Sam Smith - An interesting view expressed by the NYC police
commissioner in talking about the Eric Garner case was that if he had
been a cop, rather than commissioner, he would have reacted
differently.
This is precisely the problem with
policing that is largely ignored as 5000 civilians were killed by cops
in the past five years. A police officer should have the same standards
of a police commissioner. Being a streeet cop doesn't give you the
right to ignore the law.
I have long noted this
problem, in part because as a Coast Guard officer at the Second District
headquarters, I was impressed by the fact that the chief legal officer,
a lieutenant commander, said that any Coast Guardsman who wanted to
talk to him about legal matters was welcomed in his office. In other
words, he quietly helped raise their understanding of the law to a level
not normally available. A similar service could be provided to police
precincts by local district attorneys and, on another level, by social
workers. The idea would be to raise the view of police officers of their
role as something more than tough guys with guns.
The capacity to deal with more sophisticated matters than mere force would make police officers both wiser and less dangerous.
