The Ferguson Effect

by Jack

For as long as I can remember cops have always been looking over their shoulder, knowing they were under scrutiny 24/7 by their bosses and by the public.
This is just the norm…but things have become a lot worse thanks to the Ferguson Effect.

Most people don’t understand how cops are routinely held to higher standards than other occupations, aside from the military, such as workers at a GM plant or the post office.   A cop is never really off duty, he is subjected to certain rules of conduct, rules that even include keeping his lawn trimmed.  It’s all about image and setting a high standard, and some departments are pretty tough and regularly encroach on what you might consider, your own business.

Contrary to public opinion, cops also don’t get the same Constitutional protections you do.   Their personnel files are open to the public, no matter what embarrassing things they may contain, substantiated or not, it’s all open to the public.   They can be tried for a crime in State court and found innocent, then tried again in a federal court, that’s double jeopardy.   Anyone for any reason, can file a complaint against a cop with the FBI and the FBI must investigate it.   That report also goes into the cops personnel file, no matter what the results may be, founded or otherwise.   It haunts him/her for their entire career…hardly fair, but that’s the way it is.

Did you know that a police officer has no right to strike?  Did you know that a cop can’t join in a protest, no matter how legitimate, without risking suspension and forfeiture of pay?  Cops are absolutely discouraged from taking part in local politics, except in the capacity of a union representative providing factual information to a committee or some such thing.

Now things are even worse because of these abuse allegations, the latest in Baltimore.   It seems we have a president, and many others in the public, who are out to get the cops and make a name for themselves.   Obama uses the Dept. of Justice like his own personal internal affairs squad and no incident is too small to warrant his intervention.  That’s unheard of and it’s wrong for the President to be involved is the inner workings of a local police department.  There are plenty of safe guards to insure justice without the President weighing in.

Because of today’s political climate and lack of support from mostly minorities, cops fear being charged with a criminal offense every time they get into a little scuffle with a citizen.  You never know what might happen, even though 99% of the time nothing happens, but 1% of the time the person resisting arrest might suddenly die of a heart attack or he might break his arm and here comes the police brutality charges!   If there are a couple of bogus, unsustained, charges of police brutality already in the cop’s personnel file then that new charge makes him look guilty before the facts are out.  He’s already tainted and presumed guilty until proven innocent.   It doesn’t matter that those other abuse reports were deemed 100% unfounded.  The bogus complaints can be used against him/her in court too.  Civilians aren’t treated that way!  They can’t even have their criminal record used against them unless it is to show “plan and design” an M-O similar to the crime they are currently charged with, but not so with a cop.  It’s all fair game for cops.   Cops are at a real disadvantage in this respect.

The percentage of bad cops verse good, is the lowest of any occupation I know, but to hear the President you would think the majority of them are no good and in need of complete retraining…what a crock.

The headlines of generated across America by one bad cop create a terrible, unwarranted misperception that taints all police.   This is amplified once again by the usual race baiters and black militants, who gladly use any tragedy as leverage for their own personal agenda.  Is it any wonder that cops feel they are under siege?

I can assure you from personal knowledge, that right now police moral is very low.  They feel very disrespected and unfairly treated.  They’re being routinely investigated for petty things that 20 years ago would have never went beyond an internal affairs review because there just wasn’t anything to it.  But now, well, the political climate has changed so much that even the most trivial incidents could trigger a major investigation.  That damages a police officer’s career even when he/she is found innocent.   In that rare case that may warrant a criminal charge, we see the cop being overcharged just to placate the cop haters and racist agitators.   That certainly looks that way in Baltimore at the moment.   That’s not fair either!

“Hands up, don’t shoot” was completely false narrative, yet it lives on like a battle cry for justice against the “evil” cops.  Cops aren’t the problem, its the thugs they are dealing with, people with bad attitudes and bad judgment who hate cops and go looking for trouble.  In every case of alleged brutality if the suspect had simply not resisted arrested they would have never been harmed in any way.

In Ferguson, Mo. a bronze plaque appears near where the robber (Michael Brown) was attacking the cop before he was fatally shot.  Brown is held out to be an innocent victim, despite eye witness testimony that says he initiated the confrontation, that he had just done a strong armed robbery and the cop that shot him was defending himself and doing his job.  Brown started it by attacking the cop and he tried to grab the cop’s gun.   However, the President sends an entourage to Brown’s funeral?   Would he have that if Brown were white?  Nobody I know seems to think so… isn’t that racism?

All these allegations of police misconduct lately that have been blown totally out of proportion and there’s been a rush to judgment long before the facts were known.   This has caused police to worry they may be arrested for just doing their job, especially if it involves a black person who is the alleged victim.

After the in-custody death of Freddie Grey, the cops in Baltimore were told to back off, don’t engage blacks subjects unless there is a call for service.  This was the last straw for many officers.   They are being told how to do their job by politicians.  Is this any different than the politicians who tried to run the Vietnam war from DC?  You know how that turned out and we see how its working out in Baltimore.  Homicide is way up!

The Ferguson effect has embolden the criminals and restrained the police, that’s a  bad combination.   As a result murders are on the rise in our major cities.  Homicides are up 200% in New York.  Baltimore had one of their worst months for homicides in the last 20 years.  Chicago shootings reached record highs… these are black on black killings too.   This is the payoff of President Obama’s comments on cops and all the other race baiters stirring up hate toward the police.  The blood is on their hands.   Obama. . . worst president in history.