{"id":38496,"date":"2021-01-14T12:57:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T17:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/?p=38496"},"modified":"2021-01-17T21:48:56","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T02:48:56","slug":"good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2021\/01\/14\/good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Police Officers’ Lives Matter, by Rich Holt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBe polite. Be respectful. Deescalate.\u201d These are the priorities of the sheriff\u2019s deputies I accompanied on a recent ride-along.<\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/a>

Rich Holt<\/p><\/div>\n

That is also the mantra of any capable, competent, and professional police department. Fortunately, and despite protesters\u2019 claims, many police departments look a lot like the Clark County Sheriff\u2019s Office in central Ohio.<\/p>\n

I began my ride-along remembering bad experiences I\u2019d had with law enforcement in the past, such as \u201cdriving while black.\u201d For example, I was once stopped for a crooked license plate. But my ride-along showed me the values of local police. It revealed the challenges they face and their philosophy of community engagement.<\/p>\n

An early call was a “welfare check,” or following up on a call from an elderly woman concerned about her friend. Another was from a gentleman whose electric wheelchair battery had died. Passersby had left him in the middle of a busy road, not offering to help him for the 30 minutes he was stranded there.<\/p>\n

More serious calls came later. One was from a woman whose abusive ex-boyfriend reportedly threatened her, her family, and a few small children. Bruises on her arms marked the struggles she\u2019d faced during an abusive relationship. The officer did his best to console her, advising her to file for a protection order. He left his card in case she needed help again.<\/p>\n

In the cruiser, the officer explained that \u201cit\u2019s all about being understanding and being good to people.\u201d He said officers who mistreat civilians are \u201cbasically just bad people,\u201d acknowledging that the viral videos have rightfully angered many.<\/p>\n

The last call of the night was arguably the most interesting and frightening. We were asked to help with a drunk driver who confronted state troopers after being pulled over. Upon arrival, we found seven troopers wrestling the guy into a cruiser. The guy was a fighter, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

What struck me was that, despite the resistance, not one trooper pulled a gun. Even though the guy ran at them, kicked, spat, and threatened to kill them, they were determined not to use firearms or even tasers.<\/p>\n

I later asked a trooper why they didn\u2019t just shoot the guy. After all the videos of physical violence on social media, I wondered why they didn\u2019t act similarly when the drunk guy said he wanted to kill them.<\/p>\n

I felt it was the toughest question of the night and the crux of current law enforcement debate. Most officers do a fantastic job, but there are enough rotten apples to encourage the \u201call cops are bastards\u201d narrative pushed by the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n

The officer and his colleagues didn\u2019t skip a beat in answering my question.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m out there, I\u2019m all alone,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m 20 to 30 minutes from backup. I have to deescalate, or people die. If people die, people won\u2019t trust the police. Deescalating is what we do, and killing that guy wasn\u2019t the right thing to do. It\u2019s my job to handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His answer surprised me. But other troopers chimed in as well: \u201cWe can\u2019t treat people like that. It\u2019s wrong. These guys out here treating people like garbage doesn\u2019t do nobody no good.\u201d<\/p>\n

My ride-along had begun with a feeling of uncertainty about a day in the life of a police officer. I found these are good, dedicated people we desperately need to be doing this work. They face down the criminals, help the guy stranded in the street, and get dangerous drunks off the road.<\/p>\n

I believe the officers I rode with are a representative sample of the culture of the police nationwide. Unfortunately, there are also officers lacking this altruistic philosophy of community service. And union contracts oftentimes prevent bad officers from being fired, force departments to rehire disciplined officers, and expunge disciplinary records.<\/p>\n

While the media highlights \u201cbad apple\u201d officers, police violence is far from the nationwide epidemic it\u2019s portrayed to be. Most police departments are filled with the kind of officers with whom I rode. They\u2019re the best and most dedicated among us. They, and not the BLM rioters, are the ones we should be defending.<\/p>\n

These are the ones we need to invite to our childrens\u2019 classrooms to say: \u201cThese are police officers, and they\u2019re the good guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
Project 21 member Rich Holt<\/a> is a political consultant at Sirius Campaigns. This was first published by the\u00a0<\/i>Washington Examiner<\/a>.<\/i><\/div>\n
\n

New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBe polite. Be respectful. Deescalate.\u201d These are the priorities of the sheriff\u2019s deputies I accompanied on a recent ride-along. That is also the mantra of any capable, competent, and professional police department. Fortunately, and despite protesters\u2019 claims, many police departments look a lot like the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,60],"tags":[84],"yoast_head":"\nGood Police Officers' Lives Matter, by Rich Holt - The National Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2021\/01\/14\/good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The National Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2021\/01\/14\/good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2021\/01\/14\/good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The National Center\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/#\/schema\/person\/0fb68cd906a7035d2baf49d7be339507\"},\"headline\":\"Good Police Officers’ Lives Matter, by Rich Holt\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-14T17:57:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-18T02:48:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2021\/01\/14\/good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt\/\"},\"wordCount\":796,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2021\/01\/14\/good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/police-community.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Project 21 Commentary\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Project 21\",\"Project 21 Commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2021\/01\/14\/good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2021\/01\/14\/good-police-officers-lives-matter-by-rich-holt\/\",\"name\":\"Good Police Officers' Lives Matter, by Rich Holt - 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