Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Bring back tough cops!

 




I may sound like an old hair bag, but when I was a cop in NYC during the late sixties, seventies and early eighties, cops had respect, even from violent street hoods and gang members. That’s because we knew the job we were assigned to do, and we did it without worrying about political ramifications from leftwing radicals who never saw an arrest situation they agreed with. We had backing from our superiors and from the political establishment. The reason we had their support was because our toughness helped make residents in those high crime areas feel more secure.

When the world witnessed street thugs pouring a pail of water over the heads of 2 uniformed NYC cops a few years ago, law enforcement was set back a generation. Such a demonstration of contempt for the law is a result of decades of liberal policies by local governments which would rather tolerate utter disrespect for the police than have to deal with riot situations that often occur after cops do the job they were trained to do. Those cops should have been fired immediately for dereliction of duty. In addition, those thugs should have been charged with assault on police officers and forced to do jail time. The reason for their punishment is not merely because of their affront to the law, but because their actions made cops look weak and ineffective.

It's been my experience that law-abiding residents of a neighborhood want tough cops on patrol in their areas. That’s because they’re smart enough to know that weak cops are useless against the brutal hoodlums who terrorize them in the streets, as well as in their homes. Thanks to the anti-American Biden/Harris regime, thousands of savage gangs have entered our country and set up operations. As President Trump has emphasized over and over, those gang members are more vicious than any we currently have in our major cities. What type of cops do you think we need to deal with them? Yes, we have an army of well-trained law-enforcement officers in every urban area. However, all their training means nothing without the backup of local authorities.

Let’s face it; we are at war with violent criminals in every major city. The public has been conditioned to believe that the police are a racist, occupying force. Yet, even a cursory examination of the victims of crime indicates that blacks are overwhelmingly murdered, raped, robbed and assaulted by other blacks. The decent, law-abiding people in those areas want more effective policing, but are afraid to speak publicly, lest they be targeted by the organized gangs who are a constant threat to their lives. The fact is, they shouldn’t have to protest in order to be safe. That’s the government’s most important function! The police are the arm of government that is tasked with that job. It’s a highly sensitive job because it deals with some of the worst elements of society. Do you think you could be an effective cop if every move you made was on video, subject to scrutiny by leftwing groups, politicians, and legal aid attorneys?

The old adage tells us that a visit to a sausage-making factory would make our stomachs turn and change our diet immediately. Police work is not for those with weak stomachs. Cops get paid to handle that which the public doesn’t need to see as they’re enjoying dinner with their families. What most cops deal with, in cities and towns across the country, often involves the worst form of human garbage on the planet. To those who would quote scripture to scold me for my language, I say walk in a cop’s shoes for awhile before you talk about something you haven’t experienced in your typical 9 to 5 job. The Monday morning quarterback is generally someone who has never donned a uniform or thrown a pass.

I’m trying to explain what I learned after 20 years in some of the busiest precincts in NYC, 10 of which were assignments in plainclothes street patrol resulting in about 500 felony arrests. If you’ve ever been in a threatening situation, what’s the first thing you do? If you look around, hoping to see a police car nearby, you are typical of every other decent citizen. Imagine if that police car made a U-turn when the driver recognized the threat. Although it’s hard for me to imagine that occurring, I know that the police have been under siege every time they make a move, and they’re only human. Every time a cop is intimidated by political and media-driven bias, we are all in danger.

Tough cops are only a danger to violent criminals. The average citizen will almost never be involved in a police incident. However, when someone is unfortunate enough to become a victim of street violence, what type of cop does he/she want to come to their aid? A Tren de Aragua gang member has lots of experience with violence. If the cop that confronts him is squeamish, you’re toast. The fact is that we’re paying cops to enforce the law, so why not let them do it? Moreover, try to understand that they are only effective if they’re tougher than the thugs they’re going up against. How safe would you feel if they were afraid to grapple with the monsters that prey on innocent people every day? How long will it be before you become a victim? Criminal behavior is like a disease that will fester if not eradicated. The only cure for it is on the streets of your city, and it’s wearing a blue uniform. 

 

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

The Daniel Penny trial is a disgrace

 



On March 13, 1964, at about 3AM, Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old bartender, was raped and stabbed to death outside the apartment building in which she lived, in Queens, New York. Dozens of residents in the building heard her screaming for about 30 minutes as she fought for her life. Not only did no one intervene to help her, no one even called the police. The murderer, later arrested by police, had begun stabbing Genovese, then ran off when he saw the lights go on in a few apartments above him. He waited in the shadows to see if anyone took action, then, seeing none, went back to the helpless woman, and continued stabbing her. The horrific incident sparked outrage across the country as people asked if the public had become desensitized to violence.

It became known as “the bystander effect,” in which numerous witnesses reportedly did not help her because they assumed others would take action. Studies indicate that when multiple bystanders are present, the sense of responsibility is diluted. Each person figures that someone else will step in to help the affected individual. In addition, people often fear being judged by others if they intervene in a situation, especially, given our litigious society, if their intervention results in serious injury to one of the parties involved. Then there’s the fear of injury or death to themselves if they take an active role.

Most people are unfamiliar with violence, having very little experience with hostility on a physical level. The average adult probably hasn’t had anything more than a fistfight or two in high school, resulting in a bloody nose, or a skinned knee. The fact is civilized people don’t relate well to violent behavior. Another fact is that most people are simply, and rightfully, afraid to intervene against a street thug.  Consequently, if they happen to see someone being assaulted, they’re likely to think more about their own survival than that of the victim. Unless they have some combat training, they’re more likely to end up as a second victim, rather than a rescuer.

In the so-called subway “chokehold trial” in New York City, a Marine veteran, Daniel Penny, 24, came across Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had been arrested 42 times for various crimes including assaults on women in the subway, larceny and numerous other criminal actions. Mr. Neely was screaming and threatening violence toward passengers, while proclaiming that he was “ready to die. Witnesses said they feared for their lives as Neely screamed, “I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. Someone is going to die today!” Initially, Mr. Penny ignored Neely, until he saw him approach a mother with her small son, hiding behind a stroller. He heard Neely threaten: “I will kill.”

That’s when Penny got involved. He came up behind the man, grabbed him by the neck and they both fell to the ground with Penny’s arm around Neely’s neck. The police arrived several minutes later, and Neely was found to have a faint pulse as he was being transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced DOA. Penny was questioned by NYPD detectives and released without charge. Yet, it didn’t take long before the incident sparked accusations of vigilantism and racism (Neely was black, Penny is white). The usual race-baiting began, along with demands that Penny be prosecuted.

It didn’t matter that many passengers championed Penny’s intervention, or that Neely was a 42-time loser and threatened to kill people. Instead, the mob was in control and the good Samaritan found himself charged with homicide. The trial is over, and, at the time of this writing, the jury is in deliberation. I sincerely doubt he’ll be convicted, because those jury members live in NYC and probably have been living in fear of people like Neely. For that reason, and common sense, I think it will be either an acquittal or a hung jury. Even so, Penny should have been commended for his bravery, not prosecuted for it. The real culprit is the system that allows someone to be out on the street after being arrested 42 times!   

 

Thursday, November 14, 2024

The Power of Comedy

 


I’m old enough to remember when I was a teenager and my friends, and I made jokes about everything that would likely get a laugh from our peers. I don’t know when humor first became part of the human experience, but I’ve read that in the late 1800s, some humor was found by archeologists in Iraq on ancient Sumerian clay tablets, circa 2000BC. The joke reads: “A dog walks into a bar and says, ‘I cannot see a thing. I’ll open this one.’” Scholars have studied the joke and didn’t get it, so they concluded that it may have been funny 4000 years ago, but it has not evolved very well.

That brings me to the current state of humor and how it has evolved in only a few decades. Most adults can remember when humor was acceptable as long as it could evoke laughter. Psychologists have tried to explain what exactly makes people laugh, and they learned that the concept of humor is elusive. In addition, depending on the individual’s temperament, a joke can cause a mere smirk, or it can result in explosive laughter. Comics used to be able to tap into any segment of human emotion in order to get their audience to respond with guffaws. One of the most popular sitcoms of the 1960s was “All in the family.” 

During the so called “Civil Rights Era,” tensions between blacks and whites erupted into rioting in the streets and many lost lives. All in the family dealt with the tensions by creating a bigoted character named Archie Bunker, who used various racial, ethnic, and gender pejoratives to illustrate the ignorance of using stereotypes to define people. The show illustrated how irrational and ignorant some people can be when their deep-seated prejudices are exposed. When Archie Bunker referred to blacks as “the coloreds,” or “you people,” he was showing his lack of refinement in ways that decent people would be loath to emulate. Although the show was a big hit, it also made Archie Bunker a name that has become synonymous with racists and bigots.

Moreover, it gave people a reason to laugh at that type of humor without feeling guilty. That’s because they were laughing at the ignorance of the main character, while not agreeing with his crude behavior. When Archie’s black next-door neighbor, George Jefferson, once began a sentence with “you people,” referring to whites, Archie’s response was, “whatta ya mean ‘you people?’” “You people are you people!” The irreverence of that show, which made a mockery of prejudice, created a bridge that allowed access to some of the taboos that had hitherto been inviolate. During those years, I was a cop, working in the Bedford/ Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, with my black partner, Leroy Spivey. “Hey Bob,” he said, “did you hear about the drunk white guy who was driving at 60 MPH and hit a black guy, sending his body flying about 30 feet down the road? When the cops came, they arrested the black guy for leaving the scene of an accident.” We both laughed hysterically at the absurdity of the joke, while recognizing that there was some validity to it.

Neither that joke, nor “All in the family” would be acceptable today. It seems that people have become much too sensitive about words or actions that once elicited belly laughs. That sensitivity was amply demonstrated at the 2022 Academy Awards, when Will Smith walked onstage and slapped comedian Chris Rock for a comment he made about Smith’s wife. The audience initially laughed at the joke, before Smith’s reaction to it was met with boos and groans from the astonished onlookers. Although Smith did a mea culpa some weeks later, the violence against humor was a foreboding message about the future of comedy.

During the recent campaign for President, Donald Trump often used derisive humor during his very well-attended rallies. Whether he was mimicking President Biden’s clumsiness when walking or climbing stairs, or using sarcastic references to Kamala Harris’s intelligence, Democrats and the MSM media characterized him as offensive, crude, and even cruel. Yet, they didn’t seem to mind calling Trump “Hitler, fascist, dictator,” or other hyperbolic appellations. I suppose the difference between humor and gross exaggeration is that jokes can be backed up by some connection to reality. During President Reagan’s presidency, humor was present at every one of his speeches. I’ll never forget that Mic Drop moment during his 1984 campaign against Walter Mondale.

When the moderator mentioned Reagan’s age compared to his opponent, Reagan’s comeback became legendary. “I will not make age an issue in this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Even Mondale couldn’t help joining the audience in raucous laughter. During the enormous stress of such campaigns, humor can be the soothing ointment that brings people together. With politics dividing us, causing fear, anguish, and other emotional conflict, our country needs humor now more than ever.