Anti-Cop Tension

ANTI-COP TENSION

Ronald J. Pawley

June 8, 2021

Months of protesters pushing to “defund the police,” and politicians bending over backward to appease them, have taken a toll on America’s Finest.

Since protests began in late May after the death of George Floyd, over a dozen chiefs and record numbers of officers have retired or resigned in cities all over the country.

Here in the city, more than 2,000 members of the NYPD put in their retirement paperwork these last seven months, an 87 percent jump over the same period last year.

Police-community relations in New York and other American cities will continue to be a cautionary issue marked with tension and danger while the contentious rhetoric persists.

A protest movement identified as Black Lives Matter convulsed the country beginning in late summer, 2014, according to some research.  It was triggered by the fatal police shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.

This movement declared that blacks are still oppressed by a pattern of racism, particularly from law enforcement. The police allegedly subjected blacks to large numbers of stops and arrests – some resulting in the use of lethal force against black men, according to the activists, the media and political leaders and politicians.

The law enforcement indictment and animosity against police happened in the absence of any factual data taking place regarding police misconduct. Why the police focus on certain neighborhoods is simply because high-crime areas need special attention, according to analyst.

Anti-police arguments have pervaded the media in recent years, particularly in the liberal media and newspapers. This bias threatens to reverse the progress in police-community relationships that have been made.

to follow procedure rather than evidence of systemic racism.

Law enforcement officers have a duty to protect the community they serve, its citizens and their property. The law gives police certain powers to help them perform that duty.

Police have the authority to approach people and ask them questions. If you are approached and questioned by a police officer doesn’t mean that you are suspect of committing a crime. Citizens should cooperate with the police, and the police rely on law-abiding citizens to do so. But you are not required to incriminate yourself.