So says PJMedia in this article.
As we drive slowly along 83rd Street, we see gathered near the entrance to an alleyway just east of Avalon a few members of the local street gang, one of whom is perhaps responsible for killing Jermaine Murray.
In an ideal world, you and I might approach these young men. We might radio for another unit or two to assist us, as the mere sight of our slowing and the opening of our doors might very well set them off running in all directions. What’s more, one or more of them might be armed, or there may be guns secreted nearby for ready access should some rival venture across Avalon looking to settle up for Jermaine’s killing. These and many other things cross our minds as we weigh the possibilities for our course of action.
What do we do? We drive on, for we are not police officers in an ideal world. We are police officers in Los Angeles in the year 2016, and we know there is little to be gained and much to be lost if we get out of our car and engage these young men. If none of them runs and none is armed, if everything goes as pleasantly as things can go these days, we will at the very least be given a load of grief, first by the young men themselves, then by the many family members and other sympathizers who, attracted by the commotion, will soon emerge from nearby homes and apartment houses.
And if one of them runs? Well then we might have to chase him, and if we catch him we might have to hit him, an incident that will be captured on cell phone video and posted on YouTube and, if the footage is sufficiently inflammatory, broadcast on local television news. And if one of these young men is armed and we have to shoot him, and if video of the shooting does not clearly demonstrate that we were fired upon first, we will see our chain of command abandon us and pronounce our tactics unsound, this despite the fact that few of our superiors have actually stood in our shoes. And we might see that video become a national news story, one that will prompt the police commissioners, the mayor, the governor, and even the president of the United States himself to offer their unschooled opinions on the deficiencies of our actions.
So, as we are not fools, we drive on. And if one of those young men should later fall at the hand of a gang rival, or if one of them should venture over to Main Street and shoot some other member of Jermaine’s gang, well then, we’ll go code-3 to the crime scene and ring the area with yellow tape and stand around while the homicide detectives sort things out. And we’ll go home and tell our family and friends how sad it all is, but what can we do?
. . .
Change the particulars and the same principles apply to almost any city you can name. Murder rates are soaring in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Baltimore and elsewhere as the police in those cities, acutely aware of the politics of the moment, attune their behavior so as to minimize risk – not the risk to life and limb, which they accept and prepare for as part of the job, but the risk to their livelihood that arises when the tactical decisions they make in the blink of an eye are viewed through a political prism for months or even years. There is no amount of training that can prepare a cop for that risk; there is only the choice to avoid it.
There’s more at the link.
This is the ‘Ferguson Effect‘ in action. It’s happening all over the country . . . and frankly, I can’t blame the police at all.
On the other hand, it means the rest of us had better be even more prepared than usual to defend ourselves, our loved ones and our possessions, because criminals who might threaten us know they have less to fear from those who are supposed to protect us.
That’s a very sobering thought.
Peter
It also worries those of us that might have to take actions to defend ourselves who are not LE but in that identical political quagmire as we go about our business.
FotoTomas
Especially when LE or FEDs will happily arrest and deal harshly with a white job holding male citizen.
Because no others of his kind care. They're value-signaling SJW's or they're thinking "But for the grace of God, there go I"
The answer according to the genius SJW libtards and globalists that pray at the altar of Agenda 21, is to transplant a percentage of those young men into a wealthy white neighborhood, and through the wonderment of "diversity" (that from which all societal strengths flow), both they and the occupants of both neighborhoods will live richer, fuller lives. BAHAHAHA it is the first of April – but unfortunately I'm not making a joke about the globalists and SJW's theories.
"We are police officers in Los Angeles in the year 2016,…"
Well, you should have been a bit more professional in years past.
Items such as Rampart, Chris Dorner (mistaking two women for Dorner in the wrong type of vehicle and shooting them up), numerous shootings of unarmed suspects, middle of the night swat team raids for minor/made up offensives, etc., etc.,etc……
You reap what you sow.
If the worse than useless police stop doing their jobs, why keep them around?
Say, did we ever find out WHO shot all those bikers in Waco? Do we know if the Police just started shooting? Sure looked that way to me.
So we pay these guys to ride around and protect SJWs who block traffic and throw rocks. Why?
And we all have heard of the Supreme Court rulings that confirmed that the police are not obligate to "protect" anyone. With so many police departments getting a significant percentage of their budgets from civil asset forfeiture, the numbers for 2014 were that police took more money from Americans than non-police criminals.
I would be happy to be able to defend myself, but here in Maryland, I would be jailed for doing so. And before we start on the "few bad apples" routine, let's note that the very few times that the good cops try to do something about the bad cops, the former are the ones who usually suffer. We've had two of those here in Maryland in the last 4-5 years.
At some point after the Rodney King riots, and probably after the feds railroaded those cops, a big name shooting instructor told our class about a ride-along he had done in L.A. He had been invited to cover one of the bad sections, and as the briefing was breaking up to head for the patrol units, a LT asked him what he was carrying. "A .45". "That's all?!!", and shook his head.
At some point during that shift, he asked where the action was. So they drove a bit, and then stopped at the mouth of an alley, which they lit up with their spotlights. He described it as looking like the Cantina scene in Star Wars. Lots of weapons in view. So, he asked what were they going to do about it? "We're getting the heck out of here, is what!"
After that, he was told that prior to the King affair, if they saw a gangbanger hanging on a street corner, they would roust him for warrants and weapons, etc. The city officials told them to back off to avoid any more riots, so they would just drive by and wave.
Twenty + years of being told not to make waves at this point, I expect. No idea if they were ever given the ok to go back to work for real, so…
Not too demoralized to give out traffic tickets and such, though.
Easy jobs, raising revenue? Sure. Real police work, dealing with criminals who actually hurt people? Not interested.
Having spent five years as LE, I want every person hating on the cops in this comment thread to go for a few ride-alongs with the police in their burgh.
It's easy to point at the few bad actions of some idiots and say the cops deserve what they get. They don't. Not by a long shot.
Here in Richmond, we just had a State Trooper take six rounds in the chest thanks to some feral asshole from Chicago. And all the Trooper did was talk to the guy for half a minute. Bangbangbangbangbangbang. But hey, he deserved it because some idiots in LA shot up a truck, right?
Cops are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. I'm, amazed that folks even continue to sign up for the job, after the way that B. Hussein Obama has been waging war on them for the past seven years. Thank god they do. Because everybody hates the cops until they need them, and then it's "WHY DIDN'T YOU GET HERE SOONER!" I bet if Officer Wilson had shown up when St. Michael Brown of the Swisher Sweets was robbing the convenience store, he would have been a hero. But since he only defended his life from a dope-smoking thug, he was run out of the city, and out of the state.