Emasculate

COLLAPSE

Crime in the streets continues in cities big and small. Random, chaotic, mindless shootings, stabbings, gunplay, unintended victims – the sound of gun fire at night in all the boroughs of NYC.

Mass transportation has become dangerous as people are randomly stabbed or thrown off Subway platforms, attacked on buses. No one knows what’s coming next. Uncertainty breeds fear and becomes a genuine reason for not returning to an office job in an empty midtown New York.

Yes, some of these outrageous crimes are being solved by excellent police work, seeing-eye cameras all over the city, anonymous phone calls. But what is missing, what is lost is police work at its highest level – to Serve and Protect – to keep the public safe.

That is gone and no one knows when it will return.

The hard truth is that after three hundred years our systems are broken. These are the foundation of our nation, our democracy, our status as the country people flee to because of our freedoms and opportunities for a better life.

That is still true even if those coming no longer come from Europe but from South and Central America. That is still true even if for so many Americans that immigration is frightening, threatening, a crime.

The pandemic has revealed our stunning economic dependence on China and other countries for goods we no longer manufacture.
Our healthcare system is the costliest in the World and performs poorly when compared to other industrial nations.

We have discussed the failures of our education system previously and in detail.

Our political system is torn apart. One national party stuck behind the wishes and blatant lies of a real estate salesman and reality show host. The other stuck behind old leadership and a young ”otherworldliness” where wishes are all that count because there is no knowledge of how to make them real and workable.

And then there is the criminal justice system collapsing right in front of us. Police seem unable to do their job for a public which resents them over continuous incidents of police brutality so often racial in character.

Before everything else, Police pledge to protect and serve…first and foremost to keep the public safe. As the weeks of gun shots and crime fill the air and empty NYC streets, it seems as if that pledge is no longer in clear view. In the political determination to end police brutality, the nation and NYC have not actually defunded the police, they have instead emasculated them.

IMMUNITY

The call was ‘defund the police’. It rang out around the country in marches and rallies as a response to a series of police shootings of unarmed black men and then the public murder of George Floyd.

But Mayors did not defund the Police. Instead, they took other measures that had a powerful effect on limiting police activity. The most powerful of them and the one least discussed, was to remove immunity which protected every member of the Police from being personally sued by a member of the public for any action, word or inaction. This put every member of the department in jeopardy of losing their income, their home, the lives they were building.

Then legislatures- city and State – full of high-minded but unknowing young politicians – instituted no cash bail so that criminal elements – with previous records or indications of mental unbalance-were free to go. Was this an answer to stopping crime or an attempt to end what they see as a racist criminal justice system? Was there ever a consideration of increasing the number of Judges in our Criminal Court system to prevent spending months in prison before being heard by the Courts? It doesn’t seem so.

In NYC, the NYPD. ended plainclothes squads- anti-crime units – charged with infiltrating crime areas and stopping crimes before they were committed.

And by so doing crushed any attempt at crime prevention because here’s what the Police know about stopping crime in NYC: they know every precinct where guns can be found and are a significant problem. They know every precinct where burglaries and robberies are committed.

And so there used to be an anti-crime unit in EVERY precinct. All gone.

And this reality most of all: there are no longer cops walking a beat…knowing and being known in a community, relating to the kids, the shopkeepers…and by their very presence enforcing an atmosphere of safety.

Ask any subway rider in these chaotic and dangerous days how they feel when they see a policeman waiting with them on a platform and you will instantly know what this ‘atmosphere of safety’ can mean to the welfare of each and every person on that platform.

PREVENT, PROTECT AND SERVE

These changes must take place so that the police and the public can once again find the balance that means respect, approval and support.

No one wants to feel disrespected. No one wants to fear the city’s streets. Unless these changes take place what we are seeing will no longer be something new and unimaginable… it will become the norm.

The fact that so many lawmakers in New York State and New York City feel that bail reform is the answer to crime in the streets is an indication of how an inability to understand reality makes for good slogans but bad law and horrific results.

And finally, this: each new class of police recruits must be taught to verbally communicate with the community. Young people today no matter their level of education, are not verbally adept. Many don’t feel capable of talking on the telephone. Their World is about texting…not letters, or emails, or anything else and certainly not talking.

Before each recruit becomes a new member of the force, he or she must be carefully taught to talk to people…to engage and discover and leave an impression of caring and concern as well as one of strength and capability.

We need a capable, committed Police force. And they need a community who believes in them and trusts them to protect and serve and to do so fully aware of the need for humanity.

We can turn emasculate into invigorate and give the men and women who put their lives on the line the support they need to fulfill our desire for safety and security.

Will we?