POSSIBLE CONCERNS WITHIN MANY AMERICAN POLICE DEPARTMENTS

…St. Louis Rams Protestors

Some local police officers don’t seem to realize that all US citizens have the freedom of speech and a right to public demonstrations.

I was personally very pleased when I first saw the small group of St. Louis Rams players enter their playing field while displaying the Michael Brown "hands up don't shoot” protest position.  I felt the same way when I saw the video replay of the Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver, Andrew Hawkins, taking the field in a shirt reading "Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford III”.  Both of these young unarmed individuals had been shot and killed by the police while holding toy guns.  As with these individual’s protests, I think that regardless of supporting any guilt or innocence, all of these cases should have been allowed to go to fair trials.

But I was then shaking my head in disbelief when I read that the St. Louis Police Officers Association had released a statement condemning these same St. Louis Rams football players and saying that they should apologize to the St Louis Police.  That bazaar statement was then followed by the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolman Union, officer Jeff Follmer, as he was not asking, but demanding, an apology from the Cleveland Browns for Hawkins' action of wearing the protest shirt before their Sunday game.

 

…Andrew Hawkins, Cleveland Brown’s wide-receiver, wearing the protest shirt prior to an Sunday NFL game

One would think that in a country where everyone has a constitutional right to free speech and the right to speak or display their opinion, as long as it doesn’t harm another individual, at least one would hope that all police departments, and their officers, should recognize those basic American freedoms.

Over the past weeks, I was obviously very disappointed when I watched how the Ferguson police reacted to their local demonstrations after the killing of the unarmed Michael Brown.  I felt the same as I watched the videos of what had occurred with the irresponsible death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, and of the shooting and killing of the 12 year old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.

However, even with all of this, it was another event that has caused me to seriously ask about the attitude and the abilities of some of the individuals that are supervising those that “serve and protect” the American public.  In this situation, it involves questions about a current commander of the NYPD.

The case in point; the New York City Police Department’s commanding officer, Edward Winski, had recently decided it was important for the moral of his officers, to post something inspirational on the police Twitter account for their police “Motivational Monday” event.

Now that sounds like a good idea coming from a high-level individual in the NYPD.

Therefore, Commander Winski decided to post a famous quote made by the actor, Jack Nicholson, as he played the Army Colonel, Nathan Jessup, in the highly acclaimed 1992 movie, A Few Good Men. 

Now, anyone that has seen this movie should remember the very famous scene at the end where the JAG officer, played by Tom Cruise, cross-examined the Colonel on the witness stand and asked him to tell the truth.  The Tom Cruise character asked the Colonel: “Tell the truth, did you order the two soldiers to give another soldier the “Code Red” treatment that killed the soldier?”

The following is the now famous statement, made to the JAG officer, by Mr. Nicholson playing the role of Colonel Jessup:

Nicholson: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what truth you think you are entitled to.

Mind you, if you did not see the movie, this long quote is given by Col. Jessup just seconds before the movie Colonel does admit that yes, he did the unthinkable, and did order the "Code Red" which killed the young soldier.

Apparently, the NYPD Commander Winski had either not seen the movie, or he had totally forgotten that this statement by the Nicholson character was just prior to admitting that he had ordered the deadly “Code Red”.  In any case, this police commander had not checked out or confirmed the circumstances of the statement and he went ahead and posted the Tweet.

Some of his officers must have immediately recognized the mistake and gotten back to the Commander about it being inappropriate.  The Tweet was quickly deleted.  But as we all know, once an internet item has been posted, you can never really get it back.

However to me, if these are normal actions by the people at the top of the food-chain in our large metropolitan police departments, we need to ask ourselves if we have the right people supervising the “City’s Finest” for “serving and protecting” the American public?

This is not appropriate in the current climate of all the latest protests against police killings in many major cities across America. That a commanding police officer chose this type of quote as motivation for his officers, and then posted it to the verified Twitter account of the NYPD precincts, that was out-of-line, tone deaf and actually quite shocking. 

Why did the commander choose this particular questionable quote from this fictional military figure?  Just what was the motivation he trying to give to his officers? 

Was the commander trying to motivate his officers saying that our citizens needed police officers to perform civilian “Code Reds” on their city’s criminal suspects and peaceful protestors?  Just why was that scene from that movie chosen by this commander?  We will never really know for sure.

The real question is, is this is how the leaders of today’s large city police precincts really feel about performing their jobs?  If so, it may reveal a small portion of what possibly needs serious attention within many of our American city’s large police organizations.

Copyright G.Ater  2014