I had a rather epic rant begun about the law enforcement (lack of) response to the Texas shooting last week.
But. I just can't.
Too many people are talking, and the obvious is plain to see.
It feels as if the past 25 years of lessons we've learned, taught, and tried to change the mindset on have been completely wasted.
Men and women who swore to serve and protect abandoned their duty and chose cowardice.
Decades of promoting risk-adverse leadership and preaching officer safety as the supreme mantra above all else have resulted in a fundamental failure of the profession, yet again.
All I can do now is pray for the victims and their families, and hope that maybe this will lead to a soul-searching among those still wearing the badge nationwide.
5 comments:
Everyone goes home.
Except the children. They just get dead.
Thank you, Phelps, for pointing that out. "I go home at the end of my shift". It sums up the most irksome and flippant throw away phrase in all of police philosophy- that the cop's life counts for more, much more, than a victim's. While we are at it, it's past due time to junk the concept of "Qualified Immunity" , both for actions taken, and actions NOT taken.
I'm not an absolutist against QA, but it needs to actually be voted on by legislatures and limited by them. I'm not in any way in favor of judges making up laws on their own.
At the end of the day, however, you have immunity for things you do, not for things you fail to do.
CERTAIN public servants are granted by failures to prosecute for failures to act a de-facto immunity. They should not be allowed to slide by because the did nothing wrong. The point is, they DID do something wrong, BY doing nothing. Letting wounded school kids bleed out because you were "following orders"? How did the "following orders" line play at Nuremberg?
Yes, prayers for the families. Can't do much else at this time, regardless of what we feel.
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