By Steve Pomper
How can police officers in certain American jurisdictions function when leaders continue to insult and degrade them? Recent examples have appeared on both coasts, one in the socialist Petrie dish known as Seattle and the other in the basket case state of New York, home to the worst governor and mayor (NYC) in America.
The Emerald City (and King County) recently hired an avowed communist cop-hater to solve the city’s self-inflicted homeless/crime crisis. And the Empire State has done even worse, hiring a convicted cop-killer to sit on a police reform committee in Ithaca (and Tompkins County).
Attempts to solve homelessness in Seattle have been dismal. But, then again, those results are expected when you elect dismal politicians. And also, what you get from their poor hiring decisions. You may recall during the Mayor of Durkanistan’s “summer of love,” this soggy city’s leaders hired an ex-felon and former pimp as its “Street Czar.”
They reportedly paid him $150,000 to fill the ill-fitting position. His responsibilities included quelling the CHOP/CHAZ crime and improving community relations with the police department. As I wrote at NPA back in Sept. 2020, about cops Taylor once said, “Officers are trained to shoot to kill, especially if it’s a black man. They have no regard for life.”
Now, this churning sea of social justice sewage has done it again. As they watch police officers racing to exit their SPD careers, the onslaught continues. KOMO News reported that they’ve hired Marc Dones, described as, “A consultant already working to build the new Regional Homeless Authority for Seattle and King County was offered the top job at the agency Thursday, a post that could set the agenda for how the region responds to one of the most pressing problems in the area.” Oh, good, another bureaucracy to add to the homelessness industrial complex.
But don’t worry about Dones’ qualifications. They line up perfectly with leftist identity politics. Dones is black, he uses words like “equity,” and he hates cops—a trifecta. And since this is a regional authority, Seattle and King County leaders are likely to bully the counties’ other 38 cities to join them on this newest disaster train. Hopefully, these cities won’t succumb.
And, on the other coast, there is New York state where politicians have done something even worse, even more insulting and degrading, to their police officers. As Tina Moore of the New York Post put it, “Richard Rivera is helping reform police in upstate New York as a part of a state-mandated plan launched by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.” Should work out as well as keeping infected residents out of nursing homes, right?
So, what are Rivera’s qualifications for reforming the police? Let’s go back to Moore’s description. “He [Rivera] fatally shot an NYPD cop execution-style… in a Queens bar….” Yes, back in 1981, Rivera murdered a police officer and father of four. And rather than remaining in prison, living in infamy, or at least in obscurity, New York is rewarding the convicted murderer by putting him “on a panel… as part of [Ithaca’s] ‘Reimagining Public Safety Collaboration.’”
This shouldn’t surprise us too much. Last month I wrote about ultra-leftist Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick’s “mind-twisting plan to dismantle the police department and replace it with a bizarre social justice warrior delusion of public safety.” What made Myrick’s efforts so egregious is one provision that would require current police officers to reapply for their positions in this new warped incarnation of public safety. Adding to the insult, Myrick had to apologize to the police department. Why? For not including them in the discussions about destroying their police department.
When asked about Officer Walsh’s family’s reaction, Rivera said something insultingly self-unaware. “I don’t know if [Walsh’s] family would find this acceptable. I can’t control that. What I can control is the way I’ve been living my life.”
Get that? The way he’s been living his life. Officer Walsh and his family long for their loved-one to still be living his life. But Rivera took that away from him—from them. The Post reported, “One of the slain officer’s sons said Rivera doesn’t have to wonder any longer what the family thinks—it is disgusted by the ex-con’s position on the advisory panel.”
If Rivera were truly “holding the memory of Officer Walsh to the highest standard of policing… somebody who cares for the community,” as he told the Post, he would never have selfishly sought or accepted a position that would cause such pain to his victim’s family.
And Mayor Svante’s efforts are in no way pro-police—just the opposite. And Rivera wants to help him in his anti-police effort. Makes me wonder if he was insinuating that Officer Walsh wasn’t exhibiting “the highest standard of policing” when the off-duty cop tried to stop Rivera, the armed robber who shot and killed him?
When will this injustice of systemic bias against American law enforcement officers end? Sadly, when anti-cop leftists stop lying about law enforcement (not much chance of that) or when Americans stop believing the lies (which we can only hope for).