Saving Black Lives

Police Academy Podcast

A little glimpse into the cop conversations taking place every day and night, cop to cop, cruiser to cruiser.

Show Notes:

What’s up Terence,

I really fought with myself on whether or not to send an email and voice my opinion – but with America in the state that it is in, I cannot be silent. I have been listening to your podcast for years and enjoy it very much and I think you speak truth from a place of experience and high moral standards.

I am a police officer in north Alabama and have been on the job since 2018 (night shift: 1900-0700); a rookie for some, but for my department, a “more senior officer” because of staffing issues. I have a bachelors in Criminal Justice and a minor in Behavioral Science.

I am responding to your last episode, “BIG Media – Do They Care?.” I know you’re busy, so I’ll get straight to the question asked: What are cops talking about at work when they’re door-to-door?

The conversations I’ve had with my coworkers are mostly negative and full of anger and frustration, as you can understand. It seems that everyday, a different politician, or media head, in a different city has some sort of negative opinion on police procedures or use of force (UOF). Politicians and media staff who have never been in Law Enforcement, who have never taken a college course in police procedure, and who have (most likely) never been in a fight with anyone in their life. Now this is of no surprise. We both know that many politicians and media figures will only repeat the “mantra” of the “woke.” It doesn’t matter what they truly believe as free-thinking humans. It only matters how they can virtue signal to the mindless zombies that listen / watch their program. We all know, and have seen, that when the ‘cards are down,’ they WANT the police to protect them.

The statement that is said by my co-workers and I ROUTINELY is “Let those mother fuckers ride along with us for one week, and they’ll see what we do.”

They’ll see the good we do.

They’ll see the struggles we deal with.

They’ll see the paperwork and documentation involved in the most minor of situations.

They’ll see the horrific scenes WE see.

They’ll see the danger which we face.

They’ll see how arresting someone who doesn’t want to be arrested requires FORCE in some way, shape or form.

And most importantly, they’ll see the lives we save. A LOT of them being black lives.

I think frustration is the key word in all of this. Frustration at the people who call us murders and racists, while in the same breath cry out for us to come save them from evil when the reality of this world sets in; reality that manifests itself when people come from behind their keyboard. Frustration at that fact that we try to be the best public servants we can be, yet we are limited by our humanity.

Something I hear often is, “The police are the most unaccountable group in the US.” This is said often because of Qualified Immunity, and because people don’t understand the case law that allows us to act in certain ways in certain situations. They don’t understand that the wording of laws and regulations are black and white, when the world is nothing but 1 million shades of gray.

To this I ask, “What other profession in the world has a policy for everything you do? What other profession in the world straps cameras to your body in order to ensure your actions are within that policy. What other profession in the world straps microphones to your body to ensure that what you say is within policy? What other profession in the world double checks itself by having another camera and ANOTHER microphone in the car you drive to double check that you’re within policy? What other profession in the world exists that someone can ‘dog-cuss’ you and spit in your face, yet you must remain like a stone statue in your professionalism?”

The answer is that there isn’t one. Police are the most accountable group of humans on earth – and they should be. We have the power to take someone, put them in a jail cell and take away their rights for a period of time later determined by a judge. Make no mistake, police need to be accountable for their actions. The piece of human garbage that killed George Floyd needs to be UNDER the jail. I am in no way excusing poor police conduct or insinuating that it doesn’t exist. As police officers, we can do better and we will do better as training and new skills emerge. However, the public conflates police misconduct with acceptable techniques and policy to effect an arrest / out come. They don’t understand that some things with Law Enforcement WILL not and SHOULD not change when it comes to UOF. In addition, police brutality is, statistically speaking, a NON-ISSUE when it comes to police conduct. Yet, because people feel the need to criticize the police unjustly, police will always been deemed the “bad guy.”

I think the bottom line is that police will always be “the bad guy.” Because there needs to be a bad guy for some Americans. It doesn’t matter that the police don’t make the laws or make the policy. The police are the ones telling folks, “You cant do that.” And people don’t like being told what to do.

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My next point: defund the police? Go for it. In fact, I would rather the police be disbanded altogether. Because guess what? I’ll find another job – I’ll find a way to feed my family. However, you won’t find any one to come save you when someone kicks in your door at 2:00am. YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN.

People don’t see the good we do. They don’t want to see the good we do. They don’t see the crime we prevent, or the lives we save. They only want to see the worst in us – because someone has to be the “boogieman.”

In conclusion, I’ll end with this with a quote which becomes more and more true everyone day I put on the badge:

“There is no nice way to arrest a potentially dangerous, combative suspect. The police are our bodyguards; our hired fists, batons and guns. We pay them to do the dirty work of protecting us. The work we’re too afraid, too unskilled, or too civilized to do ourselves. We expect them to keep the bad guys out of our businesses, out of our cars, out of our houses, and out of our faces. We just don’t want to see how it’s done.

-Charles H. Webb Ph.D.

Show Notes:

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