Passive Policing, Number Games Are A Greater Problem Than Police Brutality

      Police work, especially in high crime areas, can be violent. If police are a cowed force, afraid to do anything out of fear of being sued or of being accused of brutality or misconduct, then all that is left is anarchy and control of the streets by gangs and criminals.
      Police brutality is unacceptable. But so is the hands off cowed police work that is widely supported as the alternative to police brutality. Passive police and brutal police are the recipe for crime. Right now, media hype and political correctness notwithstanding, passive, uninvolved, disengaged policing is the far greater problem. There are many situations that call for the lawful use of force, almost all of which is nonlethal. But when what is lawful is considered what is excessive, all that is left is do nothingness. If police retreat in the face of violence, someone will get hurt. It may not be the police themselves, if they retreat and walk away from the situation of violence. It will be civilians that get hurt. If criminals and violent people run the streets, which too often is the case, and has been for a long time, then no one should be surprised when innocent people become the victims of the uncontrolled violence.
        Police must not meet violence with an equal level of violence, especially cops working high crime areas. Violence must be met with a greater level of force than the violence encountered if violent offenders are to be subdued. A violent offender using fists, for example, must be met with the non lethal force necessary to subdue the individual and for the cop not to get hurt. This includes the use of pepper spray, tasers, and expandable metal sticks. It is not a cops obligation to get injured , disabled or killed just to appease the public or some misguided supervisor that does not understand the appropriate and proper use of force.
       Cops are needed on patrol. They are not needed for harmful and ineffective number games. The purpose of police is not to arrest or generate some other kinds of numbers. The purpose is to serve and protect, and make arrests when necessary in the pursuit of serving and protecting.
       Those on the ground patrolling should not be supporting, on their backs, an army of bureaucrats, paper pushers and unnecessary brass and supervisors. The more cops with their feet on the ground, supervisors included, not at a desk or somewhere else, the safer it will be for cops and communities.
         Effective patrol, by car, on foot, and on bicycle at times, is the bread and butter of good police work. Unfortunately, far too many have strayed far away from this.