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My "Cop Thread" observation...
Dads3040
Member Posts: 13,552 ✭✭✭
I didn't want to hijack WarTiger's Cop Observation thread, but I have thought about this since I posted my response to it, and mentioned a columnist in Portland who can always find time to bash the police, but can never find the time for the 'Atta boy'.
I wrote this a few years ago when the cops were accused of 'killing' a poor unfortunate. The story is far more complicated that that, but the columnist basically boiled it down to a guy was killed by the cops, so they must have done something wrong. A tired refrain, but not unexpected.
The "Mr. Westerman" the first email is addressed to was the police union president. I found later that he had attended the academy with Tom Jeffries, and Westerman sent my email out to the membership.
Since I wrote this, we have had several officers killed, and each time I send an email to the columnist and ask him which overpass he was standing on. The origin of my question will become clear.
I wrote this in honor of someone who was very important to me, and I hope you will pardon the length of it.
**********************************************************************
Good Afternoon Mr. Westerman,
This is an email I sent this morning to Oregonian columnist Steve Duin in response to his column from yesterday concerning the recent police shooting.
Long ago I made a promise that I would not allow a very good man who left us far too soon to be forgotten. To make sure that people understood that there is another perspective to view these tragic events from. A perspective that some involved are not here to share with us.
While I am here, I am compelled to use what abilities I have to speak of that different perspective. In honor of one of the finest men I ever knew, and for a young man who can't.
Please pass this along to any you feel might appreciate it. Please help me remember a decent, honorable, young man who did his job. And lost his life doing it.
For those who would give up their tomorrows, so that others may live today in peace, there are no words.
Please tell your fellow officers that in spite of what they may feel is the majority of people being against them in difficult times, there are far more of us who understand what we ask the police to do, and what it takes for you to do it. We understand that at times you have the blink of an eye to make a choice. A choice that can have life altering consequences. For everyone involved.
We understand that you promise to keep us safe, and we promise to support you when you have to make those choices.
Please tell your officers that if one of those terrible choices presents itself, do not hesitate. The first and highest priority is the promise made to the officers' children this morning when the officer left home....and told their children they would be home tonight.
Keep that promise. We will keep ours.
Thank you,
Chris Hawes
Damascus, OR
**************************************************************************************************************************
Good morning Steve,
I decided to send this direct to you as having seen the comments online so far concerning the Campbell shooting, I have no desire to give most of those people any feeling of belonging to the community of normal, decent people. They are not.
Moral Hazard: "Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities of its doings, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it alternately would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions."
I submit to you that by fostering the attitude so ubiquitous in PDX that the police are the ones responsible for these incidents and therefore the ones who need to change, the people of PDX are enabling people to absolve themselves of their own responsibility and creating a moral hazard. Knowing how the people of PDX think, I doubt they will ever learn or change. They see no need to as the 'community' comes to their defense every time.
I submit that Scott Westerman is being overly kind when he says that "police deal with possibilities, the community deals with probabilities". I submit that the police and some of the rest of us deal with reality, while much of PDX deals in wishes.
I wish Byron Hammick hadn't chosen to use a small child for a shield...but he did.
I wish Kendra James had decided to be a mother to her children rather than a crack junkie....but she didn't.
I deal in reality. In the early 90's, I attended a funeral service for an old friend of our family. A man who had been in High School with my mom, a man whose children I had grown up with, a man I had known all my life, a man who was a retired/disabled PDX officer. A man whose service related injuries likely helped cut short his life.
At the service a young man spoke very eloquently and emotionally about how his childhood had been made much better because he had known this man. How this man had given him a different view of life, decency, honor, and most importantly, our responsibility to our community. This young man spoke about how he had chosen to follow a path to help keep our community safe and to serve the people he shared it with. The young man told us that he had decided to become a Portland police officer because of the man we were celebrating and the young man's desire to become an honorable, decent man who gave to his community and kept it safe for all of us.
That young man was Tom Jeffries. Several months later, I heard the news reports of an officer-involved shooting not all that far from where I was living. When they announced the name of the officer, I was stunned. I had never been personally connected with an officer killed and while I had only met Tom that one time, I knew the world had lost a very good man.
I wish the criminal had chosen to give up quietly....but he didn't.
I wish he hadn't decided to turn during his escape attempt and fire at Tom....but he did.
I wish Tom had had enough time to dodge or duck....but he didn't.
I wish Tom had just one of the chances Mr. Campbell had to change the outcome....but he didn't.
I wish many things had been different that day....but they weren't.
And the reality is that Tom's widow will raise their child by herself. In a house Tom started, and never got to see finished. His fellow officers and others finished the house.
It was the one wish from that day that they could make come true.
The reality is that we ask the police to do a job that is very difficult and at times very dangerous. The reality is that at times they are compelled to make instant choices most of us could not deal with if we had all day. The reality is that the families of those officers wonder every day whether their son/daughter, wife/husband, father/mother, brother/sister will come home safely.
Those families wish every day that they will...but sometimes they don't.
And when one of them doesn't come home, the reality is that it isn't the people complaining about the Campbell shooting who will line the freeway overpasses, attend the memorial, or work to finish the house the officer started. They will go about their usual self-absorbed lives, pretending to be kind, caring decent citizens, pontificating about their imagined moral superiority, and waiting for the next time a criminal is shot by the police to again find the voice of their moral indignation. And then they will start the usual hue and cry that we see today.
I wish it were not the case....but it is.
Chris Hawes
Damascus, OR
I wrote this a few years ago when the cops were accused of 'killing' a poor unfortunate. The story is far more complicated that that, but the columnist basically boiled it down to a guy was killed by the cops, so they must have done something wrong. A tired refrain, but not unexpected.
The "Mr. Westerman" the first email is addressed to was the police union president. I found later that he had attended the academy with Tom Jeffries, and Westerman sent my email out to the membership.
Since I wrote this, we have had several officers killed, and each time I send an email to the columnist and ask him which overpass he was standing on. The origin of my question will become clear.
I wrote this in honor of someone who was very important to me, and I hope you will pardon the length of it.
**********************************************************************
Good Afternoon Mr. Westerman,
This is an email I sent this morning to Oregonian columnist Steve Duin in response to his column from yesterday concerning the recent police shooting.
Long ago I made a promise that I would not allow a very good man who left us far too soon to be forgotten. To make sure that people understood that there is another perspective to view these tragic events from. A perspective that some involved are not here to share with us.
While I am here, I am compelled to use what abilities I have to speak of that different perspective. In honor of one of the finest men I ever knew, and for a young man who can't.
Please pass this along to any you feel might appreciate it. Please help me remember a decent, honorable, young man who did his job. And lost his life doing it.
For those who would give up their tomorrows, so that others may live today in peace, there are no words.
Please tell your fellow officers that in spite of what they may feel is the majority of people being against them in difficult times, there are far more of us who understand what we ask the police to do, and what it takes for you to do it. We understand that at times you have the blink of an eye to make a choice. A choice that can have life altering consequences. For everyone involved.
We understand that you promise to keep us safe, and we promise to support you when you have to make those choices.
Please tell your officers that if one of those terrible choices presents itself, do not hesitate. The first and highest priority is the promise made to the officers' children this morning when the officer left home....and told their children they would be home tonight.
Keep that promise. We will keep ours.
Thank you,
Chris Hawes
Damascus, OR
**************************************************************************************************************************
Good morning Steve,
I decided to send this direct to you as having seen the comments online so far concerning the Campbell shooting, I have no desire to give most of those people any feeling of belonging to the community of normal, decent people. They are not.
Moral Hazard: "Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities of its doings, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it alternately would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions."
I submit to you that by fostering the attitude so ubiquitous in PDX that the police are the ones responsible for these incidents and therefore the ones who need to change, the people of PDX are enabling people to absolve themselves of their own responsibility and creating a moral hazard. Knowing how the people of PDX think, I doubt they will ever learn or change. They see no need to as the 'community' comes to their defense every time.
I submit that Scott Westerman is being overly kind when he says that "police deal with possibilities, the community deals with probabilities". I submit that the police and some of the rest of us deal with reality, while much of PDX deals in wishes.
I wish Byron Hammick hadn't chosen to use a small child for a shield...but he did.
I wish Kendra James had decided to be a mother to her children rather than a crack junkie....but she didn't.
I deal in reality. In the early 90's, I attended a funeral service for an old friend of our family. A man who had been in High School with my mom, a man whose children I had grown up with, a man I had known all my life, a man who was a retired/disabled PDX officer. A man whose service related injuries likely helped cut short his life.
At the service a young man spoke very eloquently and emotionally about how his childhood had been made much better because he had known this man. How this man had given him a different view of life, decency, honor, and most importantly, our responsibility to our community. This young man spoke about how he had chosen to follow a path to help keep our community safe and to serve the people he shared it with. The young man told us that he had decided to become a Portland police officer because of the man we were celebrating and the young man's desire to become an honorable, decent man who gave to his community and kept it safe for all of us.
That young man was Tom Jeffries. Several months later, I heard the news reports of an officer-involved shooting not all that far from where I was living. When they announced the name of the officer, I was stunned. I had never been personally connected with an officer killed and while I had only met Tom that one time, I knew the world had lost a very good man.
I wish the criminal had chosen to give up quietly....but he didn't.
I wish he hadn't decided to turn during his escape attempt and fire at Tom....but he did.
I wish Tom had had enough time to dodge or duck....but he didn't.
I wish Tom had just one of the chances Mr. Campbell had to change the outcome....but he didn't.
I wish many things had been different that day....but they weren't.
And the reality is that Tom's widow will raise their child by herself. In a house Tom started, and never got to see finished. His fellow officers and others finished the house.
It was the one wish from that day that they could make come true.
The reality is that we ask the police to do a job that is very difficult and at times very dangerous. The reality is that at times they are compelled to make instant choices most of us could not deal with if we had all day. The reality is that the families of those officers wonder every day whether their son/daughter, wife/husband, father/mother, brother/sister will come home safely.
Those families wish every day that they will...but sometimes they don't.
And when one of them doesn't come home, the reality is that it isn't the people complaining about the Campbell shooting who will line the freeway overpasses, attend the memorial, or work to finish the house the officer started. They will go about their usual self-absorbed lives, pretending to be kind, caring decent citizens, pontificating about their imagined moral superiority, and waiting for the next time a criminal is shot by the police to again find the voice of their moral indignation. And then they will start the usual hue and cry that we see today.
I wish it were not the case....but it is.
Chris Hawes
Damascus, OR
Comments
The columnist never answered, and he has never told me which overpass he has been on when the Police Funeral procession went by. [}:)]
I guess part of the reason I could never take a bad opinion on police is because of my Mom and Dad's friend.
Police weren't someone to be feared or despised. They were the big goofy guy we used to bury in the sand when we all went to the beach. All the other parents didn't want to get sand in their ******'s. He never seemed to mind.
A couple of years ago his oldest boy was home from Afghanistan, and I mentioned that of all the times we buried their Dad, he only stayed buried that last time. For something so sad, we laughed ourselves silly as we thought of it.
And remind me to tell you about a World Class Pancake Fight sometime....[;)][:0][:I]
I appreciated your comments to rmill on WarTiger's thread.
Not sure why so many have such a sore spot for LEO's. Seems kinda silly, but to each his own I suppose.
And to you.
I appreciated your comments to rmill on WarTiger's thread.
Not sure why so many have such a sore spot for LEO's. Seems kinda silly, but to each his own I suppose.
Commend cops for their good deeds, criticize them for poor behavior. You do not have to be on one side or the other. You have every right to have a "sore spot" for police officers who act poorly and cause unnecessary harm to a citizen.
The broad brush used by some is the size of a push broom.
I agree that they should each be judged by their actions, but that isn't what we see here far too often.
The broad brush used by some is the size of a push broom.
That broad brush is used by some to apologize for behavior that should be condemned. Use good judgment and commend those who do good deeds, and have the courage to repudiate those who act poorly and cause harm.