As the number of shootings and homicides has surged in Baltimore, some police officers say they feel hesitant on the job under intense public scrutiny and in the wake of criminal charges against six officers in the Freddie Gray case****"In 29 years, I've gone through some bad times, but I've never seen it this bad," said Lt. Kenneth Butler, president of the Vanguard Justice Society, a group for black Baltimore police officers. Officers "feel as though the state's attorney will hang them out to dry."
Several officers said in interviews they are concerned crime could spike as officers are hesitant to do their jobs, and criminals sense opportunity. Butler, a shift commander in the Southern District, said his officers are expressing reluctance to go after crime.
"Baltimore can ill afford having cops do the bare minimum," [said Edward Jackson, a retired Baltimore police colonel who teaches at Baltimore City Community College]. "The bad guys are going to take advantage of a slowdown. It's a terrible situation for the city to be in."
The city has seen 40 shootings since April 28, the day after the city's most intense day of rioting, including 10 on Thursday alone. There also have been 15 homicides in that span, bringing the year's total to 82 -- 20 more than at the same time last year.
The idea that the political establishment, in Baltimore and at the U.S. Justice Department, can take aim at the Police Department without a chilling effect on policing is nonsense. And a chilling effect on policing is, as we certainly knew before and graphically see now, an invitation to crime.
Policing in Baltimore has had more than its share of vices and failures; no sensible person who's been paying attention doubts that much. Links I have noted before make the point, see, e.g., here and here. But to believe that ideologically-driven snarling at the cops is the answer is to engage in delusional thinking.
Yep.
So, here's the question--why isn't the press asking hard questions of the liberal politicians who are apparently ok with this state of affairs.
The sad truth is that neighborhoods beset by nuclear family obliteration-with the resulting social pathology,chaos in the public order and inter-generational dependency- will always have turbulent relations with police.