by Debbie Smith

I’m not talking about the really bad guys; the ones who shouldn’t be walking our streets in the first place. I’m referring to the punks who drink too much and then create chaos on our City streets or who get in a fight or steal a car or maybe shoplift from the local 7-11. Not to say that those are not serious crimes, they are. But they aren’t usually the crimes that warrant a life in prison verdict in court.

The “bad guys” of today are wimps. They have lost their sense of honor that they once had. What?! Honor, you ask?

Years ago – no, decades ago! – the car thief was chased down and caught. He was cuffed and thrown in jail. During the arrest the officer may not have been “kind and gentle”. After all, he just drove high speed through City streets in the attempt to catch this goofball who made the decision to endanger the lives of innocent people who didn’t see him coming! The officer’s heart was beating erratically as he tried to control his temper at this punk who showed no concern for life – his own, the kids playing on the sidewalk nearby or the officer’s. The officer probably had a few choice words to say to the suspect in a pretty loud voice, too! Deservedly so!

The difference in what happened next, between decades ago and now, is the reaction and attitude of the “bad guy.”

The “bad guy” of days past, once caught and cuffed, gave up. I think they were smarter back then! They knew that what they’d done was wrong. They knew they’d given chase and lost. They knew the “rules” of the game and that there was a winner and a loser and which one they were!

Like on a school playground. The bully, once caught, will often admit what they’d done was wrong. At least in elementary school. Little kids know what winning and losing is. They know right and wrong and can tell you in no uncertain terms which is which.

Somewhere along the way, either they’ve learned or we’ve taught them, that the line between right and wrong, winning and losing and good and bad has been blurred. Everything is up for a challenge.
I recall a story about one of these “good bad guys from way back when. In the good ol’ days.

This guy had been arrested for a crime that he, indeed, had committed. He’d been drinking prior to the arrest and the Officer involved in the arrest had to use a “bit more force” than usual to subdue him. He was taken to jail and that was the end of it.

Well, not quite.

There happened to be a witness to this “use of force” and she felt compelled to come forward and express her version of what happened with undoubtedly much more information than the Officer had! (Insert much sarcasm by this article’s author here!).

She reported this Officer to the Internal Investigations Unit of the Police Dept. Upon receiving this information the Unit was compelled to look into the matter and had to track the “victim” (the poor guy who once been the suspect!) all the way to another state!

If this incident happened today that guy would be on the first plane back to Seattle with the anticipation of great amounts of monetary compensation coming to him for the “pain and suffering” he’d withstood at the hands of this Officer who’d undoubtedly over-stepped his boundaries! He’d imagine the look on the stupid Officer’s face as he’d sit in the court while he lied about the abuse he’d endured at his hands! Oh, how he’d look forward to that!

The sad thing here is – he would probably be right – not about his innocent or the guilt of the Officer, but about winning a lawsuit for damages he so undeserved.

But “back then”, the ending to this story (true but names changed to protect the innocent!) was very different.
When notified that the Officer was being investigated for “use of force” upon receiving a complaint from a “witness”, the “once-suspect/now-victim” contacted the Police Dept. He implored them to absolve the Officer of any wrong-doing, even going so far as to refer to the Officer by name! He said that he himself had been the one in the wrong and had acted poorly and that the Officer was only doing what he had to do to subdue him! He would not be coming to Seattle to testify against him!

How refreshing it’s that!!??

Fast forward several decades:
To begin with, there would probably be at least three cell phones video-taping the arrest and the video would begin at such a time that would neglect to “tape” anything that led up to the arrest:
A high speed car chase that caused heart-pumping adrenaline, a face-to-face confrontation with a gun that struck fear in the heart of the Officer who wondered if he’d go home to his family that night, a fight between the Officers and the suspects that resulted in the “suspects” gaining an early advantage over the Officers that caused panic and fear. The options are endless of things that happen “before the camera rolls”.
Any of the above-mentioned occurrences might have happened as well as many others. In “normal” human beings, we are expected to react to these occurrences with fear, anxiety, anger, worry, panic.

But we are not talking about normal human beings here, are we? Unless you are talking about the “poor suspect” or the “videographer”. We are talking about Cops. They do not have the luxury of being human. They have had the normal emotions like fear and panic and anger “trained” out of them, haven’t they? Ha. No matter what happens, they are supposed to react with super-human actions and reactions. They are not to react when hit, swear when angry or shoot unless fired upon first!

Do you know why “suspects” will declare that the crack found under the front seat of their car isn’t theirs?

• The marijuana the Cop pulled out of their pockets was planted there (most probably by the cops!)
• They were just sitting in the car to get warm, not trying to steal it
• The gun pulled from their waistband is not theirs and they don’t know how in the heck it got there
• They’ve only had one beer even though they blow .10 on the breath-analyzer

“I didn’t do that! That wasn’t me! “ when the Officer approaches the suspect and watches them throw that last punch at the victims face.

I think I know why. It would appear that the “general public” feels that they know better how to “police” the bad guys than the cops do. They have also learned that lawyers are clamoring to represent them if they will just come forward with a good story about police abuse and how they’d been mistreated. They’ve learned that they don’t ever have to confess to what they did or admit a wrong-doing because they will most likely get away with it.

The city won’t stand behind the very Cops that they spend millions to seek, hire and then train. The Police Department won’t stand behind their Officers – it would seem that their philosophy is “guilty until proven innocent” even for “their own.” In fact, the Officer is most afraid of reprimand from their own superiors for doing the very thing that they are trained to do!

Yes, I think the bad guys are gaining control in our City. As on the aforementioned playground, the bully gains power after each successful effort in wrong-doing. I’m sorry to all those parents who think that their “child would do no wrong”. That child becomes more and more bold in his quest to bully and by the time they get to middle school and then high school, the playground bully is more likely to be the juvenile with the rap sheet as long as his arm and the Principal is replaced by the Cops.

The parents are then replaced by the lawyers who bail out and defend the punk’s actions and the story goes on.

Gone are the days when a child “gets it”. They no longer admit they were wrong. They don’t come forth and confess in all honesty that their actions were stupid and the “cop was only doing his job.”
I just hope that “these days” aren’t the “good ol’ days” someday!