Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

The use of statistics in just about every aspect of things that can be counted has become a tool to distort reality about what is actually occurring. The origin of the phrase lies, damn lies ad statistics is unclear, but it is most commonly attributed to Mark Twain who attributed it to former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disaraeli. He used it to describe the way statistics can be manipulated and persuasive in bolstering weak arguments. There is another often used phrase to describe the exploitation of numbers-figures lie and liars figure. No more is that evident than with policing.

Ever since I can remember, numbers about police traffic stops, arrests, use of force, field interview stops and even crime rates are continually collected to produce a picture on how things are progressing or not progressing. Those raw numbers are then used or misused to fit one’s argument. When police executives want to measure the effectiveness of a crime prevention initiative, they use numbers as evidence. They can always find a statistic over a particular period of time to demonstrate that the strategy is working. Those are outputs, not outcomes. Recently, the Police Commissioner of the New York City Police Department said that a high-profile criminal event causes people to have a perception of fear. He said it is not always reality based.  You don’t have to be the actual victim of a crime to have a fear about the environment around you. If I hear that there has been a rash of home burglaries in my neighborhood, it is not unreasonable to think my home might be next and no police statistic snapshot about a reduction in home burglaries is going to put my mind at ease. It is a quality-of-life issue that is going to affect people psychologically and it is real.

On the other hand, the media manipulates statistics about police use of force that gives the public a distorted reality of police that contains no truthful context. The Associated Press in collaboration with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism recently released an ‘investigation” that concluded that black people bear a disproportionate impact of police use of force. The “investigation” uses the term disproportionate in describing the number of people who died after being restrained, beaten or shocked with stun guns by police in the United States. It points out that blacks represent one-third of the deaths in such police encounters over a ten-year period even though they represent just 12% of the population. According to the AP story, the US Department of Justice has documented racial disparities after probes of several police agencies. The USDOJ points out that black people accounted for high rates of unjustified stops for minor offenses like jaywalking, illegal searches and frisks that produce no contraband. Let me stop there. First of all, as for the claim of unjustified stops for minor offenses? Ok, I might agree that these are minor offenses however the cities then should wipe these “minor offenses” off the books as ordinance violaions, then police could not use these as the basis for a stop. But these cities want the revenue produced from the citations generated. Police should never be used as a revenue generator for municipality. More importantly is what the US Supreme Court has said about police stops. They have opined that when police stop a person for questioning, as long as the stop is lawful, the subjective intent of the officer is irrelevant. In other words, jaywalking is a lawful reason to stop a person. As for the frisking of individuals stopped, the officer has to articulate reasonable suspicion that suspect that the person may have a weapon that can be used against them. The AP pointing that many frisks produce no weapon is irrelevant. The question is whether or not the officers had articulable suspicion. The AP doesn’t indicate that.

The Police Executive Research Forum, a useless think tank, took a swing at this as well. They conducted an audit according to the AP story. They looked at the data between 2018 and 2020 and found that at least 602 use-of-force incidents where black people accounted for 57% of the incidents even thought they make up just 25% of the population in those areas. That by itself means absolutely nothing. We need some context here. Shame on PERF. Many of them are supposedly former law enforcement officers who have obviously forgotten what life is like on the street. They have been away from the street for too long. Many of their careers were spent in police administration sitting in offices. They are academics, not cops.

Using racial disparity and disparate impact when analyzing data is not just the wrong benchmark, it’s just plain dumb. Things that happen in life don’t necessarily follow a racial pattern. Thinking that because black people comprise 13% of the population, things happening to black people outside of that number is evidence of racial discrimination defies logic. Here is some context. Police stops of black people occur primarily in areas where blacks comprise more than 13% of the area's population. Police deployment is primarily based on where crime is predominantly occurring. That would be disproportionately in black neighborhoods. Nobody points that disparity out however. Blacks are not evenly spread out across the United States. They tend to live in urban areas. It stands to reason then that most police contacts in urban areas are going to involve black people. Crime rates determine who police will stop. The AP, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and the Police Executive Research Forum don’t tell you that nor do they tell you that black males are overrepresented in terms of involvement in criminal behavior including violent crime. Nobody asks why that is. These entities don’t point out that black males are identified as suspects in crime in percentages well above their 13% representation in the total population. In fact, according to the USDOJ FBI Uniform Reporting data in 2022, the same year PERF released their study, 33% of persons arrested for violent crime including rape, robbery and aggravated assaults were black. Blacks are also overrepresented in terms of victimization but we never hear about that disproportionality. By the AP, PERF and HCIJ, blacks should only be 13% of people victimized by violent crime. Blacks are murdered more than their 13% representation in the total population. Nobody wants to talk about why black suspects prey on black people in numbers far exceeding their representation in the population. Do you see how insane using disparate impact and disproportionality when it comes to police stops?

When these flawed studies, that are not subjected to peer review by the way are released, they receive headline attention as prima facia evidence that policing is a racist activity and that police are inherently racist. No, it is not. What policing does is gives respite to the overwhelming majority of law-abiding black people living in crime riddled neighborhoods. For many seniors and single mom’s trying to keep their children alive as errant bullets rip through the siding of their homes, they quietly support what the cops do on a daily basis to keep their neighborhoods safe. The AP, PERF and HCIJ didn’t interview any of these folks to get their opinion of police stops. Typical.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

JUDICIAL BIAS IS REAL: WHERE’S THE JUSTICE?

By: Joel E. Gordon

In this age of allegations of “lawfare,” judicial bias, and accusations of a two tier system of justice, confidence in our system of justice has quite understandably eroded in the eyes of many.

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. A frequent topic of conversation was why repeat criminals aren’t “put away” as if the police were somehow responsible.

When crime does occur it’s easy to blame the front-line 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. Officers must work through an increasingly complex maze of rules about engagement and seizure of evidence to make cases that are valid to the court. Then it’s up to our legal system to bring or validate charges and up to our judges to adjudicate same.

As I have previously addressed in past columns, how often do we see a violent criminal being let loose on society prematurely resulting in further violence and criminal acts? It is why the police seemingly arrest five percent of the population ninety-five percent of the time repeatedly for serious crimes.

When will we start to hold our courts accountable for their actions?

As our system has largely failed in holding violent criminals responsible for their actions, lacking incarceration due to bail reform and other progressive initiatives and views, and while disempowering law enforcement has further compromised safety, our courts are increasingly being scrutinized. The fact of the matter is that judicial bias is not new.

As far back as in the early 1980’s I had a district court judge say in my presence that all defendants were guilty in his eyes if arrested by the police. Conversely, I have heard a 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!

These judges when assigned to a district courthouse in the city of Baltimore did have a profound impact on the rate of crime. When guilty verdicts prevailed, street crime went down. Whenever the sitting judge who rarely entered convictions had a period where cases were heard by him, crime on the street in the surrounding community increased.

Another problem we all face is the reliance on government from revenue generated from court proceedings. Both in rural West Virginia and elsewhere I have seen instances in municipal and smaller town mayor’s 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.

We need to hold our courts accountable for ensuring that all live up to our rights and responsibilities and that our right to be presumed innocent is not infringed upon, nor our security and safety unnecessarily compromised upon determination of guilt beyond any reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty.

Have we been witness to the collapse of our system of justice which by design is the best the world has ever known? In practicality our system is only as good as the people serving within it. Common sense and justice should prevail. If only our courts truly reflected the motto of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as so well stated… “That guilt shall not escape nor innocence suffer.”

Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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

DANGER: The Devastating Consequences of Failure to Incarcerate Violent Criminals

By: Joel E. Gordon

In a world where safety and security should be paramount, the failure to incarcerate violent criminals can have devastating consequences. When individuals who have committed serious offenses are allowed to roam free, it not only puts innocent lives at risk but also undermines the very foundation of justice and law enforcement. The perplexing question that arises is: why are some violent criminals not held accountable for their actions?

The frequency of violence, characterized by sudden and unpredictable outbursts of criminal behavior, poses a significant challenge to law enforcement and society as a whole. When violent offenders are not appropriately dealt with through incarceration, the potential for further harm and chaos only increases. This creates a sense of unease and insecurity that pervades communities and erodes trust in the justice system.

The failure to incarcerate violent criminals is a pressing issue that has long demanded attention and action. The recent tragic and preventable death of 31-year-old NYPD police officer Jonathan Diller who was murdered by a convicted felon with an arrest record including 21 prior arrests demonstrates the danger first responders’ face in dealing with the same violent people over and over again when our system of “justice” fails to incarcerate.

Unfortunately, this is not new. In my past experience in the mid 1980’s I was nearly stabbed. The call came out for a domestic assault just occurred in an apartment complex. I responded and upon my arrival was met by a female who had been kicked in the abdomen by her boyfriend who had left the apartment. While waiting for an ambulance to arrive and taking information and statements for my investigative report inside of the apartment, the boyfriend/suspect climbed onto the apartment balcony. I stood between the victim and the suspect. The man slid open the unlocked sliding glass doors and came toward me. I saw that he was reaching for a knife that was tucked in his waistband.

I called a “Signal 13” (officer in need of assistance) on myself; my one and only time to have ever done this. No one heard me at first because I was in a largely “dead” spot for radio transmissions. I was able to disarm the suspect at close range and affect the arrest although being resisted aggressively. Finally with the situation under control, I was able to get my request for a paddy wagon out. Back up also finally arrived.

A records check of the suspect that I had just arrested revealed a lengthy criminal record. A 

“rap sheet” that extended from ceiling to floor when unfolded including numerous assaults on 

police officers in both Baltimore and Washington D.C. and yet he was out in society as a free man.

 The charges that were levied reflected that the suspect had assaulted his girlfriend, intended to stab me with the knife he was carrying, and that he subsequently broke a toilet in the cell block for a destruction of property charge.

 At trial he received ninety days for assaulting his girlfriend. Thirty days for breaking the toilet consecutive to the ninety days for a one-hundred-twenty day total. Thirty days for attempting to stab me, concurrent to the thirty days for breaking the toilet. No extra time, at all, for intending to stab me and put me in fear for my life. The Assistant State’s Attorney actually turned to me in front of the packed open courtroom and said to me in front of the judge, “Officer isn’t it nice to know you’re worth as much as a toilet?” 

 Two weeks later the convicted defendant was somehow already, once again, released from jail and threw another officer down a flight of stairs on a subsequent call for service causing injury.

Another vivid example of how incarceration should have served not only as a means of punishment but also as a crucial tool for accountability and deterrence. When violent criminals are swiftly and decisively dealt with through imprisonment, it sends a clear message that such behavior will not be tolerated. This also acts as a deterrent to others who may be contemplating similar acts of violence, thereby helping to keep our law enforcement officers and communities more safe and secure.

Failure to incarcerate violent criminals often leads to a cascade of negative consequences. From emboldening offenders to commit more brazen acts to instilling fear and anxiety in law-abiding citizens, the repercussions are far-reaching. Furthermore, the lack of consequences for criminal behavior can contribute to a cycle of violence and recidivism, perpetuating a cycle of harm and suffering.

 By recognizing the importance of accountability, deterrence, and public safety, we can work towards a society where justice is served, and our first responders and communities are protected from preventable harm. It is imperative that we address this issue with urgency and resolve, ensuring that violent offenders are held accountable for their actions and that the safety and well-being for us all are rightfully prioritized.

 Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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

Houston, You Have a Problem

The saying goes something like this. Everything’s bigger in Texas. What the Houston Police Department is facing right now is as big as Texas itself. It has been revealed that the Houston PD through its standard operating procedure has a written policy in place to “suspend” investigating as many as 264,000 criminal cases including sexual assault and other felony and misdemeanor cases since 2016. That figure represents about 10% of the 2,800,000 cases filed over the last 8 years. An elaborate coding system was put in place that a case could be marked as “SL” which means “Suspended Lack of Personnel.” Let’s drill down into this. I have always said that when in my opinion the police act properly and responsibly, I will go to the wall defending them and when in my opinion police conduct is questionable, I will say that as well. My credibility with the public is important to me. I won’t jump to a conclusion just yet, but this doesn’t pass the eye test upon initial review.

 As usual in this kind of disclosure, people who could face political fallout immediately begin to engage in CYA--short for cover your a$$.  The mayor says he had no idea of this practice. Plausible deniability can be given to him … for now. The chief of police, Troy Finner, repeatedly denied ever signing off on this policy and said that he ordered employees to stop using these codes years ago, but since the start of this practice it has been renewed into policy as recently as December 2023. This is going to cause a lot of finger-pointing internally as people in these situations scatter like roaches when the light is turned on. Survival is the first law of nature. Nobody wants their fingerprints on this.

 The problem for Chief Finner is that in his position, he is responsible for what goes on in his agency. The buck stops with him. Within any large city department, it is impossible for the agency head to know exactly what is going on every minute of every day. He has highly paid supervisory staff whose job is to keep their finger on the pulse of what goes on and keep the Chief briefed on the big stuff. I held that position as elected sheriff of Milwaukee County, an agency with 1,100 employees with divisions spread out all over the county. I know how difficult this can be.  I appointed all the higher-ranking officers in my agency and made it clear that they were to know what was going on in their divisions and to keep me informed and if they did not, they would be held accountable.  That, however, is why Finner is given a supervisory staff, to watch the day-to-day operations. If in this case they let him down by defying his order to cease and desist sweeping cases under the rug, then heads should roll. If all the higher-ups dump this on some front-line people to save themselves, shame on them. That isn’t leadership. If Finner determines that changes have been made to keep this from happening again or that miscommunication is to blame and that’s it? That isn’t accountability.

 The chief of police is one of the most high-profile positions in city government. A mayor’s administration could fall from a scandal emanating from within the police department. Whitmire will not hesitate to throw his police chief overboard to save himself. Fair or not, that is the way this works politically and when you take the position of chief of police, you know this going in. At worst, Finner has to be willing to fall on the sword, accept full responsibility and offer to resign.  The mayor is now calling for an outside independent investigation. He said, “I trust and believe that Chief Troy Finner is doing the best he can to manage the internal investigation, get to the bottom of it and hold people accountable. The independent panel will be people I also trust to review and validate the outcome and help bring closure to the victims.”

 It is my position that the mayor cannot allow the people who created this problem to investigate it. There must be an outside review.

 Drilling down even further, there is the issue of not investigating reported criminal cases. Everybody understands that police staffing shortages all across the country are having a profound effect on an agency’s ability to keep up with caseloads. The Houston Police Department currently has about 300 officer vacancies. Follow-up investigations will naturally lag. You can’t simply write them off as “suspended” especially felony cases including sexual assaults. That is intolerable. A better way is to sort them out by determining which cases have a higher solvability factor and giving those priority. You don’t write the rest off, but you get to those when time and staffing allow. Some misdemeanor property crime cases are a low priority. Many have no solvability favors and are only being reported by people because to make an insurance claim most insurers require that a police report be filed. It is acceptable to list those as suspended due to lack of personnel.

 After sorting these out, it is imperative for the chief to inform the city council and the public through the media of what he is doing due to lack of staffing. Most of the public will understand this. Simply wiping these off the board in the fashion they were is inexcusable. Mayors and city councils do not like surprises that they find out about through an explosive media investigation. The headlines in the Houston Chronicle newspaper about this were ugly. This revelation couldn’t be very comforting to the residents of the city of Houston. They have to feel victimized, first by the criminals and then again by the HPD after finding out that criminals are going unpunished. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott chimed in, calling for the state to impose consequences for what he labels as “neglect” by the HPD.

 There is a feeding frenzy going on right now in Houston, Texas. Chief Finner should be aware that sharks and piranha are circling in the water, and they smell blood.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

BEFORE THE DECLINE: REMEMBER WHEN?

By: Joel E. Gordon

Back when police were allowed to police, there was a time when on any call for service, no matter how frivolous a complaint or request for service seemed to be, police were dispatched to investigate the true nature of the complaint and the need for police or other governmental services or lack thereof.

What determinations can be made if a call comes in with a statement such as “I’ve been hit?” Is this a traffic accident or perhaps an assault and battery and is it in progress or not? The investigating officer should ascertain this information through response and firsthand knowledge. Is a complaining party being threatened to give false or misleading information by someone holding them hostage? An officer, or any first responder, can never take for granted that information given to a call taker and then forwarded is accurate, true or complete.

In recent times, the quality of police service has notably declined, leaving many communities feeling vulnerable and unprotected. The diminished presence of law enforcement officers has sparked concerns about public safety and the ability of the police to effectively uphold the law and combat crime.

In the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh police won't send officers to certain emergency calls but will redirect to a newly established telephone reporting unit. Based upon a directive by Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto, the department will not respond to any calls that are not in progress; they will go to an enhanced telephone reporting unit and online reporting.

One significant factor contributing to the deterioration of police service is budget cuts and resource constraints. With limited funding, police departments struggle to maintain adequate staffing levels, provide necessary training and acquire essential equipment, leading to a decrease in overall effectiveness and response times.

Staffing shortages and high turnover rates further exacerbate the issue, as experienced officers leave for better opportunities, leaving behind inexperienced recruits who may lack the skills and knowledge needed to effectively address complex law enforcement challenges.

The increasing demands placed on police officers, coupled with rising crime rates in many communities, stretch resources thin and make it difficult for law enforcement agencies to keep up with the evolving nature of criminal activities.

The diminished police service erodes public trust and confidence in law enforcement, leading to strained relationships between officers and the communities they serve. In Pittsburgh, people are reacting to the new changes made by the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. The prevailing sentiment is that the whole city of Pittsburgh is at risk.

In Houston, Texas, Police Chief Troy Finner apologized to victims and their families after an internal review revealed that about 264,000 criminal incident reports were suspended in the past eight years. In February of this year, it was announced that hundreds of thousands of incident reports were dropped because of a "lack of personnel." The number of reports, which included violent crimes, sexual assault, and property crimes, represents about 10% of the 2.8 million incident reports filed in the past eight years with the Houston PD.

The fact remains that without strong community partnerships and trust, police efforts to prevent and solve crimes are hindered. Residents in areas with diminished police service often experience delayed response times to real emergency calls and limited availability of officers for visible preventive patrols, further creating a sense of insecurity and unease among community members.

The inability of police to effectively address criminal activities often leads to an escalation of crime and disorder in neighborhoods, further jeopardizing the safety and well-being of residents.

Diminished police service poses significant challenges for a modern society, impacting public safety, community relations and the overall effectiveness of law enforcement efforts. Addressing the factors contributing to this decline is crucial to ensuring that police agencies can fulfill their mission of protecting and serving the public in a proficient and highly responsive manner.

If you ask me, it’s time to turn back the clock to the best practices of old. 

Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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

Oakland California, a Failed City by Design

Like just about every large urban city in America with a Democrat controlled political class, Oakland, California has disintegrated into chaos. It has become third world-like. Out of control crime, violence and disorder, homeless people defecating on sidewalks and public drug use have become part of the landscape. How did it get to this you ask?

 Oakland is one of those cities that has normalized criminal behavior. In fact, one news account of their predicament called crime one of the fastest growing businesses in Oakland. The column erroneously pinpoints the pandemic as the start of the city’s decline. In fact, George Floyd started the death spiral not just in Oakland but in every other Democrat controlled city. That is when the rioting, looting of businesses and arson went on unabated. Police were told to stand down as the city burned and lawlessness reigned supreme. The response from the state of California was to enact no bail reforms and to lower the threshold for prosecuting shoplifting thereby normalizing this otherwise criminal behavior. Retail stores were blamed or not taking more protective measures to make theft more difficult. Restaurant areas saw their customers being robbed on the streets. Signs were prominently placed in restaurant and shop windows for customer to not leave valuables inside their cars.  Office buildings saw their employees threatened to and from work.  The city’s largest employer warned workers not to leave the building to have lunch. Having their cars broken into became commonplace. These quality-of-life issues caused people to abandon these retail areas. When that happens, businesses are left with no other option than to close up shop after incurring millions of dollars in losses.

 The frustration of these businesses spilled over as they fled. One business owner said, “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our customers and associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft and armed robberies.” How much of this are people expected to put up with? Among the business who closed are, the popular In-N-Out burger citing the safety of workers and customers, Starbucks, and a Denny’s restaurant. One business owner according to the news story said it was not unusual to see 20 car break-ins a day. The owner said when the perps see a cop, they won’t come to the area but when the cops leave, the perps return. Even though crime is cited as the only reason for closing, Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley called the closing of a Boston area Walgreens a life-threatening act of racial and economic discrimination. One California sheriff called the businesses gut-less for not asking the California state legislature to reform the measures that lessen criminality of retail theft. Seriously? What has this gut-less sheriff done to petition the state legislature to change course? He’s blaming the victim. He has apparently forgotten that businesses pay the biggest portion of a city’s property taxes. Having them expect a reasonable amount of public safety to protect their business, employees and customers isn’t asking too much as far as I am concerned.

 With all of this as the backdrop, one important aspect of the story has been left out. I did something that the writers of these business closings failed to do. I went back and did what they easily could have done about Oakland. In doing a search of cities that defunded the police I found this interesting piece. In 2021, the Oakland city council defunded the Oakland police department, striping $18 million from the budget. The story pointed out that even back then this defund move came as the city saw an alarming spike in street violence. Instead they voted to use the money taken from public safety and use it for affordable housing. Only 2 of the council members out of 9 spoke out against the defund move. The move included not filling 50 vacant police positions in an already understaffed agency which resulted in longer response to 9-1-1 calls and preventive patrols around businesses experiencing crime and disorder causing business to close and leave in 2024. Recruitment of new officers has been problematic. A number of cop hating activists applauded the move in 2021. A picture of the city council after the vote accompanied the news story with the smiling council members holding up their fists after the vote. The move included moving $4 million from police to a Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland. The 2024 stories about the city of Oakland grappling with crime don’t indicate if this MACRO unit is being used in 2024 to patrol the business areas hit by crime and other quality of life issues.

 Crime in 2023 in Oakland was up 21% from the year before, and 29% since 2019. Robberies and motor vehicle thefts in 2023 were up a whopping 38% and 45% respectively.

 The most interesting aspect of the crime surge in 2024 Oakland are the entities who are asking for more police protection. The mayor says that, “the surge of crime and violence we are seeing in our streets is completely unacceptable”. Every time I hear some two-bit politician uttering those words, I want to vomit.  Even the local chapter of the NAACP is begging for more officers on what they now admit is an understaffed police department. I am sure they weren’t saying that during the defund move by the Oakland city council.

 So, this crime, violence and disorder epidemic in Oakland was caused by the elected political class there. They chose social justice nonsense over public safety. They are now reaping what they themselves have sown. I predicted this at the start of the war on police that began after the police justifiable use of force by a Ferguson, Missouri officer in 2014. Yes, a decade ago. These bad public policy decisions take time to set in and will take longer to reverse. Reversing it has to start with ending no bail catch and release policies and increasing prosecutions that lead to long prison sentences for unwanted behavior. Referring perpetrators with long criminal histories to the US Attorney’s office for prosecution will keep these creeps off the street for longer periods of time. Rebuilding police department staffing will take some time. These things will send a message to law abiding people and businesses that will instill confidence that things are going to change relative to more effective public safety. It has to once again become Oakland’s highest priority.

 Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

Blurred Lines: Favoritism in Law Enforcement

By: Joel E. Gordon

Nepotism in law enforcement refers to the practice of favoring relatives or close associates in hiring, promotions, or other employment opportunities within the law enforcement sector. This practice raises concerns about fairness, impartiality, and the overall effectiveness of law enforcement agencies.

Nepotism or favoritism in law enforcement can manifest in various forms, including the preferential treatment of family members or friends during the recruitment process, the promotion of individuals based on personal relationships or gender, racial or other criteria that overlooks merit, or the allocation of desirably advantageous assignments or duties to those with personal connections.

The prevalence of favoritism in law enforcement can negatively impact and undermine the professionalism and integrity of the entire organization. When individuals are hired or promoted based on personal connections rather than qualifications and experience, it diminishes the credibility of the institution and erodes public trust in law enforcement agencies.

Moreover, nepotism can lead to a lack of diversity and inclusivity within law enforcement, as opportunities may be disproportionately allocated to a select group of individuals based on familial or social ties which may lack needed skills. An example might be a lack of beneficial communication skills with language abilities in speech, comprehension and expression beside those in American English. This can hinder the development of a well-rounded and merit-based representative law enforcement force, ultimately impacting its ability to effectively serve diverse communities.

To mitigate the detrimental effects of favoritism in law enforcement, organizations must prioritize transparency, accountability, and merit-based practices in their recruitment and promotion processes. Implementing clear and unbiased hiring criteria, establishing oversight mechanisms to monitor potential instances of nepotistic practices, and fostering a culture of fairness within the organization are essential steps in addressing this issue.

Furthermore, promoting ethical leadership and emphasizing the importance of professional conduct can help deter those nepotistic practices and uphold the integrity of law enforcement institutions. By fostering a culture of meritocracy and fairness, law enforcement agencies can work towards restoring public confidence and enhancing the overall professionalism of their workforce.

Favoritism in law enforcement poses significant challenges to the integrity and credibility of law enforcement agencies. By acknowledging the detrimental impact of nepotistic practices and actively working towards fostering a culture of fairness and meritocracy, organizations can strive to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and regain public trust. It is essential for law enforcement agencies to prioritize transparency, accountability, and ethical leadership in order to combat the issues associated with favoritism and ensures the delivery of impartial and effective law enforcement services.

Through hiring, promotion, and assigning the best individual to each and every position, police agencies will find themselves on a path to fulfilling their mission with fairness and integrity.

Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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

In Life as in Politics, Timing is Everything

At the start of the new school year right after Labor Day I wrote a column referencing how many large school districts across America were reversing their emotionally based policy of canceling contracts with police agencies to place officers into public schools. This reversal is based on an increase of disorder incidents some of which rose to the level of criminal behavior such as assaults against both students and teachers.

All of this started as a result of the war on police that included a defund police movement after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It was a politically motivated decision and was led by anti-cop groups like Black Lives Matter and other leftist groups advocating for some inane idea of racial, gender and economic justice. These are the last people you want driving public policy decisions. Floyd’s death had nothing to do with school safety. The decision had everything to do with race politics based on a misapplication of statistics. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin public school system was one of many large urban school districts that did a “me-too” by making the ill-fated decision in 2020 to cancel police in schools. The claim was that black, Latino and Native American students were disproportionately referred to law enforcement that could lead to arrest and criminal charges or citations. Let’s forget about the reality that this behavior contributed to a threat to the personal safety of students and teachers or that it disrupted the learning environment. It was more important to engage in identity politics than protecting teachers and students in the classroom.

In a study by the Center for Public Integrity, the data revealed that after canceling the police contract, Milwaukee high schools called police more than 200 times. Leaders suggested that the district reverse course and bring officers back to patrol campuses. In Pamona, California, a school shooting near a school prompted the district to bring back school resource officers four months after canceling the contract. The Denver school system increased armed security, and in Des Moines, Iowa parents pleaded with school board members to bring back police.

That brings me to the point I made about timing in life and politics in the title of this column. There is enough of a sample pool of data to make some determinations about the effect of removing law enforcement officers from large urban public schools across America. The fact that more and more school districts are moving back to placing armed school resources back into schools should be enough to convince other school boards to move in the same direction. But then there is Chicago.

Recently the mayor of the city of Chicago made the decision cancel the Chicago Public School District contract with the Chicago police department. He was criticized for this decision, yet he stood by it saying, “there is an intergovernmental agreement between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department. To end that agreement, there’s no qualms from me there.” The news stories and data that other school districts are moving back to placing police in school must be traveling by carrier pigeon in the Windy City. I would think that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson did at least some due diligence before embarking down this path but then again it must have felt better to side with the anti-cop cabal. Johnson was elected less than a year ago. He replaced another Chicago police hating mayor Lori Lightfoot. This identity politics choice was a disaster as crime and violence rose through the roof under her reign. Chicago voters got a reprieve as residents of Chicago voted her out in the primary last spring. Johnson headed into the general election against an opponent who vowed to make public safety his number one priority. Voters choose the woke candidate Brandon Johnson.

Just one day after Mayor Johnson made the decision to cancel the contract to keep police in schools, the unimaginable happened. Three Chicago students were shot leaving one of them dead and one critically injured in a targeted school shooting. What followed was the typical empty rhetoric uttered by mindless politicians. Johnson stated, “A loss of life is horrific under all circumstances, but it is especially harsh when our young people are targeted. We do everything in our power to keep our children safe. So this hurt and I know our city is hurting.”

How can Brandon Johnson say this with a straight face just one day after callously saying that he, “had no qualms from me” with his decision to remove cops from schools? For him to make the statement that all of Chicago is hurting is appalling. The arrogance of this is breathtaking. That he lacked understanding of the moment demonstrates to me that he lacks the empathy required to be in a position of leadership. He might have gained some goodwill by announcing that he will reconsider his decision to remove police officers from Chicago public schools. That however would require political skills that Mayor Johnson appears not to not possess.

We always hear from school officials and politicians when it comes to school safety that we must do everything we can to secure the personal safety of the kids. Once again however when push comes to shove, politics wins out.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

Media Fails To tell The Whole Truth

Once again, the anti-cop cabal raises its ugly head. They never miss an opportunity to misuse statistics to smear the integrity of law enforcement officers. One of their favorite things to focus on is police use of in the performance of their job. They make use of what famed radical leftist community activist Saul Alinsky wrote in attacking a target. He wrote, identify a target, isolate it and then personalize it. This is exactly what the cop hating movement has done with the police officer. They have targeted and isolated police use of force in their crusade to destroy policing in America. They use bad data, they misinterpret statistics and come to conclusions about police use of force that no objective person interpreting data would agree with.

 I was at a hotel in New York recently and while at the front desk, I could help not seeing a stack of USA Today newspapers that just about every hotel in America gives away free of charge. At the top of the front-page above the fold and in big bold print that stood out like a neon sign, the headline read: 2023 was the deadliest year for killings by police in the US. Experts say this is why. Obviously, I picked up a copy to read and what I found in the story was more of the same garbage that this anti-cop newspaper is known to write.

 The drama created by the headline alone was intentionally designed to evoke emotion. Using words like “deadliest” and phrases like “killings by police” implies that the police did something wrong. In the opening paragraph the writer indicates that, “the US set another grim record last year as the number of people killed by police continued its steady increase”.The story points out that, there were only 14 days without a police killing last year and on average, law enforcement officers killed someone every 6.6 hours. What is that supposed to mean? And of course, the report points out that the victims, “include people of color, people with mental health problems”.

 The report reaches for old reliable when it comes to why these numbers continue to climb while crime slightly declined. What correlation those two things have? And predictably, the first thing that everybody reaches for is police training. In my view, training is so misunderstood. You can have police officers sit in a classroom all day at the police academy and train them on a particular subject but if those skills are not repeatedly applied in the field they diminish over time. For example, take any skill like hitting a golf shot. A golfer hits thousands of shots on the practice range but if they did not repeatedly hit those practiced shots their “training” would diminish over time. Cops do not get to repeatedly apply their training in the field. Ask yourself how many deadly force situations arise during a typical tour of duty. Seldom.

 So, we then expect them to immediately dial up their training and apply it during situations that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving. We are talking about split second decisions. Most of an officer's decision to use deadly force is instinctive. There is rarely time for a discussion with the person. The training is usually in the controlled environment of a classroom. The director of the Police Executive Research Forum Chuck Wexler, says that police agencies are, “working off of outdated antiquated training and that until the training changes and until the culture with it changes, that number is going to be way too high”. But he didn’t say what number of police deadly use of force incidents would be acceptable. Neither did the so-called research expert who was interviewed.

 This inflammatory news story was a big swing and a miss to use a baseball analogy. In fact, it failed miserable in terms of giving the reader information with which they could objectively on their own come to conclusions about police use of force. The most important information that was left out was that they failed to indicate what the victims were doing at the time of the police encounter. Were they armed or were they in the middle of the commission of a crime? If also failed to indicate what threat they posed to police? Did they refuse police lawful commands, and did they resist the officer’s attempt to take them into custody? This is pertinent information when analyzing data. But for this agenda driven newspaper, the total number of 1,329 who died by police use of force sounds more dramatic. In 2022, 1,250 people died by police use of force. That means the increase actually amounted to 79 more than the previous year. That is not way outside the average. Indicating that number would not capture people’s imaginations enough to even bother reading the story. Breaking down this data further might show that most of these were ruled justifiable and only a handful of these incidents even warrant further scrutiny but then it would not be a headline above the fold USA Today story.

 Here, in my view is why the police use of force cannot be reduced by some artificial intervention. Police officers don’t determine when to use force in a vacuum. It is determined by the actions of the person they are confronting. We can apply all the trining we want to police but we need to try a different model because people are working on the wrong thing. How about training the public what to do in these situations? How about reminding the public that they have a duty, an obligation to comply with police lawful commands. We cannot just train one side and expect outcomes to be different. Stop trying to fix the police. Fix society.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

By: Joel E. Gordon

Mark Twain famously popularized the saying, “there are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” which is a phrase describing the persuasive power of statistics to bolster weak arguments. It is also sometimes used to doubt statistics used to prove an opponent's point.

It was over a decade ago that I was engaged in a conversation with a then University of Maryland college student over the validity of statistics. Based upon their studies and teachings the student insisted that quantitative statistics could simply be taken as absolute without any view toward methodology or the realization that statistics could be skewed with incomplete or inaccurate information. In effect garbage in, garbage out.

Deja Vu

When it comes to recent academic assertions that serious Part One crime in many categories based upon FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics is down over previous reports is this true? This is while in real time public perception is that serious crime is on the increase.

Is it lost on academia that the effect of police defunding results in less police to take reports of crime? That many have more recently given up on even calling the police due to a lack of confidence believing that appropriate actions or dispositions are unlikely?

This doesn’t even take into account political pressure to downgrade offenses for reporting purposes. Perhaps a burglary without known theft becomes a destruction of property due to point of entry damages?

Sometimes the opposite effect occurs due to interpretation of crime reporting criteria. Back in time, Baltimore City Police once categorized any assault involving a weapon to be reported as a Part One Aggravated Assault instead of a lesser Part Two Common (Simple) Assault. Of course, anything can be used as a weapon so in theory an unwanted touching by another with a piece of paper resulting in a small cut/laceration could be considered an Aggravated Assault? No wonder violent crime was considered to be escalated during a period of time in the 1980’s.

While quantitative and qualitative statistics have a place in analysis of crime, it is incumbent of all to realize that accuracy is not assured in reported interpretations or numbers. Even those with the best of intentions in the accuracy of reports for Uniform Crime Reporting data use are subject to inconsistencies or error.

For more detailed information on the nuances of determination of reported crime categories go to

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/offense-definitions

Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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

Depends On Whose Ox Is Being Gored

I sit in amazement as I read news stories about how crime rates are falling as if we should be thanking our lucky stars. First of all, I can’t think of a worse way to view crime than to do it through some static statistical lens. Second would be to use the pandemic as a marker or benchmark is wrongheaded. Nobody asks why crime rates are being separated by pre- and post-pandemic. Crime has steadily increased over the past decade, the pandemic notwithstanding. A better marker or benchmark would be pre- and post- War on Cops and the Defund Police movement. Another benchmark might be what was called by criminologists as, the Great Crime Decline of the 1990s. 

During the 1990s is when Broken Windows Policing along with order maintenance strategies was the crime prevention and control model adopted by police agencies all across America. The result was an unprecedented and historic low in crime and violence. Criminal prosecutors and judges got on board and started holding career criminals accountable for their unwanted and anti-social behavior. Citizens actually felt a difference. They were confident that government could actually be effective in making communities safer. Public spaces became livable again.

That all came to a crashing halt when a career criminal named Mike Brown attacked and tried to disarm a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer named Darren Wilson who was left with no other option than to use deadly force to save his own life. This local incident became a flashpoint that captured the nation’s attention. A sinister group masquerading as a civil rights movement was spawned. It was actually a Marxist movement called Black Lives Matter. Riots consumed major urban cities. The policing profession was in the crosshairs. In knee-jerk fashion, politicians and police executives ordered front line officers to “stand down” as rioters looted businesses and wide swaths of retail areas were burned to the ground. That sense of safety and security built up during the great crime decline of the nineties vanished. What was needed from these feckless police executives was courage and a backbone. What we got instead was a capitulation to the cop haters. That was the beginning of a surge in crime and violence to record levels, not the pandemic. 

I just made the case as to why using a January 1st to December 31st comparison or the COVID pandemic to fool people into thinking that crime and violence is dissipating are the wrong benchmarks. Any newspaper or mayor who is trying to convince you that crime incidents are falling is using a manipulation of statistics to fool you. The reality is that people are not safe, not in their homes, schools or other public places and they are justified in their thinking.

Being the end of the year, news stories are appearing that are saying that crime is falling. They are using FBI Uniform Crime statistics to do it. The problem with FBI UCR numbers is that they rely on self-reporting by police agencies. In other words, a burglary can be reported as a theft from dwelling, a strong-armed robbery could be reported as a theft from person. It also doesn’t account for people who haven’t reported a crime where they were the victim because they didn’t think police would investigate it properly or just file a report. My point is that these stats can be unreliable. The next and more important point is that using calendar years for calculating crime is meaningless. Agencies reset the counting every January 1st to zero as if the crime figures from the year before don’t matter or didn’t happen. They simply start at zero. It begs the question as to who came up with that and why? A more meaningful look at crime is to examine it from a continual calendar month to month. In other words, from January 2023 to January 2024, from February 2023 to February 2024 and so on. Then we would get a more accurate look at the trend over a continual period of time, not from zero. This is how businesses look at trends.

The other aspect of reporting that crime is down is that it may be comforting to those who have not been victimized, but it is not if your home was burglarized, or you were carjacked at gunpoint or worse if your friend or family member was sexually assaulted, shot or murdered. A reported drop in crime of 6% doesn’t mean anything to most people or insurance companies who have to cover the loss. Too many people are still being victimized by crime and their quality of life is being altered by it. My tolerance for incidents of crime is zero. No crime is insignificant to me.

Before any city mayor or police executive takes a victory lap for some minuscule drop in violent crime, keep in mind it was not the result of anything you did. De-policing is rampant. There are no pro-active strategies being deployed. How do I know? Police vacancies are at an all-time high. Delays in time responding to calls for service are increasing. This includes for 911 calls. There is no time dedicated to preventive patrols in high-crime areas as police are just trying to keep up going from radio call to radio call. It also causes people to not bother calling after being on hold for an excessive period of time.

Let’s be honest with the public. We are nowhere near getting back to where crime rates were during the crime declines of the nineties and I don’t know that we ever will. It is becoming baked into the pie and part of the urban landscape.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

STEM THE TIDE: Oppression, Oppressors and Prejudice

By: Joel E. Gordon

Oppression occurs when one group, known as the oppressors, systematically discriminates against another group, recognized as the oppressed. The dynamics of this relationship are complex and can manifest in various forms, including social, political, economic, and cultural oppression.

At the core of this dynamic is a power imbalance, where the oppressors seemingly hold the majority of power and resources, while the oppressed are marginalized and deprived of equal opportunities and rights.

When opinion deems Israel and Jews as oppressors the response begins to manifest itself as empowering those who side with or identify as the oppressed to become the oppressors via calls for restricting response to acts of terror and attempts to eradicate terrorists.

The same has been occurring with law enforcement. As certain groups have identified as being oppressed by law enforcement and government authority to maintain law and order, the powers that be have worked to restrict law enforcement response and authority over lawlessness and have become oppressors of law enforcement growth and efforts for the greater and common good.

Perhaps the ‘root cause’ of the oppressor/oppressed phenomenon is prejudice. In a world of identity politics where prejudice is often falsely accused or overstated in the pre-judgment of others beliefs or motives, prejudice or the belief of it, continues as a motivational force in ideology and action in large measure.

Prejudice, the deeply ingrained bias against individuals based on their race, gender, religion, level of authority, socioeconomic standing or other characteristics, has been a perennial scourge afflicting humanity. It runs deep within society, often manifesting in subtle yet influential ways.

The ramifications of prejudice reverberate across every aspect of society, seeping into educational institutions, workplaces, and even shaping public policies. Its corrosive nature not only stymies individual growth but also hampers the collective progress towards a more understanding and harmonious world.

Eradicating prejudice necessitates a concerted effort towards education and awareness. By fostering understanding and empathy, we can challenge ingrained biases and dismantle the foundations of prejudice. Embracing diverse perspectives and histories can pave the way for a more inclusive society. Attempts at indoctrination or erasing history and historical perspectives through the rewriting of history or removing historical markers thusly are counterproductive to learning from  both triumphs and past mistakes which otherwise facilitate moving forward with greater knowledge toward improvement with increasingly peaceful and harmonious relationships.

Celebrating diversity and recognizing the inherent worth of every individual serves as a potent antidote to prejudice. It is through acknowledging the richness of varied cultures, traditions, and experiences that we can break down the walls of intolerance and build bridges of unity.

Empathy and compassion form the bedrock of a prejudice-free society. By walking not only in our own shoes but in the shoes of others and extending understanding, we can unravel the complexities of bias and sow the seeds of a true and genuine connection.

Advocating for true justice can act as a beacon in the pursuit of eradicating prejudice. By dismantling systemic barriers and seeking greater fairness for all, we can lay the groundwork for a society where prejudice holds no dominion.

Eradicating prejudice requires a collective endeavor that demands unwavering commitment and a resolute spirit. Through education, empathy, and the pursuit of justice, we can forge a future where prejudice is but a distant memory, and unity and understanding reign supreme. Maybe we can stop the victimization mentality through a view less toward oppression and oppressors but rather simply humanity seeking our best lives through merit, understanding and encouragement for opportunity for all.

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

The War Rages On

The attacks by politically motivated prosecutors against police officers are showing no signs of abating.

What might appear to be a pause is only due to the fact that the news accounts of officers being criminally charged have lost their appeal at being reported as breaking news. These incidents have returned to their rightful place as local stories. No longer do waves of reporters from around the country descend on locations to do nonstop reporting of an officer or officers being criminally indicted.

They try to squeeze as much juice out of the orange as they can. They look under every sewer cover, inside every dumpster to find some cop-hating advocate to interview. A sobbing mother sitting next to ambulance-chasing attorney Benjamin Crump who parachutes into the city involved always makes for great TV. We have to listen to how the deceased was a good boy or girl who was just on the cusp of getting their life back together even though they were a career criminal involved in a criminal act that contributed to their demise. A photo of the crook as a smiling 5-year old, even though they are now an adult, is priceless. The more emotion and anger the media can stoke up the better.

Rioting that breaks out, including looting of businesses and arsons, are reported as “mainly peaceful protests”. Most of the people who have a camera and a microphone shoved in their face have no knowledge about the incident that led to the indictment, but who cares? Why not let these uninformed take a few whacks at the local police agency as if it is some sort of sport. Any source who witnessed the incident and might add balance to the media coverage is conveniently ignored.

One of the signature cases in the police use of force that led to criminal indictments occurred in Kentucky in 2020, where officers from the Louisville Police Department working on a narcotics trafficking case obtained a search warrant for an apartment. I find this case to have had its share of problems from the onset. The search warrant appears to have been faulty. There seemed to be a lack of proper supervision over the case which may have lent some objectivity and guidance about what officers were doing. I want to be fair, here. I did multiple TV and radio news interviews on this case at the time and pointed out that in a perfect world, the police could have performed better. But, I said, this is not a perfect world and policing is not an exact science. Next, let’s review a few of the facts.

Police approached the apartment and knocked and announced. They had approval, however, from the court for a no-knock entry. For non-police readers here, this is for the safety of the officers and to prevent the destruction of evidence, which often happens in these incidents. It gives officers an advantage of the element of surprise. It is also common for occupants of the residence to jump out of windows in order to escape, so police had the perimeter secured by officers outside. When officers breached the door, they were fired upon by Kenneth Walker, a known drug dealer. His shot struck one of the officers in the leg requiring surgery. Officers returned fire after being fired upon. Walker’s girlfriend, Breonna Taylor, whose name was on the apartment lease, was was killed by shots fired by officers after they were fired upon. She died as a result. An officer with outside perimeter containment, Brett Hankison, heard the shots and believed that his colleagues were being shot at and he fired shots into the apartment he believed the shots came from. In fact, he fired into an apartment that wasn’t involved but his shots struck no one. So, now let’s look at the aftermath.

There is a lot of conflicting information involved in this case. As a trained investigator and having investigated numerous police uses of deadly force as a member of the Milwaukee Police Department before I became sheriff, I can tell you that this conflicting information is normal. Everybody sees and interprets things according to their own experiences. Police officers are trained observers. Everyday citizens are not. So, the fact that these post incident statements by everybody who was there are in conflict should only be problematic for the prosecutor reviewing the case for a potential indictment and court trial. In the pre-Ferguson, Missouri days, most prosecutors realized that it would be difficult to obtain a conviction and objectively gave the benefit of the doubt to the officers finding the actions of officers using Supreme Court landmark decisions as a guide to be justifiable under the circumstances based on the reasonable officer doctrine. That was then, however, and this is now. Now these incidents are judged through the lens of 20/20 hindsight, politics and mob mentality.

A criminal indictment against the officer with outside containment responsibility was handed down in a Louisville state court against one officer. A jury acquitted the officer of wanton endangerment for firing into an apartment without knowing what he was firing at. Four officers were terminated after an internal investigation. This prosecution should have ended there. But it didn’t. Prosecutors weren’t looking for justice. They were looking for revenge against police. They were trying to appease an angry mob. It failed.

Now enter federal prosecutors, hell-bent on taking down someone for this unfortunate event as they took their case to a federal trial for prosecution against the lone officer who was acquitted in state court. Recall that this incident happened in 2020. It’s now late 2023. This federal prosecution was trying to have a do-over since state prosecutors were unsuccessful. This has turned from a prosecution to a persecution of police.

A federal jury returned last week unable to reach a verdict. The judge in the case had them go back several times to further deliberate after informing the judge several times they were “honestly and reasonably deadlocked.” The federal prosecutor tried shamelessly to get the judge to give the jury more information to help them find the officer guilty even though the judge ruled that the jury was not entitled to additional information. The jury remained deadlocked, and the the judge finally accepted that they were hopelessly deadlocked and declared a mistrial. You would think that the feds would let this go at this point. You would be wrong, as the prosecutor has vowed to move forward with another attempt to prosecute, or should I say persecute the officer.

As the news magazine Reason pointed out in a column on this case and deadlocked jury decision, the Constitution says the prosecution should have stopped after the state acquittal and even more so after this deadlocked jury decision in federal court. It further points out that it is correct to believe that officers should not be above the law, but that the law also should not be above them either.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

Mass Shooters & Mental Illness: Unraveling the Complex Connection

By: Joel E. Gordon

Mass shootings continue to shake community’s worldwide, leaving devastation and questions in their wake. As society grapples with understanding these heinous acts, one common question arises: is there a link between mass shooters and mental illness? In this article, we delve into this complex topic, examining the intertwining factors and shedding light on the reality behind the headlines.

Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of individuals with mental illnesses are not violent. In fact, studies consistently show that those battling mental health issues are more likely to be victims of violence rather than perpetrators. It is crucial to dispel the myth that mental illness directly leads to acts of mass shootings, as it perpetuates stigma and hampers our ability to address the true root causes.

While mental illness alone does not predict violent behavior, it is essential to recognize that certain risk factors can increase the likelihood of someone with mental health challenges engaging in violence. These risk factors may include:

1. Untreated or undertreated mental illness: Lack of access to or compliance with appropriate mental health treatment can exacerbate symptoms and increase the risk of dangerous behavior.

2. Substance abuse: When substance abuse co-occurs with mental illness, the risk of violence may escalate due to impaired judgment, altered perception, and increased impulsivity.

3. Previous violent behavior: History of violence, regardless of mental health status, is a significant predictor of future aggression.

4. Social isolation and marginalization: Feeling excluded, lonely, or marginalized can fuel anger and resentment, potentially leading to violent acts as a means of revenge or attention-seeking.

While it is critical to acknowledge the role of mental health in the broader context of mass shootings, it is equally important not to overlook the societal factors that contribute to such acts. These factors include:

1. Access to firearms: Easy access to firearms can significantly escalate the risk of violence. Responsible gun ownership is vital.

2. Media influence: Desperate for attention and infamy, some mass shooters seek to make headlines. Sensationalized media coverage can inadvertently contribute to copycat incidents.

3. Social contagion: Mass shootings can trigger a contagious effect, inspiring others to commit similar acts. This contagion factor is amplified through the rapid spread of information via social media and online platforms.

To effectively address the issue of mass shootings, a comprehensive approach is crucial. This approach should encompass:

1. Improved mental health services: Enhancing access to affordable and quality mental health services can ensure individuals receive appropriate treatment, reducing the risk of violence.

2. Early identification and intervention: Recognizing warning signs and providing timely intervention can make a significant difference in diverting potentially violent individuals towards appropriate support systems.

3. Promotion of social connectedness: Creating inclusive communities that foster social connections and support networks can alleviate social isolation and reduce the risk of violent behavior.

4. Responsible control measures: Implementing control policies that lawfully balance individual rights with public safety are also in need of further exploration.

My own experience as a law enforcement official has been that when I encountered an individual who clearly seemed to be a danger to themselves or others and showed a propensity toward violence, mental health practitioners routinely requested criminalization through a request for legal charges of a criminal nature, or when forced to perform in-person evaluation, would often release the individual untreated.

While the connection between mass shooters and mental illness is complex, it is essential to dispel misconceptions and approach the issue from a holistic perspective. By focusing on early intervention, better and more responsive mental health support, and addressing societal factors, we can work towards a safer future minimizing the risk of violence and protecting our communities. Remember, combating the stigma associated with mental illness while addressing the multifaceted nature of mass shootings is crucial for progress.

 Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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

Uniform Standards in Police Use of Force?

By: Joel E. Gordon

Law enforcement agencies play a crucial role in maintaining law and order within society. The use of force is an inevitable aspect of their job, intended to protect citizens and maintain public safety. However, it is essential to strike a balance between maintaining order and respecting individual rights. In this article, I explore the importance of police use of force, its impact on public perception, and the measures taken to ensure accountability.

Police use of force refers to the amount of physical coercion necessary to compel compliance or overcome resistance during the enforcement of laws. This force may range from verbal commands to the application of physical restraint or even the use of firearms in extreme cases.

The primary objective of police use of force is to maintain public safety. Law enforcement officers are tasked with protecting citizens and preventing criminal activities. By utilizing force in appropriate situations, they deter potential offenders, ensuring the safety and well-being of the community.

While the use of force is a necessary tool for police officers, it must be exercised responsibly and within legal boundaries. Ensuring accountability is crucial to maintain public trust and prevent abuses of power. Of interesting note… The US Secret Service recently opened fire on three suspects who had broken out a window in the unoccupied vehicle being utilized by a granddaughter of President Joe Biden in an alleged attempted vehicle theft. What would happen if local police agencies used deadly force under similar circumstances? Different standards? Food for thought.

Law enforcement agencies across the United States have implemented comprehensive training programs to equip officers with the necessary skills to assess and respond to various situations. These programs focus on de-escalation techniques, conflict resolution, and non-lethal force alternatives. By providing officers with the tools to handle difficult situations effectively, the likelihood of excessive or unnecessary force decreases. Does this not apply to Federal law enforcement agencies and operations?

Advancements in technology have played a vital role in holding law enforcement accountable. Body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras provide objective evidence of encounters between police officers and civilians, shedding light on the events that transpire during incidents involving the use of force. This transparency helps to address any potential misconduct and facilitates fair investigations.

Effective police use of force is not only about maintaining public safety but also fostering trust and positive relationships with the community. When citizens perceive police officers as fair and just in their use of force, it promotes a sense of security and encourages cooperation.

Law enforcement agencies actively engage with communities to address concerns and listen to feedback. Open dialogue between police and citizens helps build mutual understanding and ensures that the use of force is viewed as a last resort rather than a default action.

Maintaining public safety is a fundamental responsibility of law enforcement agencies, and police use of force is a necessary tool to achieve this objective. However, it is crucial to ensure accountability, transparency, and public trust. By implementing effective training programs, embracing technology, and fostering positive relationships with communities, law enforcement agencies can strike the right balance between maintaining order and upholding individual rights. This approach fosters a safer and more harmonious society for all at every level of enforcement.

SCOOP AND RUN… Yay or Nay?

By: Joel E. Gordon

I am still reminded on any given day of dampness the time that I fell through the floor of a vacant partially gutted home in west Baltimore on a call looking for heroin addicts trespassing and shooting up. Realizing that my knee wasn’t right upon landing in the dwelling’s basement, I immediately got on the radio to report that no trespassers were found and to also report my injury. My mentor (and often my guardian angel in my rookie policing days) Officer Dwight Thomas radioed that I should stay immobilized. He was quickly on-scene canceling any EMS and taking me to the closest hospital in his patrol car after securing the vehicle I had been operating.

In 1980s Baltimore, we really had no formal policy on whether or when police should transport an injured person directly to a hospital or wait for EMS personnel for ambulance transport. In critiquing our performance in the line of duty shooting resulting in the death of another mentor of mine, Officer Ronald Tracey, it was noted that supervisors made the correct call when instructing officers on-scene to transport the wounded officer by police vehicle and to not wait for additional EMS response time. Regrettably, in this case it was to no avail due to the severity of the injury.

The practice of police medical transport in places such as Philadelphia is known as “scoop and run” or “scoop and go”. In a past 12-month period, Philadelphia police drove 408 gunshot victims to trauma centers, according to the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation, the state’s accrediting agency for trauma centers. In cases of profuse blood loss there have been documented cases where this practice has proven to be a life saver.

Several other police departments have policies permitting their officers to conduct transports including Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit, but none reported transporting victims on a regular basis. Police departments have cited other reasons for not regularly practicing scoop and run, arguing that EMS units are better trained to handle severely injured patients. The New Orleans Police Department says its first priority is to secure the scene, hard to do if they’re speeding to the hospital. Instead of being tended to by trained EMTs and paramedics with a range of medical supplies and equipment, patients are quickly loaded into the back of a police car, where they may not even receive direct pressure to their wounds, not to mention a buckled seat belt. Then, despite good Samaritan laws, there is the risk of accusations of wrongdoing which could result in civil lawsuits or even criminal culpability in this day and age of police vilification.

Studies on the issue, though, have led some clinicians to interpret findings to mean police transport is safe for patients, and in some cases advantageous. One study included a subset of people severely injured by gunshots. Compared to those transported by EMS, patients transported by police had higher rates of surviving their wounds. According to some trauma doctors, the lack of medical intervention that victims receive during the typical scoop and run is part of what makes the practice beneficial. Advanced procedures like breathing tubes and IV fluids, while helpful for certain kinds of patients, may actually do more harm than good for shooting and stabbing victims in urban areas.

“I’d love to debunk the myth that you need a person on the scene who has all this advanced medical training and that is going to make the difference for this specific kind of injury,” Elliott Haut, a Johns Hopkins trauma surgeon has been quoted as saying. For a presentation he gives at conferences, he shows an image that asks, “What’s the best fluid to give victims of penetrating trauma?” Then he clicks to the next image, which reads “fuel.”, “Yes, you’re going to get less medical care on the street and in the back of the car, but I’m OK with that because the shorter time is going to make a difference.”

Perhaps a Cleveland Police directive which gives officers the option to transport a victim after assessing “the totality of the circumstances” to include nature of injury, location of incident in proximity to a hospital, proximity of EMS is the right approach to the scoop and run question.

If the goal is to save a life based upon the best information that an officer has available at any given time, it would seem that officer discretion would be the most logical universal answer to victim care.

While not always ending in the desired result to save a life, as long as we act in good faith while doing our best to provide optimal service to our communities, can we really go wrong?

Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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

Mr. Criminal Goes to Washington

Many of you can remember the 1939 classic movie titled “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” For a refresher, it was a story about a naïve man who is appointed to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat. He enters a Washington, D.C. that is filled with corruption. All the elected people in Congress have been compromised unbeknownst to Smith as he tries to make a difference and clean things up.

I use this backdrop because Washington D.C. remains the same place today that was depicted in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” In Washington, they are narcissists, oblivious to the world of pain and suffering around them. The political class is totally disconnected from the world, or in this case the country around them. They live in a bubble, a cocoon while insensitive to the plight of Americans living way out there dealing with real-life issues that need attention, things like inflation, rising food costs and rising fuel costs. Rent costs are rising, as is household debt. Rising interest rates have put owning a home out of reach. And then there is another crisis that people are experiencing that the political class in Washington has been insulated from, at least until now.

Crime, violence and disorder have ravaged cities all across America, as the D.C. elites live in area full of security and police and described in news stories as swanky neighborhoods. They haven’t had to live with the murder, assaults and armed robberies that go on unabated in every large urban city in America including neighborhoods surrounding the federal district. The neighborhoods surrounding the federal district have always been crime-ridden, but it was contained therein because elites live in neighborhoods that had been immune from real life outside the federal district. They got away with simply expressing faux concern and virtue signaled in front of television cameras when it happened to somebody else, but in truth they didn’t really care. But their arrogant indifference and attitude that those things happen over there, and not here, has caught up with them.

Several recent crime incidents have grabbed headlines. Now, we have the attention of D.C. media and of the political elite. It has been noted that carjackings in D.C. have smashed the total number that occurred in 2022, and that was a record year. Last year there were 360 carjackings in Washington, D.C. So far this year, there have been 757 incidents. Keep in mind that we are only in October so the total will undoubtedly continue to rise. More notably, several members of Congress have been victimized. Democrat U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar was recently carjacked outside his Navy Yard neighborhood apartment. Reports indicate that three young, masked males with guns drawn demanded his car along with his phone and luggage. Cuellar went on TV and said that Washington is about two or three times more dangerous than at the border in his district in Laredo, Texas- “and we certainly see it now.” Really? He only certainly sees it now? He even found some humor in recounting the incident by saying that he was more disappointed in losing his sushi that was in the car. This is a perfect example on how oblivious these elites in Washington feel and how disconnected they are from what everyday Americans have been dealing with for the last five or ten years of rising rates of crime, violence and disorder. But as long as crime doesn’t visit D.C. politicians, they whistle past the graveyard. I spent a 40-year career dealing with crime victims. I never saw a victim of a crime of violence joke about it later. Cuellar should get out of the bubble of Washington and visit some crime victim care centers or hospitals where victims of violence are being treated.

There is more indication that we see these elitists getting a dose of reality. Another news story was written that talked about how some D.C. lawmakers are so fearful about crime in the District that they are hunkering down and sleeping in their offices at the Capitol because it has become “very dangerous” after dark. This same U.S. Rep. said, “I don’t want to walk back and forth from an apartment in D.C. at night or in the early morning to get to work. It’s not a safe environment.” Oh really? I have to ask where the everyday citizen goes for respite from the dangers of the streets in their neighborhood that happen in broad daylight? They can’t hunker down in a taxpayer-funded office. The same congressman said that “It’s insane to even own a car in D.C. because it is likely to get broken into and you are likely to get carjacked.” Is this guy just now figuring out what life for the rest of the country is like? Yet another lawmaker said in response to the crime surge that, “Any reasonable person would be afraid of the increase in crime and the danger of being in the capital.” Wait a minute. Is it only important to do something about it because it is happening to them? I want to make something very clear. I don’t wish that crime and violence happen to anybody, but if it has to happen, I can’t think of more worthy people to be victimized than members of the elitist political class, many of them Democrats, who either voiced support for the cop haters after Ferguson, Missouri or after George Floyd that started the movement for defunding police, and if they didn’t say so publicly, their silence in the face of this war on police spoke volumns.

Yes, indeed, Mr. Criminal has gone to the Federal District in Washington. The only difference is that Mr. Criminal is not some naïve guy who doesn’t know what he is up against. Mr. Criminal isn’t there to make things better. He is taking advantage of the naïveté of the political elites. He is there to perpetrate misery and suffering. What political elitists don’t understand is that crime rates are like water. They seeks their own level. You can only put up so many sandbags or walls to protect or insulate yourself from a flood of crime and violence. If it doesn’t stop raining criminals, eventually they will find their way into, over and around any protective barriers.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

PASSING THE TORCH

By: Joel E. Gordon

The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Abraham Lincoln

When my youngest son turned 21 and began to drive for our local ambulance service, already having volunteered with our local volunteer fire company for three years by then, I found myself reminiscing about my own calling in choosing law enforcement over a career in fire or EMS and thinking in greater detail about our future generation’s choices for their own career paths.

Way back when I was a single rookie cop and I remember some veteran officers saying if you’re looking for a date, tell any prospective companions that you’re a paramedic, or better yet firefighter, but don’t admit that you’re police. “People have more respect for firefighters” they would say. (Fortunately, I found a special lady who loves her law enforcement officer along with her EMT son).

I have seen many words used to describe these honorable professions in public safety such as: loyal, brave, trustworthy, courageous, strong, honored, dedicated, rescuer, heroes, fearless, warriors, guardians and protectors to name some, which describe all three areas of emergency responders being law enforcement/fire/EMS. The words smoke and fire really belong solely to the fire service however.

My son Evan, as a firefighter, has already experienced the heat, smoke and flames of a burning structure on multiple occasions. I always thought that he would follow in my footsteps as a law enforcement officer, but it may turn out that he will follow more in his mom’s former path. Sharon was an ambulance driver herself many years ago. While my son was still evaluating fulfilling a desire to become a West Virginia State Trooper, continued and seemingly unrelenting vilification of our police has given him some pause and reevaluation. Either way, the calling to public service runs in our family and is clearly in his blood.

In my case, in a different time and era, I had no doubt that I preferred a career in law enforcement. I had that belief reinforced on a cold winter dayshift. While on patrol, I was frantically waved down by a woman along the road. “Help me, help me” she said. “My grandchildren are in the house and it’s on fire”!

I immediately called out at the location and was quickly met by another officer as I grabbed my hat. We quickly entered a burning row house whose kitchen was ablaze. Immediately, although attempting to use my hat as a filter, I began to get choked back by the heavy smoke. We were of the belief that the children were on the second floor and we made it about halfway up the stairs until the heat and smoke became too overwhelming. As we turned to head back toward the exit I felt something strike me in my chest. Exiting the front door hacking and coughing from smoke inhalation I saw a small kitten jump off of my chest area from my winter uniform coat. It turned out that the grandchildren weren’t in the house after all but around the corner at a friend’s house.

The fire department was quickly on scene extinguishing the fire, returning me to service after having at least saved the kitten. To this day I am hopeful that I will never again be in a burning building.

Other more numerous incidents involving medical emergencies from assaults, gunshot wounds, stabbings, accidents and natural causes of which I found myself to be the first responder on-scene left no doubt in my mind that fire and EMS services were best left to others. I was always glad when an ambulance arrived to take over any medical emergency. I have seen amazing lifesaving procedures performed in the back of ambulances by dedicated EMT’s and paramedics.

I know that many law enforcement families besides mine also have future generations wanting to answer the call of others in need of help. It is my hope and prayer that each makes the best decisions for their own career paths and that success and safety follow them in all of the days of their lives as we pass the torch of public service.

We all must strive to make a positive difference in ways that we think we have the most to offer. In my own son’s case, he has become an emergency medical technician, swift water rescue, HAZMAT, and rope rescue certified firefighter, and has recently been employed by Monongalia County EMS in the home county of West Virginia University.

I do have one suggestion to those now beginning their own public service career paths: Keep a daily journal of your experiences and thoughts. Someday you’ll be glad that you did. You may even write your own memoir as you look back upon the career you created some day.

Kudos go out to all our deserving and brave firefighters, EMTs, police officers, sheriff’s deputies, dispatchers and paramedics. We have great respect, love, concern and admiration for all of you.

Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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

Are People Finally Coming to Their Senses?

Several news stories that came out during the Labor Day holiday caught my attention. Several school districts are asking for a return to cops in schools as resource officers after they kicked them out in an overreaction to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. That incident had absolutely nothing to do with schools or resource officers. Now Minnesota schools have a different problem.

The Minnesota state legislature is being forced back into session after numerous police agencies pulled their officers from schools one week before classes begin. The reason for the decision comes after a new state law that limits physical restraints that can be used on students. Officers now are prohibited from using any type of restraint that impacts on a violent student's ability to breathe, including holds that put a student face down on the ground. One legislator said, “and we want to make sure they are being handled in a way that respects the fact that they are young, they’re children.” Let me stop there. First of all, we are not talking about “children”. For the most part we are talking about students in their teens. And second, there is this: What about the fact that these students have no respect for the fact that their behavior is disrupting the other students who are being denied learning time and that it might endanger other students in the immediate area? And what about injury to the officer trying to get the miscreant under control?

This creates a dilemma for responding officers. Any officer who has had to restrain somebody resisting arrest knows how difficult this can be and that you cannot predict the actions of the person they are trying to get under control. Officers have to be able to use all reasonable force under the circumstances to effect an arrest. The U.S. Supreme Court says so. Trying in the moment to decide how much and what kind of physical force to use cannot be based on some sterile how-to instruction sheet. Not to mention that this subjects officers to legal peril for not doing enough and sooner to gain control of a situation if other students or teachers are injured as a result. The legislature is still trying to resolve the concerns of this expanded policy with law enforcement executives. Too bad they didn’t have the foresight of getting law enforcement trainers involved when they were crafting this policy. This could have been avoided. Then again, this is what happens when politicians involve themselves in a science they know nothing about.

Next, let’s turn to a situation plaguing law enforcement for the last at least five years: the inability of agencies to fill vacancies. The exodus of officers taking early retirement or flat-out leaving the profession due to a number of reasons including defunding, lack of respect for the police, no support from the political class or law enforcement executives is exceeding the ability to hire replacements. Larger urban agencies are having a harder time with this than are smaller agencies that hire one officer at a time and can lure them from larger agencies by offering better pay and benefits. Hiring a cop is a lot more complex than hiring someone to work at Amazon, for instance. If agencies start lowering their hiring standards, they will pay for that down the road. History has shown that to be the case. California and Illinois have recently passed legislation to allow illegal aliens to apply for law enforcement positions. What the hell are they thinking about? How in the heck are they going to do a thorough background check? There is no way that they are going to be able to research this applicant's history. Many South and Central American countries do not have the record-keeping systems that we have on people. In fact, we are not going to be sure that the applicant is who they say they are, especially if they use an alias to apply.

That leads me to the situation with the Austin, Texas, police department. They are the latest to be hit with the vacancy dilemma. This was a city whose political class caved to the defund police advocates. The Austin Police Department had its budget cut by $150 million in 2020. The city council engaged in the left’s social engineering experiment of reimagining policing. Combine that with an overzealous political activist prosecutor who has indicted 20, yes 20 Austin police officers since 2020 and you can guess what the result has been: a mass stampede of officers leaving the department. And the hiring has not kept up, resulting in a vacancy gap. Since 2017, they have lost 800 officers. A crime surge has predictably followed, with car thefts up 77%, murders up 30% and aggravated assaults up 18% since the budget cuts in 2020. Wow, I never could have guessed that. You can plug and play any large urban area into this situation. Most are dealing with the same garbage, yet many political officials continue down the same path and make the same mindless decisions.

Austin police have been forced to pull detectives off of cases to answer 911 calls, meaning serious crimes go unsolved leaving perpetrators on the street to continue wreaking havoc. City residents and businesses are experiencing longer response times for serious calls for service. One business owner said he had to wait 10 days for police to respond to take a report for a non-emergency incident. The store owner said, “This isn’t working. You take away the police force and then ask us not to have weapons or anything in our stores to protect ourselves.” My attitude as a former sheriff was to remind citizens that they are the first line of defense in their own safety. I reminded them that they have a duty to protect themselves and that calling 911 may not always be their best option.

Law-abiding people have had it with this crap. More are taking matters into their own hands. Good for them. There is a growing sense of resignation in people’s confidence that government is adequately doing what is their most important responsibility, that being the personal safety of citizens.

It is going to take a long time to reverse this damage done to public safety. My message to law-abiding citizens is that you are being abandoned by your government when it comes to law and order. Their message through inaction is that you are on your own. I won’t tell you what to do, but I know I am prepared to protect myself. I have a sign in the front window of my home that depicts a handgun and a Rottweiler, and it reads: We don’t dial 911.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is the former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s 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

My Take: TRY THAT IN A SMALL TOWN

By: Joel E. Gordon

Baltimore City MD - Population (est.) 585,462 Crofton MD - Population (est.) 27,348 Kingwood WV - Population (est.) 3,116

Masontown WV - Population 535 Whether policing a small-town West Virginia county seat, a Washington, D.C. suburb or a police post in the city of Baltimore, and whether located in an affluent area or one on the other end of the socioeconomic scale, my primary area of responsibility or home base was always my own "small town." Why would that be? Because the relationships in a small-town atmosphere are conducive to public safety. Knowledge of an area facilitates a low-crime, respectful atmosphere reminiscent of days gone by. Think Mayberry.

Getting to know the people in your primary area of responsibility, be they residents, business owners, troublemakers (or all three – lol) allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of any area and provides investigative resources which otherwise might not be available. Earned trust and belonging is really what it’s all about.

When listening to the hit Jason Aldean song Try that in a small town, I fail to correlate the lyrics or music video images to a racial reference but rather why small-town mentality and atmosphere lends itself to a greater sense of peace, tranquility and overall safety.

Progressivism or other political ideologies become much less of a factor when we reduce our needs to be explained in the simple terms of the father of modern psychology, Abraham Maslow: >Affection: we care and are cared about. >Belonging: common goals such as peace and safety as a group endeavor. >Recognition: acknowledgment of our achievements along with any deficits needing improvement. We are all alike in our needs. It is a simple but effective way to understand the human equation.

Familiarity with others within the small-town atmosphere lends itself to greater accountability for one’s actions. As a Drug Abuse Resistance Education instructor, one of the lessons I taught was one of rights versus responsibility. For example, if you have the right to be heard (you do) then you have a responsibility to listen to others (you should). This was a simple lesson for my fifth- and sixth-grade students to grasp and understand so it should be easy for all to live by, but somehow seems diminished in the age of cancel culture. When dealing with others on a respectful basic humanistic level, priorities become more clearly aligned with universally desired results.

Merit, fairness, kindness, apathy and togetherness are among the many positive traits of small-town life. For me, life in my adopted home town of Masontown, West Virginia, provides the quality of life sought by myself and apparently many others looking for a better way of life for themselves and their families. Preston County (population 34,426) is home to Masontown, located in North Central West Virginia, which is listed among the fastest-growing counties in the state. I have resided in Preston County since 1992 and am glad that I had the foresight to do so.

Perhaps my perspective is a result from being born and raised in the City of Baltimore and then working and residing in a variety of atmospheres during my lifetime and career in law enforcement. But my belief that a small-town mindset is best for quality of life remains steadfast. As someone wishing to be heard, I am open to listening to the view of others, but to my way of thinking, Try that in a small town was written to heighten awareness of quality of life in any locale with small-town beliefs and respect for the rights of other law-abiding inhabitants.

Joel E. Gordon, Managing Editor of BLUE Magazine, 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