Where are all the witnesses now? Two police officers were standing in front of the Ferguson PD, doing their job, maintaining order during the latest community protest. Out of nowhere, shots rang out from the vicinity of the crowd, striking two officers. One was shot just below his right eye, the bullet lodging behind his right ear. The second was shot in the right shoulder, exiting his back on the right side. By sheer luck or God’s grace they were not killed. Make no mistake that murder was the shooter’s intent. Give credit to the professionalism of the remaining officers that not a shot was fired in return.
But here we are, more than twenty-four hours later and I want to know two things: Where are all the witnesses? Do not tell me nobody saw anything. I’ve heard that tired BS for twenty-five years. Every cop in this country is sick of that excuse. Cops work crime scenes 24/7 where crowds of hundreds all profess ignorance. Except, it seems, when a cop does the shooting. Then, everyone saw it. In my former department, the “community” enabled the murderer of two of our cops to hide among them for nearly a week. Someone in Ferguson–probably more than a few–know who shot those police officers. Where are they? Why aren’t you clamoring for your sixty seconds of fame from the media?
Secondly, community leaders, even you, Mr. Attorney General, where is your responsible leadership? What is necessary right now is a call to identify this shooter and show that you care about true justice. This moment and every moment of violence requires it of good people, if they truly wish to co-exist under the same rule of law. Mr. Holder is getting a lot of press for saying, “This was not someone trying to bring healing to Ferguson. This was a damn punk, a punk who was trying to sow discord.” That’s a great speech line, but what the country needs you to say, sir, is that somebody in Ferguson better give this coward up. Right now. To the protest leaders nationwide, what is required to show your good faith is that every time a trouble maker shoots in a crowd, or hurls rocks, bottles or Molotov cocktails at police officers, then melting back into the “peaceful” crowd, you must push them back out into the open. Identify them as those who are harming your community from inside. They are just as much a part of your problem as any government or law enforcement policy. Those who commit violence in any community should be the enemy of all who want to live in peace.
The City of Ferguson and its police department have been forced to look inwardly to recognize systemic problems. Beyond Ferguson, the conversation has grown nationwide. Law enforcement is undergoing a period of soul searching and adjustment that is needed, and perhaps long overdue. Ferguson has forced out numerous leaders in the name of accountability and the beginnings of reform. For some, nothing will matter, as evidenced by two officers senselessly shot. In the wake of such a violent attack, law enforcement is closing its defensive ranks, and the baby steps of trust between cops and the community in Ferguson have vanished again. What’s been largely missing in this ongoing debate is the hard truth that both sides have to give something. Police cannot turn a blind eye to racist or unlawful behavior in their ranks, but neither can the community. Please, everyone think about this: The bad will always steal the spotlight from the many good. It’s true on both sides. Ferguson terminated its worst offending cops and city officials as a start. Now, it’s your turn, citizens of Ferguson. Turn in this punk who has destroyed the good you’ve tried to do.
When you harbor them in your midst, you lose the credibility. #alllivesmatter
Square Cop In A Round World 
Again, very well said! Now if we can just get our vocal leaders to push this type of positive thinking maybe there will be a meeting in the middle.
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Our responsibility as citizens is to hold our leaders, both political and community to the standards of justice and fairness. Criminal behavior is criminal behavior and should not be ignored because it’s inconvenient to anyone’s message.
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Well said! As commented above as well, the leaders within our law enforcement community and the leaders of all levels of government need to stand up and speak the truth about these particular situations and the truth regarding how their agencies as a majority do things morally and ethically correct everyday, and demand that the media listen and report. They have the ability to make that happen, as we that have worn the badge know well. If they refuse to listen and report it, they are the last to know about anything newsworthy.
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Thanks, Rick. What I want right now is someone in the media to have the courage to ask these hard questions in a way that informs and helps people to understand. All I see right now is sensationalized pandering.
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They have the ability to do it but so many look the other way. Why? Money/ Jobs/ Their own prejudices? They don’t want to be singled out among their peers as not being “one of them”? In the meantime, lives are ruined and no one is held accountable for the deaths. It amazes me how often I have heard the words, “the cop was scared – of the man reaching for his wallet in the car – of the man walking toward him, etc.” Well, then maybe they ought not work in law enforcement if they are so scared. Yet they are not scared of the white man reaching for his wallet, or the white man walking toward him. Then they puff out their chests because they are the big bad cop.
My website, http://mynameisjamie.net deals with many of these same racist issues and the ones who end up in prison.
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Something has to fix this. With each new case it escalates a little further I regret the lives that have been lost through all of this, but hopefully their lives will not be in vain.
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Reblogged this on e-Roll Call Magazine.
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I am sick and tired of the cops and the district attorneys not doing anything about the white collar, corporate crimes on Wall Street and in places like West Virginia (the coal mine explosion in 2010), the river pollution in North Carolina by Duke Energy in 2014, plant explosion in Texas in 2013 because they are so afraid of upsetting wealthy people and corporations when in fact, those wealthy people and corporations don’t care about anyone including the cops.
When are the cops going to get their act together and start treating white collar, corporate crime just as seriously as they treat street crime? From what I have learn over the year, white collar crime costs far more than street crime in terms of investigations and economic damage to the community and to the world when you look at the Great Recession of 2008.
Where were all the witnesses when the white collar, mostly white people on Wall Street were taking drugs on a daily basis at their workplace and those witnesses never reported them to the police or if they did reported them to the police, the police never bother to arrest them? There is an organization called the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) where one cop stated that his drug task force was to lay off the drug dealers and users in the affluent, mostly white neighborhood; otherwise, their budget would be reduce or eliminated. I am sick and tired of district attorneys and police officer letting these upper middle and/or rich class people get away because they are so worried about their careers and their pensions instead of doing their jobs like they are paid to do because they are afraid of these spoiled 1%ers and don’t have the moral courage to stand up to them. You did not even see the cops busting CIA officials and Oliver North for flooding American cities with cocaine and heroin.
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Cops, used generically, as you are doing is a misleading statement. Most street cops, which is my perspective in this blog, have little to no contact with high level narcotics and certainly not the type of white collar crime that caused the recessions and bank failures. That is the jurisdiction primarily of US attorneys and federal law enforcement, on a normal basis. Yes, they are part of law enforcement, but not street cops who deal with boots on the ground violence with street dealers and the crime it spreads in mostly lower income communities. I think it’s naive to think that a city cop, for example, can be involved in the arrest of CIA agents or Oliver North. Far above us on the food chain, sir. Check out the “about” section of this site. The focus of my writing is to bridge the gap between street cops and the communities they serve. Although your concerns are understood, they are better served addressing drug policy at the federal level. Meanwhile, street cops will keep fighting crime, one suspect at a time.
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Wit all due respect sarge, your local police departments were hamstrung by the federal government in the War on Drug considering the fact that many of your police officers support Ronald Reagan and then having the CIA and North flooding your communities with drugs and putting your cops at risk. If you can’t arrest federal officials for participating in the drug trade, you shouldn’t be a cop at all. The same thing goes for district attorneys and judges.
Even the federal cops were hamstrung by their own people. Here is a video by former DEA agent Fong on the website LEAP http://www.leap.cc/22417/ being told to lay off white people.
Regarding white collar, corporate crime. Back in pre-Civil War American, towns, counties, and states had laws on the books stripping businesses of their licenses to operate and had the power to abolish them if they became too powerful. After the Civil War, American corporation slowly manage to get those local laws overturn. Now you have many town and counties trying tp get back their laws on the books; however, thanks to the US Supreme Court ruling on corporations being people, corporations and wealthy people like the Koch brothersare now pouring money to get their candidates elected even at the city and county levels, not just the state and federal levels.
I wish you well in achieving your goals, but it is not going to mean a thing when your efforts is going to be all for nothing when corrupt wealthy people and corporations will deciding in who is going to be the next police chief/sheriff/state police superintendent as well who will be overseeing the various city, county, state positions that are responsible for maintaining the quality of life in your community plus at the federal level.
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Well, Gunther, I can only tell you that in my career, I have never been told to “lay off white people”. Never. Again, I respect your position, although I don’t completely agree. That’s okay. You are still talking about things beyond the scope for the average cop on the beat. And Gunther? Don’t presume to know how I or my peers voted in any election or other generalizations. Out of respect, I won’t make presumptions, either. I would suggest to you, or anyone, really, to go to your local police department and sign up for a ride-along or participate in a citizens police academy. Those are good ways to experience what an average cop deals with every day, and will be great for dialogue. I continue to believe that opening up communication between police and the community they serve is the best way forward. Thanks.
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“Don’t presume to know how I or my peers voted in any election or other generalizations.”
With respect, cops tend to vote for conservative candidates and that is a fact plus cops also tend to make generalizations about other groups of people. I also believe that if cops want to open up communications as well, they need to make time to attend various community meetings in the areas that they patrol.
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