I can’t stand by while the media and certain political factions denigrate our police departments. Is there room for improvement? Yes, there is always room for improvement. Sensible people need to sit down and iron out their differences to make things better. Do cops make mistakes? Yes. Then deal with the guilty ones and support the good ones. There is no job in society that doesn’t have the propensity for bad actors.
Officers have been heavily criticized for how they deal with mentally ill people. As the father of a retired cop and friends of many of them, I can tell you with all certainty that no police officer wants to deal with mentally ill people. They have no choice, because our legislators closed up our hospitals for mentally ill people and put them out on the streets for society to deal with.
Our war on drugs, which is a dismal failure, sends those people also out in the streets for the cops to deal with. It's hard enough to deal rationally with ordinary people sometimes. Dealing with them when they are under the influence is sometimes next to impossible.
Bad hours, working all holidays and weather. Oftentimes working alone. When a police officer stops a suspected law breaker, only the lawbreaker knows who they are dealing with. Does he have a reason to be cautious in today’s world? Think about it.
Many departments are having trouble getting qualified officers right now. If the trend keeps up it will get worse. Gun sales are up dramatically. People are feeling unsafe. Is that what the cop haters want? Vigilante justice?
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Let’s get the state hospitals back for the mentally ill. Let’s treat drug addicts like we really want to help them. Let’s help our cops be better cops.
Mike Holst
Crosslake
