UNDER ATTACK: Here, There and Everywhere

UNDER ATTACK: Here, There and Everywhere
By: Joel E. Gordon

Who among us wouldn’t rather stand our ground than be put in the ground?

With a career as a police officer and past chief of police, back in my day, top of mind awareness was given to officer safety. The goal was to police to the best of our ability, and as the old Baltimore Police saying goes, get to “go home to eat your spaghetti.”

During training it was drilled into us that we did no one any good if we didn’t arrive on scene safely and remain in condition to respond appropriately to assignments and encounters. I realize that times have changed but I vividly remember being taught in the police academy, to great relief, that “police don’t fight fair; police fight to win.” We then went on to learn defense tactics to use when encountering resistance in making lawful arrests.

While I no longer get to view the world from the front seat of a patrol car (witnessing first-hand what is truly the greatest show on earth) I now consider myself to be a ‘news junkie’ to gain valuable insights into the world around us.

Everywhere I look, I see increased reports of assaults on police, injury to officers and of criminal offenders resisting arrest. Not only in large heavily populated metropolitan areas that have a long history of political neglect and extraordinarily high crime rates, but in areas such as my largely rural home county in what has frequently been described as ‘Almost Heaven” in north central West Virginia. I only need to read my local newspaper to see more frequent incidents of police being injured by those resisting lawful arrest or simply attacking the authority given to our protectors. Is “Almost Heaven” being turned into nearly Hell for some of our first responders?

The FBI's Chris Wray finally noticed that law enforcement is under attack. The FBI director pointed to the 59% increase in the number of police officers murdered last year as one of the under-covered stories of the year. “Some of it is tied to the violent crime problem as a whole. But one of the phenomena that we saw in the last year is that an alarming percentage of the 73 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty last year were killed through things like being ambushed – or shot while out on patrol,” Wray said. “They were killed because they were police officers,” he added. “Wearing the badge shouldn’t make you a target.”

Where is the leadership among sheriffs, police chiefs and prosecutors in denouncing this increased level of threat to law enforcement? Please hear me out. I hereby propose that all in law enforcement leadership roles immediately, jointly and unequivocally make public statements that anyone causing physical harm to fire, EMS or law enforcement personnel while lawfully fulfilling their duties and commitment to public service will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Then magistrates and judges must do their part in imposing stiff penalties upon those convicted.

Perhaps, too, it would be helpful if new laws were enacted mandating a death sentence for anyone convicted of murder of any first responder acting within the course of their duties.

Anything less than a zero-tolerance policy against harm to our first responders is unacceptable and we must remain unified in maintaining an orderly approach to the preservation of safety, law and order. It is imperative that everyone gets to go home to eat their spaghetti.

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