This Sounds Very Much Like Someone

[abbey1227]

..........we all know and respect............. Same area, too.

Washington Examiner

Atlanta police ditching department and slamming leadership in letters
Barnini Chakraborty
Sat, July 17, 2021, 6:00 AM

ATLANTA — Lt. Mark Cooper spent 26 years as an Atlanta police officer. His goal was to hit the 30-year mark, collect his pension, and go but he had to cut his journey short.

"Until last week, I was proud to tell everyone that I met that I work for the Atlanta Police Department," he said in his June 10 resignation letter obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner.

His view of the department changed following the arrest of six Atlanta police officers after a video surfaced of them pulling two college students out of their car during a protest.

The incident went viral and only added to the distance and vitriol growing between law enforcement and the people they are paid to police. Cooper said the officers were following directives from higher-ups but were thrown under the bus by leadership who should have had their backs.

"The direction this department has taken is nothing more than sad," he wrote. "I was a long-time believer in our leadership, but I am now disappointed to find out just truly how poor it is."

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Cooper said he had to go because he couldn't "represent a department that does not support the backbone of that very department. It's disheartening and it's demoralizing."

Officer Thomas A. Crowder also tendered his resignation.

Crowder, born and raised in Atlanta, had always dreamed of becoming a police officer, but his thoughts have soured.

"Today is my last day as a City of Atlanta employee and I would never have thought that I would be so happy to leave," he wrote in his June 17 farewell letter.

He added: "I can not see a reason that [an] officer who has been on the department less than 20 [years] would not leave. At this moment you guys have NO backing from your command staff. It is crazy that they could ask you to stay at work or even leave the precinct knowing that they are not going to have your back and is willing to fire you as soon as a citizen complains."

Cooper and Crowder's frustrations echo many police officers the Washington Examiner has heard from who are fed up being labeled public pariahs and lacking internal support of their superiors.

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Like Atlanta, police morale across the country has dropped while retirements and resignations have hit all-time highs. A June survey of nearly 200 departments by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit Washington-based think tank, showed a 45% increase in the retirement rates and an 18% increase in resignations across the board in 2020-2021 compared to the previous year.

"We are in uncharted territory right now," PERF's Executive Director Chuck Wexler said. "Policing is being challenged in ways I haven't seen, ever."

Not only do police departments face challenges retaining officers, but they have also had a hard time pulling in new recruits.

The backlash against police officers saw a big uptick following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. After Floyd's death came the shootings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta.

Outgoing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has come under intense scrutiny for not being tough enough on crime, has blamed Atlanta's soaring crime and 50% jump in murders on Republicans ending COVID-19 restrictions early and gun laws.

www.yahoo.com/news/atlanta-police-ditching-department-slamming-110000541.html

[Prometheus]

If my best friend called me and said that he had just accidentally killed someone and needed help disposing of the body, I'd be out the door, shovel in hand.

However, if one of my employees did it, I don't think I'd feel the same. I'd probably call the police and fire the guy in order to distance myself and the company from that incident. That's how a business functions and you want government to run like a business, don't you?

It's sad that recruiting is so hard for police departments, but it's also hard to recruit good people to run for office. Good institutions have got such a bad reputation right now that good people don't want to be associated with them.

I don't know if Lt. Cooper is a good person, but if he thinks that the people in charge should have the backs of bad people when they do bad things, makes his "goodness" suspect and points very much to the main divide: the "us vs. them" mentality... the notion that if you're not wearing the uniform that you are simply a criminal that hasn't been caught yet.

I know that not all police think that way, but it is hard to not have that perception.

Gone are the days of community policing and the "beat cop" who knew everyone's name and had relationships with the people. Some might say that certain communities never had that. And they're right. Certain neighborhoods were always subject to harsher treatment at all times. Hatred of those neighborhoods and their inhabitants was institutionalized.

As we moved away from community policing, even the "good neighborhoods" saw their preferential treatment deteriorate and they soon became more suspicious of the police and the police grew more suspicious of them.

They didn't know each other as people and the gap widened.

We don't see enough of those videos where the cops are shooting hoops or skipping rope with neighborhood kids, but I'll bet that those cops get more respect (and information) when they roll through again.

I'll bet that if there were more community policing then there'd be fewer complaints... even when the odd cop "overstepped" his authority. People might be more inclined to back the police if all of their interactions with the police had been positive in the past. I'll bet that a bad cop getting booted from the force would be met with cheers from the other cops who would be glad to be rid of someone who tarnished THEIR reputation.


Call me an "idealist" but shouldn't we be striving for "ideal"?