By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D.
No one invested in quality law enforcement wants police officers to get away with violent crime. No one who needs quality law enforcement wants officers who survive a violent encounter to be prosecuted for political gain.
Kim Foxx, Chicago’s top prosecutor, says “this is time to be aggressive” as she spoke about the possibility of charging officers staying inside a building a block away from rioting in June of last year. Perhaps she hadn’t read the news from two weeks prior with the headline “Chicago Police Officers Ordered To No Longer Use Force To Disperse Large Gatherings”. Police union leaders spoke out for officers during the June uprisings, reporting that measures by city leaders came too little and too late to mitigate damage from rioting, leaving over a hundred officers injured and lacking in basic equipment such as radios and protective gear.
While Foxx gets tough on cops, the Chicago Sun-Times reports that “as of Dec. 31 (2020), the city recorded 774 murders in 2020, an increase of more than 50% from the 506 murders in 2019, according to a database maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times. The uptick was felt across the city, as 20 of the CPD’s 22 police districts recorded more murders in 2020 than the year before. The number of overall shooting incidents skyrocketed, too, rising from 2,120 in 2019 to 3,237 as of Dec. 27, 2020.”
Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants an officer fired for lifting a middle finger to protestors. Lightfoot did not see any irony that she used her public platform to respond to President Trump’s suggestion for dealing with rioters: “It begins with an F and it ends with a U”.
In Philadelphia prosecutor District Attorney Larry Krasner has stated his intention to file aggravated assault charges against a 31 year veteran officer for using a baton on a student during a confrontation with protestors. A video posted on Twitter shows the student actively attempting to interfere with an arrest as the now suspect officer uses a baton strike to repel the student. Krasner contends that the officer struck the student in the head with a baton, but a department use of force instructor testified that the officer’s use of the baton “was completely lawful and reasonable,” and that “the use of force in this case was absolutely justified.” The student also testified that he had “intervened” in the arrest of another protestor.
The top prosecutor in Boston, Rachel Rollins, tweeted “We are being murdered at will by the police … No more words. Demand action”, and accused police supporters of white fragility when she was accused of fomenting violence against police.
Police critics lament that murder charges are not usually pressed against officers who kill in the line of duty. According to according to data compiled by Philip M. Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, about a thousand persons annually are killed in confrontations with police but only 121 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter. Fewer than half of officers whose cases have been concluded were convicted. To the critics, this lack of successful prosecution shows a skewed criminal justice system. To experts in violent encounters who know how closely these events are investigated by outside agencies, the statistics show how few police shootings are criminal.
Officer Darrin Wilson is still considered by anti-police observers as someone who got away with murder and should have been charged in the death of Michael Brown. This example of political scapegoating and posturing continues despite the forensic and testimonial evidence of state, local, federal, and private investigations and inquiries that support the officer’s justified actions.
Two Atlanta officers were recently reinstated after being fired for using their Taser on two vehicle occupants during civil disturbances were breaking out and a curfew had been imposed. Atlanta’s Chief of Police at the time testified that city officials were afraid the students’ arrest would only fuel mounting outrage against police. The officers’ attorney noted that the dangerous conditions surrounding the officers was not considered “the city just trampled over their rights”. Had the confrontation occurred before the George Floyd in custody death, the officers would not likely have been publicly scorned by their department. “The circumstances were exceptional,” Shields testified. “We did, I did, what I had to do to make sure the city was stabilized”, clearly implying a public relations decision and not one based on merit. Criminal prosecution by the state has not been ruled out.
No one wants police officers to have no fear of accountability for their decisions which can deprive a citizen of their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But no police officer should fear political repercussions for decisions made under extreme circumstances. Justice and fairness for police officers should be no lesser than for other citizens.