigation looking for a crime while apparent obvious criminal intent, dishonesty and activity seem to go unpunished among the Democrat “political elite,” their allies and family members?

Is the newest reported investigation another political retaliatory witch hunt or a legitimate criminal investigation? The FBI has raided the Manhattan headquarters of the New York Police Department’s Sergeants Benevolent Association to execute a search warrant. The raid into the Worth Street office of the SBA, the city’s second-largest police union, with more than 10,000 active and retired sergeants, was “in connection with an ongoing investigation.” The agents also searched the home of the union's now-former president, Ed Mullins.

This raid is the latest controversy to surround Mullins, who is known for criticizing NYPD leadership and New York City Mayor de Blasio. Last year, the SBA made headlines after tweeting “How can the NYPD protect the city of NY from rioting anarchist when the Mayors object throwing daughter is one of them. Now we know why he is forbidding Mounted units to be mobilized and keeping the NYPD from doing their jobs.” Mullins is now facing an internal NYPD trial on misconduct charges related to the tweet and other social media posts—including one tweet where he called the city health commissioner a “bitch” with “blood on her hands” over face masks.

I for one am not, never have been, and will never become a “domestic terrorist” or anything of the sort, although I am likely being labeled in certain circles as one for my fierce stand on freedom and support for our Constitutional Republic and capitalist ways and for being a long-standing contrarian in other areas of thought and persuasion.

Patriotic Americans are being made into something that we are not by the current administration by simply having a more traditional view of our culture and republic. Law enforcement and our military must not allow ourselves to be weaponized or used as pawns in the unrelenting attempts at a new world order through shaming, bribery, coercion, monetary controls and punitive measures. We must stand strong, as our founding fathers surely set us up to do, against overreach and tyranny by those who should be of service to us and not be dictatorial purveyors of indoctrination, instruction and mandates.

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

HERE WE GO AGAIN

Anybody who thought that the War on Cops was coming to an end because there has not been a constant anti-police drumbeat should think again. The defund and even abolish police movement started in earnest after the death of George Floyd. Yeah, he’s the guy who did time in prison previously for an armed home invasion burglary where he held a loaded firearm to the stomach of a pregnant woman threatening to shoot her. The same George Floyd who was geeked up on fatal levels of fentanyl while resisting police orders to take him into custody for passing a counterfeit bill. Now do you remember George Floyd?

Ever since his death in custody, there has been a movement afoot to take money from public safety budgets and divert it to some inane idea of replacing cops with social workers to take on crime. This movement caught fire and began sweeping into the nation’s more populated urban cities with some success. The New York Police Department, Los Angeles and Milwaukee Police Departments all saw millions of dollars slashed from their crime-fighting efforts, leading to staff shortages. Violent street crime exploded exponentially to levels not seen in 30 years. This caused politicians who were championing the defund the police slogan to reverse course in fear for their political careers and they walked back the stupidity because it was hurting them politically, unlike in the earlier calls for defund efforts by the creeps of Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other Progressives. The effort did not go away, it went underground and is now being waged in stealth-like fashion. Here is an example.

In Minneapolis, a ballot initiative is being put up for voters who will get to decide whether to add an amendment to the city charter that would, “limit the size, scope and influence of its police department.” This at a time of rising violence rates in Minneapolis. It’s called the Yes 4 Minneapolis initiative, “where the city’s police department would be replaced with a Department of Public Safety, abolishing the city’s currently required minimum number of officers per capita and replacing some with social workers, mental health experts and crisis managers effectively defunding the local police by reallocating funds to other city services.” One guy running for Minneapolis city council heralded the move and hoped it would pass and impact what other cities do. Let’s hope not. This is moronic. Here is why.

Minneapolis has become a dangerous place to live as have many other large urban centers. Murders, non-fatal gunshot victims, and carjackings have all seen a significant increase in both 2020 and 2021. Crime victimization has residents living in fear. That is a quality-of-life issue. Then there is the issue of unsolved crime. In Minneapolis, the unsolved crime rate has soared to 88% resulting in no arrest. That is a staggering figure. This emboldens the criminal to know that they have a great chance of never being caught and held accountable for committing a crime of violence. This constant barrage of attacks on the policing profession is leading to de-policing. In Minneapolis, traffic stops are down 85%, field interview or Terry Stops are down 76% and business checks are down 76%. It’s called visibility. These are the type of police tactics that keep crime in check. Traffic stops in high-crime areas find vehicles containing guns and illegal drugs and people wanted on serious felony warrants. The same can be said of suspicious behavior stops in high-crime areas. When the public sees that police are not being aggressive, it leaves them with little confidence that the city can keep them, their children and their neighborhoods safe. People then withdraw from civil life. This leaves the streets to be controlled by the criminal. It leads to law-abiding citizens not wanting to fulfill their role of community guardians who cooperate with and help. police control and solve crime.

There is a way forward, however, and it won’t involve re-inventing the wheel. In 1994, Congress passed a crime bill that led to historic lows in violent crime all across America. The bill was co-authored by none other than Sen. Joe Biden and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It was at a time that even Democrats were not afraid to communicate publicly their support for the police. That doesn’t exist today. It was at a time when these same Democrat politicians trusted police to use their discretion when enforcing the law. Now they are trying to take certain tools and tactics away thereby preventing them from performing their most important function and that is crime prevention and keeping the peace.

It is time to go back to the 1994 crime bill and apply what was done back then such as hiring more police, re-investing in police budgets, getting rid of stupid policies like no bail and locking up career criminals. It is time to stop the revolving door of the criminal justice system. Jails and prisons are an effective crime control tool. They keep repeat offenders from, you guessed it, re-offending. It’s going to take a prosecutor’s office that takes off their political activist hat and puts their concern for the victims of crime hat back on. and begins again to represent law abiding residents instead of acting like de facto defense attorneys. When judges get back to punishing crime instead of sympathizing with career violent offenders, then the criminal justice system will cease being dysfunctional and become the institution that it was designed to be, that being a purveyor of the rule of law, law and order and justice for all.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

THE FIX IS IN

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

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

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

When will this ever end?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s the Culture, Stupid

Several news stories have come out about the rise in street violence all across America. And while some want to avoid the real reasons why, I will not. There is a common denominator here that cannot be denied. It is the 800-pound gorilla in the room that people including politicians on both sides of the aisle, newspaper writers, intellectual elites and community activists refuse to admit or acknowledge except for a handful.

First in the common thread is that this daily street violence is centrally located in urban centers under the political control of Progressive Democrat politicians. Next is that the street violence occurs mainly in black neighborhoods that have a plethora of urban pathologies like ineffective parenting, the absence of fathers in the home leading to school failure and questionable lifestyle choices by young blacks. These truths are inescapable, and it is time to admit that these urban pathologies are self-inflicted and have led to the acceptance of a lifestyle of cultural rot and cultural dysfunction that are precursors to criminal behavior. Another embarrassing aspect of this ineffective parenting is that the age of the black perpetrator is younger and younger. We have 13-, 14- and 15-year-old suspects. involved in shootings.

Let me be very clear here. That there are fewer incidents of crime and violence in white suburbia is not because of race. It has to do with the fact that in greater rates, white parents take responsibility for raising their kids. They don’t let the streets raise their children. They teach their kids to respect authority figures like teachers and the police. My dad did and I ‘m black and did not grow up in the suburbs. It used to be a trait of urban middle-class upbringing among all races. In suburbia, kids are taught to adopt more mainstream values and better lifestyle choices. Again, there is a cultural aspect to this. In the black community today to often the police are expected to fill the void of ineffective parenting. That means more police interaction with black youths on the street. Increased human interaction means an increase in the potential for conflict when police orders are not adhered to. That can have deadly consequences.

Instead of holding people in the black community responsibility for their plight in life, we get the usual BS excuse making by the media, race baiting activists and Democrat politicians who wrongly see this as the result of racism, discrimination or police brutality. They promote the false narrative that not enough money is being appropriated for social programs, programs that have never worked, by the way. Then they go back to the excuse that more gun control laws are needed. These pandering politicians and activists used to parrot that more jobs are needed in the ghetto to stem the violence. They can’t use that excuse in an economy that has more jobs available today than workers to fill them. Damn, they must be thinking. That excuse was a good one while it lasted. The more jobs whine has been replaced by, get this, that this street violence has been exasperated by the COVID pandemic. I kid you not.

Let unpack this nonsense. Whites in suburban areas have not culturally abandoned the societal, time-tested importance of an intact family structure with two parents raising their kids and not having more kids than they can raise or afford. Today 70% of black children are born out of wedlock. For white children it is about 28%. This is according to numerous sources that keep these statistics. It is undeniable that this factor alone contributes to much of what ails the black community. Then there is the education aspect. Reading and math scores of black students in ghetto public schools are abysmal. Black underclass parental involvement in the education of their children is basically nonexistent. It is reflected in the graduation rates. Asian children have the highest graduation rates followed by white students, Hispanics, American Indian students and at the bottom of the list? Yes, black students bring up the rear.

Are you surprised? No, you aren’t. You might feel guilty to admit it for fear of being labeled as racist. They say the truth hurts, but they also say the truth will set you free. On reading and math scores, according to the U.S. Department of Education, nearly 80% of Chicago public schools (code language for black students) are not grade level proficient in both reading and math. These black kids are functionally illiterate for all the money we spend on education in the United States.

Now let’s debunk the proliferation of firearms as being the cause for the historic rise in murder rates and people injured in nonfatal shootings. There are approximately 150 million gun owners in the US. Most of them are white. If the availability of guns was the issue, then gun violence by race would be evenly distributed across the spectrum, yet it is black suspects who are over-represented in both murders and nonfatal shootings. The truth is that the average gun owner does not use a firearm to settle disputes or take property by force. That is a cultural phenomenon primarily located in the black community. Admit it. The statistics do not lie. The people pushing an anti-gun agenda can easily find out by race who is using a firearm to commit violence and if the perpetrator was a concealed carry license holder or if they obtained the gun legally. They don’t want to research it because they know the data will destroy their narrative. More whites own firearms than blacks do and if gun availability was the cause of all the street violence, then more white gun owners would be involved in gun violence incidents and they are not. Again, culture plays a role.

As for blaming COVID lockdowns? COVID lockdowns also occurred in white suburban areas too without the accompanying street violence, so cut the crap about COVID lockdowns causing ghetto violence So where am I going with all this? I want to talk about the role of police in all this. Society takes all this black underclass cultural rot and dysfunction and throws it in the lap of a police officer to solve. Homicides are up nationwide in 2021 by 15%. This follows record violence levels in 2020. Again, where is this happening? In predominantly black neighborhoods, not white neighborhoods. Why do I keep coming back to this aspect? Because too many who know better won’t acknowledge the role that black underclass behavior plays in this. When you add inane public policy like no bail, decarceration and politically motivated prosecutors who won’t charge career violent offenders because they see them as the victims, you have now put street violence on steroids.

I am tired of hearing think tank intellectual elitists talk about police improving their relationship with a dysfunctional community that won’t give police information to help solve crime. That is an advanced stage of cultural rot. After all, it is black people who are being slaughtered here. That isn’t enough motivation to want to help? Is the cultural rot so deep that they can’t summon their better angels to do what’s right regardless of how they might feel about the police? And that’s the fault of the police? Seriously?

It is time to stop the nonsense about how to reduce crime. Stop with the police reform efforts, the calls for more minority recruitment and the sensitivity training junk. It is time to let the police do what they do very effectively, and that is keeping the peace and improving the quality of life for the overall majority of law abiding in the black community by making arrests and getting career criminals off the street. Stop making police the fall guy for bad public policy decisions by progressive cop-hating politicians and activist prosecutors. Politicians have to find the courage to demand better behavior from the black underclass. Law abiding blacks have to shame and condemn poor lifestyle choices and call for black people to make better lifestyle choices.

Stop blaming the police, racism, COVID and guns for the violence in the ghetto. Stop trying to fix the police. And stop funding black underclass cultural rot and dysfunction with more government spending. Like I said. It’s the culture, stupid.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, 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

The Far Reaching Effects of 9/11

On the morning of September 11, 2001, during a partial hiatus from public safety, I was in the middle of a three year stint as a computer salesperson at a Circuit City store located in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

The morning started uneventfully counting the money in our cash drawers and preparing for the store opening. Approximately the back right quarter of the store was the television section.

As events began to unfold all sets were tuned to the breaking news. The entire store staff stood in awe and horror as clearly an unprecedented terrorist attack was unfolding before our eyes. At 9:03a.m. we couldn’t believe our eyes as we witnessed flight 175 in real-time crashing into the south face of the World Trade Center’s south tower on live national television. The world seemed as though it was coming to a standstill as numerous “customers” began to enter our store not to transact business but simply to join in keeping all eyes glued to the numerous televisions of various sizes. I went to a register kiosk to phone my wife at home to make sure she was aware of what was happening, check on the children, and to tell her that I loved her.

The events of that day were only rivaled by two other days in my memory from a televised event. That being the day that Walter Cronkite appeared on national television to announce the shooting and death of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and as a child I witnessed my mothers and a nations tears, and the day I cried witnessing the death of teacher Christie McAuliffe in the Challenger disaster and explosion from my living room, then located in Abingdon Maryland.

I honestly don’t remember much else about that day except for the obvious sadness, worry and the terrorist events that followed.

The story on the far reaching impact of 9/11 and its direct impact to me while living in West Virginia doesn’t stop there.

Several days later upon returning home from work to my then residence located in the railroad town of Tunnelton West Virginia, I retrieved a phone message from someone identifying themselves as being from Hurley State Bank leaving a callback number in reference to a potential fraud alert. I immediately returned the call to discover that someone had ordered a Gateway computer to be delivered to an address in Far Rockaway New York (just east of the decimated World Trade Center Towers) and financed with my personal information through a fraudulent credit application with Hurley Bank. I was told this was a commonplace occurrence on the heels of the destruction of the Trade Center buildings.

It turned out that my Circuit City sponsored health benefit through Empire State Blue Cross/Blue Shield had been housed in the World Trade Center facilitating the loss of my files which were probably blowing around the streets of New York City. Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield was the largest corporate headquarters housed in the World Trade Center and were the fifth largest

employer there. They occupied 10 floors of the building spread between floor 17 and floor 31. Miraculously, of the 1,900 plus employees all but nine employees and two consultants survived.

Who would have thought, though, that I would have such a direct impact while living here in North Central West Virginia?

I attempted to make a report with the appropriate precinct of the NYPD but to no avail. The fraudulent act had been caught ahead of merchandise delivery and no one seemed interested in any sort of sting operation to nab the perpetrators.

My experience and troubles were, of course, nothing compared to the massive loss of life suffered that day.

All of us in law enforcement have a duty to always remember and never forget the sacrifices made that day by all of our fire, police and EMS first responders. Now 20-years later, many heroes and their families continue to feel the effects of their acts of heroism that day through continuing health and trauma issues and need our support.

We must do all that we can to train, equip and prepare to confront terrorists and acts of terrorism now and into the future. Let us never forget the sacrifices and lessons learned that fateful day. Patriotism and togetherness against all common enemies must ultimately prevail.

Let freedom ring.

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 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

SOS: It's an EMERGENCY

“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results” – Milton Friedman 

Have “progressives” completely lost the concept of emergency response and action to any immediate crisis?

A wise police instructor once taught the difference between the public and private sectors. Government prioritizes perceived equity over results, while private business people value results and productivity (i.e. profit or value). Today, while still true, our culture seems to be heading further into the abyss with lack of understanding of priority needs.

 A traditional Texas putdown, “all hat, no cattle” (or, alternately, “big hat, no cattle”) which refers to someone who is all talk with no action, power, or substance behind his/her words seems to perfectly describe how many in authority now view crisis intervention.

Vice President Border Czar Kamala Harris’ handling of the border crisis (or her lack thereof) is a perfect example with skyrocketing migration numbers, human and drug trafficking flooding into the United States by her prioritizing “root-causes” versus taking necessary emergency actions to mitigate the immediate crisis.

Failure to deal with exigent circumstances and any crisis at-hand by always deferring to investigation of "root-causes" exacerbates the chaos and is always seen as weakness and deservedly so.

 This is an ongoing problem with the progressive left. Failing to understand how to deal with emergency crisis situations, whether it is border insecurity and control, or emergent circumstances requiring use of force by law enforcement in an effort to save lives and livelihoods is now becoming the norm.

It takes a special individual to sign up to become a peacekeeper. Whether referred to as a guardian, protector or warrior, not many are suited to the bravery it takes to run into potentially deadly circumstances. Yet the fight or flight response occurs in all of the animal kingdom and once an emergent deadly encounter is imminent, a natural survival instinct is triggered as a normal response. When it's kill or be killed, it becomes survival of the fittest in all of nature as a part of our God-given eco-system. No man or law will change that in spite of a cowardly desire by self-identified “progressives” to routinely ignore necessary response to emergencies by looking for ‘root-causes” inappropriately at moments of active deadly threat.

 Sen. John Kennedy (R) Louisiana expressed failed response to crisis by saying that the timing was bad in addressing “root-causes” as the house is on fire and we find ourselves discussing new tires for the fire truck in lieu of putting out the fire as the priority.

Baltimore’s Kimberly Klacik wisely and accurately responded to Vice President Harris by comparing Guatemala to West Baltimore. When Kamala Harris spoke of “root-causes” for migration out of impoverished Guatemala she noted crime, violence, poor education, food deserts and lack of jobs as contributing “root-cause” factors. All of which perfectly describe the plight of the residents of West Baltimore except that West Baltimore exceeds Guatemala in crime and violence! In fact, mass shootings have occurred on a near monthly basis during the first half of 2021 in Baltimore city, with residents asking, “Where’s the plan?” to combat the city violence. The Biden administration has committed to investment in agribusiness, affordable housing, and entrepreneur creation for Guatemala (while citing global warming as another source of angst for Guatemalans’). What about something along these lines now or in the foreseeable future to come to the aid of the residents of West Baltimore? Crickets … So much for charity begins at home.

The president of Guatemala had it right when he said if the laws and policies on the books this administration inherited were simply enforced, the border problem would not be where it is today. Even Vladimir Putin made clear that he would not tolerate the civil unrest seen on America's streets in compromise of safety in his own country.

While somehow our current federal administration seems bewildered by crisis intervention, the solutions are clear in enforcement of existing laws. Yet somehow our current administration remains blind to recognition of the necessity of taking decisive emergency actions at times of crisis. It’s past time to value positive results both now and looking forward by being “woke” to reality through prioritization of immediate action over long term solutions which MUST be secondary to response to any immediate threat and crisis.

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

NOTHING IS SACRED ANYMORE

Back in June of 2020, I penned a column on this site about the crisis in the law enforcement profession that I believed was not getting the attention that it deserved from the national media. It wasn’t just attention to the crisis that I was trying to put on the matter but more importantly that not enough mental health resources were being dedicated to it.

I pointed out that over the last three years, suicide was the greatest single cause of death for law enforcement officers and that comparatively, a law enforcement officer stood a better chance of taking their own life than by being killed in the line of duty by felony assault, patrol vehicle crashes and other duty-related issues. I wrote that in fact officers were two to three more times likely to kill themselves, and that it is currently the leading cause of death for officers.

I was interviewed on podcasts about this tragic phenomenon, but I could not get any interest from major cable news networks about this. With all the talk about mental health surrounding athletes these days, it is pathetic that when the people who risk their lives for the safety of their communities can’t get the same attention to their mental health from the media or mental health practitioners. We learned more about Olympic gymnast Simone Biles’ bout with the “twisties” and professional tennis player Naomi Osaka who quit the French Open, a major tennis tournament, because she feared having to talk to the media after a match. Seriously. Does the media know what a law enforcement officer deals with on a daily basis, including biased reporting in covering how they perform in use of force incidents?

But this just in, or should I call it “breaking news”. The Left leaning media has become “woke” to the issue of law enforcement suicides. The problem is that they are using attention to it for political purposes. Yes, the media once again demonstrates that their ethical elevator has no bottom floor.

Stories are now appearing on Leftist print sites and getting electronic media coverage that four Washington D.C. officers who responded to the trespassing of the US Capital on Jan. 6 have committed suicide. Is the Leftist media’s interest in the issue of blue suicide sincere? Do they really care about the crisis facing our profession? Hell no they don’t. These scoundrels are using it as a political weapon to attack former President Donald Trump. This is disgusting, but not surprising at all.

Listen to how the suicide of four DC officers is being reported. Lima, Ohio news headline says, 4 officers at “insurrection” commit suicide. CNBC headline reads, Trump Capitol riot: Police officer suicide rise to four deaths. NBCnews.com headline reads, Four officers who responded to Capitol riot have committed suicide. That reference to Trump’s Capitol riot is naked politics. One of the more despicable headlines comes from the site, Republic World. It reads, US Capitol Riots Death Toll Reaches Four After Two More Police Officers Commit Suicide. The only death that occurred on that day was when Air Force veteran Ashley Babbitt was killed by a federal officer as she climbed through a window. The site gopusa.com headline reads, Very Unusual: Four Capitol police officers have died by suicide.

Let me stop here for some comments. Very Unusual? Really? I just got through talking about this being a growing crisis in the law enforcement profession for the last three years. Where the hell has gopusa.com been?

Every one of these headlines insinuates that these suicides are directly associated with one incident. Law enforcement officers have been taking a mental beating at the hands of Leftist media sites ever since 2014 when Ferguson, Mo., Police Officer Darren Wilson lawfully saved his own life after being attacked by the thug Mike Brown who was trying to disarm the officer. Remember hands up, don’t shoot? Ever since that lie was spawned, there has been a constant barrage of hate generated against the entire profession of law enforcement. Officers have been smeared, unfairly maligned and mischaracterized as racists, bloodthirsty and that they routinely target and mistreat young black males for no reason. None of this has any basis in truth, and no data exists to prove it either. The media knows this. Cops have been spat on, had rocks and bottles thrown at them, been shot at and killed in ambush attacks. They have been the target of defunding efforts by their city mayors and councils and have been targeted for baseless criminal charges by politically active prosecutors. This has created a mass exodus of early retirements and resignations, leaving many agencies’ ranks thin.

This constant beat down has taken its toll on the mental health of our communities’ finest. It is easy to make a connection to the War on Cops as a contributing factor to an officer’s mental strain. For the Leftist media to politicize and exploit blue suicide by connecting it to a one-off incident is either a general lack of understanding about the process of suicide or they simply couldn’t resist to use it in their continued persecution of President Trump. This offends the senses. It demonstrates that the Leftist media lacks a moral compass. Classic ends justifying the means mindset.

As I indicated earlier, police suicides have been on a three-year upward trend. During this time period, neither Nancy Pelosi nor her Democrat colleagues expressed any concern or sympathy for the growing crisis of blue suicide. In fact, it was the Democratic Party that provided cop haters Black Lives Matter and Antifa a platform with which to spread their hate and contempt for law enforcement. Now we are supposed to believe that these lowlifes care about cops? Yeah, right.

Next the Democrat politicians and their propagandists in the Left-wing media will be trying to convince us that they have supported the police all along and it was President Trump who has hated law enforcement. Wait. They already are peddling that false narrative.

Sheriff David Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of AmericasSheriff LLC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, President of Rise Up Wisconsin Inc and 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