Serving as a cop in America is harder than ever -- and it comes down to respect. A deficit of respect for the men and women in blue who daily put their lives on the line for the rest of us is hurting recruitment and retention and placing communities at risk.
* * *Policing is only getting harder. Police officers are now required to handle the fallout from a vast range of social pathologies that were once the domain of social workers, psychologists and family members, such as mental illness, widespread homelessness and drug abuse.
Even more demoralizing, police officers must look on as the criminals that they have risked their lives to apprehend get turned loose by "social-justice" DAs and "progressive" judges who no longer see their role as protecting the community from predators. Some DAs have even exposed police officers to greater danger by announcing that they will not prosecute those who resist police.
* * *
There were times in the past when we didn't demonstrate sufficient respect for men and women who served in our armed forces. Thankfully today, veterans and members of the military get the respect they deserve. There are demonstrations of gratitude when they deploy and return home, and even in everyday encounters, Americans thank them for their service. As a country, we need to do more to recognize the sacrifice and the service of law enforcement.
I agree with some of this. We are not devoting nearly enough resources to mental heath, homelessness or addiction and the criminal justice system is not the place to solve those problems. Our failure has made it the default solution and has made our prisons into storage facilities for the mentally ill and addicted with inadequate services. On the other hand respect is earned. If you talk to people of color, especially in low income neighborhoods, you will hear plenty of stories about police treating them with disrespect.