Just the
Facts, Ma'am!
By Hank
Silverberg
Remember Joe
Friday from Dragnet, the old TV show from the 60’s and 70’s? If you are too
young to remember, you can probably find the show on one of those nostalgic TV
networks on the cable sub-channels.
Sgt. Friday would give TV viewers a lecture each week as part of the show, telling all about the goodness of police and the evil of the bad guys as the plot moved along. The scripts of the show were based on real incidents in Los Angeles and were designed to build up the image of the L.A.P.D. Friday was always asking witnesses to tell him “Just the facts."
And that brings me to the tweet I saw this
past Sunday morning. Tomi Lahren
is a young conservative pundit on Fox News who seems to be way off on most of
her comments. She’s young and inexperienced and apparently doesn’t do much in
the way of research or reading before she tries to tell us all what to think. Her tone is as bad as Sgt.Friday. I’m
not sure why she is on the air. She has no “street cred,” no journalism or writing career to back up her poorly thought out punditry. But someone pays her
to do what she does. I usually laugh at
her inaccuracies.
This tweet caught my attention:
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
If you “don’t feel safe” around police,
wait till you don’t have them to rely on. The disrespect for law enforcement in
this country is disgusting. #thinblueline
She is wrong in both sentences. Most people do feel safe around police and they are usually there when you call. I have a great deal of respect for those in law enforcement. It’s a tough job. Most law officers are good, honest people and I believe most of them go into that work with a concept of service to the community. But that doesn’t mean they automatically get our respect. Like any profession that deals with the public, they have to earn it, sometimes more than once.
Police
abuse, excessive force, and corruption are not new. It has always been here. But police shootings have increased. So
far this year, 992 people have been shot and killed by police across the
country. That figure might have gone up since I published this blog entry.
And that figure is just for shootings. It doesn’t
include beatings, choke holds and other uses of excessive force. Here are some other statistics reported by
a watchdog group called vittana.org.
*61%
of police officers state that they do not always report serious abuse that has
been directly observed by fellow officers. (US Department of Justice.)
*43% of police officers agree with
this sentiment: “Always following the rules is not compatible with the need to
get their job done.” (US Department of Justice.)
*84% of police officers have stated
in a recent survey that they have directly witnessed a fellow officer using
more force than was necessary. (US Department of Justice.)
What we are
getting now, that leads to disrespect backs up of that survey. There is increased scrutiny because of the inundation of smart phone
video from the public, and the progressive use of body and dashboard cameras by police. We hear more and see more about abuse now because of cameras
and the Internet where most videos of police abuse usually end up. We now see the abuse on youtube.
Those images
can spark mistrust among law abiding citizens, particularly in high crime areas
where the police are the most visible. The old “Dragnet” image of the friendly
cop on watch for the bad guys is as outdated as black-and-white TV.
Police
across the country need better training and more community outreach. That should include regular mandatory mental health evaluations to help them deal with the trauma they experience. That trauma too often leads to police violence.
The use of body cams, originally opposed by many police departments, is now proving to be a valuable tool in exonerating police wrongfully accused of misconduct as it is in finding the bad cops and removing and or prosecuting them.
So, no, Ms. Lahren, it is not a “disrespect of
law enforcement.” It is an acknowledgement that law officers are human beings
like everyone else and can make bad decisions. Sometimes it’s a mistake, sometimes it's unavoidable, sometimes it's intentional. It’s important that we hold law officers to a higher
standard because of who they are, what they do, and where they do it.
News Notes:
Teleprompter
Trump
There are
two Donald Trumps. This past week we saw them both. Teleprompter Trump showed
up on the 4th of July in the rain on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial.
He gave a
monotone speech, reading from the teleprompter about American History. He is
the worst public speaker of any President in the broadcasting era. His words
always seem forced, he squints when he reads from the teleprompter and his body
language is robotic. And then
there’s his version of American history. A lot of fun has been made about his reference to the Revolutionary War in which he made several historical mistakes.
Take a listen at this link.
He passed off his mistake the next day, saying he really meant “ports,” as in seaports rather than "airports." He just
misspoke, he said. But it says something about his ability to think clearly. He was reading and
not really paying attention to what he was saying. For example, he talked about
Washington crossing the Delaware River and then beating Cornwallis at Yorktown
as if they were one event.
Washington crossed the Delaware from Valley
Forge in 1776 to defeat the British at Trenton, New Jersey. The Battle of Yorktown was in
Virginia five years later, in 1781. Again, a clear example of not
knowing the
facts or not understanding what he was reading.
 |
| (Crossing the Delaware. Courtesy army.mil) |
Still taking about the Revolution, he also made reference to Ft. McHenry and the Battle of Baltimore, which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that became the words to the "Star Spangled Banner." That actually occurred during the War of 1812.
What’s the
big deal, you ask, so he muffed a few facts? The intent of the speech was to celebrate America and provide
symbolism that will inspire people. Instead, he distorted historical facts which
misinforms those who don’t know history (especially children), and infuriated those who do. Frankly, it makes the President of the United States look very
stupid and I don't use that term lightly.
Another Note:
I spent my 4th
of July at the Fredericksburg, Virginia Heritage Crafts Festival. My wife has started a small business, Little Irv’s Bakery, and we were selling her baked goods next to a hundred
or so other vendors.
Toward the
end of the day, Congressman Bob Whitman (R-VA) walked by, spotted me behind the
ginger cookies and coffee cake and came over for a chat. He wasn’t
campaigning, he said. It’s not an election year. But he likes to get out among his constituents. I live in a very gerrymandered district that bumps up against his, so he's not my Congressman. But I asked him a few questions anyway.
It appears
he and other Republicans are not fond of Mr. Trump’s efforts to get that
citizenship question on the census. Whitman said it would mean an under count in
his district that could affect overall services.
I also
brought up to him a state law which I find a bit ridiculous. Virginia taxes the
stove, microwave and the two stand mixers in my kitchen which my wife uses for her home-based bakery.
They are considered “business tangible property.” But they were all there long before her
business.
The Congressman, of course, can’t do anything
about state taxes, but he did say he supports legislation that would eliminate
such taxes on small business. Good. How about recouping the small revenue that would be lost from my kitchen and increase
taxes on big Virginia corporations like R.J. Reynolds and Dominion Energy?
As the Congressman walked away, I gave him some feedback. "Don't let Trump push you around." He walked away with a laugh.
As the Congressman walked away, I gave him some feedback. "Don't let Trump push you around." He walked away with a laugh.
Update:
Last week I used the Betsy Ross Flag in my blog entry about the 4th of July. A few days later Colin Kaepernick launched his campaign against Nike for using that flag on a special edition sneaker. Kaepernick said the flag represents a time of slavery and should not be on a sneaker for Independence Day. Sorry Colin, you're wrong this time. It's not the Confederate Flag or the "Star Spangled Banner"and it's not about police brutality. It's a flag that was flying in Philadelphia when our Founding Fathers approved the U.S. Constitution in 1789. It represents a revolutionary document that guarantees human rights and civil rights for all. Sure, the Constitution had to be amended to fix some big mistakes in its original version, (including slavery), but it is still the greatest human rights document ever written. The Betsy Ross Flag does not represent a time of slavery. It represents the revolutionary thought in the18th century that "all men are created equal." That still holds up.
(Your suggestions and comments are welcome)
(Copies of my book can be purchased directly from me at a reduced price with a signature by emailing me at hanksilverberg@gmail.com for details. Or you can by them retail at Amazon.com or BN.com )
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